Chevrolet Avalanche
Muscle · Chevrolet
Chevrolet Avalanche: The Pickup With a Midgate
The Chevrolet Avalanche is a four-door full-size pickup Chevrolet built from 2001 to 2013 on the Suburban's chassis, with its bed built into the cab body instead of bolted on separately. Its signature feature was the "midgate," a panel behind the rear seat that folds down to stretch the bed into the cabin.
The Avalanche launched in September 2001 as a 2002 model on GM's GMT800 trucks, a cross between the Suburban and the Silverado. GM marketed the midgate as Convert-a-Cab: fold it and the rear seat down for a longer bed, or close it for a bigger cab. The half-ton 1500 used a 285 hp 5.3-liter Vortec V8, and the three-quarter-ton 2500 got a 340 hp 8.1-liter V8. It was Motor Trend's Truck of the Year for 2002. Unusually, there was no GMC version, but Cadillac sold a rebadged one as the Escalade EXT, and the midgate idea also showed up on the Subaru Baja, Hummer H2 SUT, and GMC Envoy XUV.
First-year trucks wore light gray plastic body cladding, and owners soon found it fading to a chalky finish with "zebra striping" on the bed panels. GM first offered a treatment that lasted about six months, then worked with Gatorback Coatings on a permanent fix. From mid-2003 buyers could skip the cladding entirely, an option GM called "Without Body Hardware" and its marketers called "slicksides." The second generation, shown at the Chicago Auto Show in February 2006 and built in Silao, Mexico, on the GMT900 platform, dropped the cladding and the 2500 model. A later flex-fuel 5.3-liter made 320 hp on gasoline and 326 hp on E85.
Every 2013 Avalanche was a Black Diamond Edition marking the last year, and buyers got a personalized coffee table book with a copy of their truck's window sticker. Sales had slipped 2.6% to 20,088 in 2011, and production ended after the 2013 model year, along with the Escalade EXT.