Engaging Avalanche Comes With 'If Onlys'

Chevrolet Avalanche, a version of the reengineered full-size pickups and SUVs that General Motors began selling late last year, has a remarkably engaging driving persona and could be a terrific truck.

If the back seat had more room. And the front seats were more comfortable. And the fuel economy were better.

And if the price for a deluxe version -- the one with the stuff you want -- weren't creeping so close to $50,000.

Despite those drawbacks, Avalanche has its allure:

*It no longer looks ugly. The redesign that it shares with all of GM's full-size trucks for 2007 helps greatly. Plus, Chevy discontinued the grotesque side cladding.

*It's clever, as always. The modified cargo box has deep, covered side compartments that will hold a lot of beverage containers, some groceries or truck supplies, such as spare oil. They have drains, so you can fill them with ice and use them as coolers. The three-piece hard tonneau cover seals the cargo box, making it useful as an enormous trunk.

The signature feature -- movable passenger-compartment rear bulkhead -- allows Avalanche to be used for five or six passengers with short box (5 feet, 4 inches) or two or three passengers with long box (8 feet, 2 inches).

*It's a new GM truck. That means it has a premium interior; smooth ride; agile handling, especially for its size; and optional and standard features desirable enough that they can tempt you to overlook drawbacks. For instance: GM's 100,000-mile powertrain warranty. OnStar emergency calling system. Remote-control engine start. Easy-to-program driver information center. Smooth, powerful V-8 engine. Easy-to-use four-wheel drive.

That smooth ride largely is because Avalanche is based on the new GM SUVs, which use comfort-oriented coil springs on the rear suspension, rather than the pickups' leaf springs.

Drawbacks:

*Four-speed automatic transmission. Cadillac and some GMC trucks have six-speed boxes, which typically boost fuel economy 5% or more vs. four-speeds. "Over the next couple of years, you'll see us switch all our four-speeds to six-speeds as we get more availability," says Carl Hillenbrand, product manager for the Chevy Silverado pickup, formerly of Avalanche.

*Rear visibility. The tall tailgate and cargo box block vision, so the $250 rearview camera is almost mandatory. But you can get the camera only if you get thousands of dollars in other options.

*Front seats. Too much lumbar bump. You can't retract it fully as you can in some rival trucks.

*Fuel economy. No better than any other big truck, 12 or 13 mpg around town, despite GM's "active fuel-management" feature. Cylinder cutoff, it's called generically. It shuts off half the cylinders when they're not needed for smoothness or power.

*Head restraints. None for the middle rear rider, a potential safety hazard. On the other hand, the safety belt for that slot is mounted to the back of the seat, positioning it low for a youngster in a booster seat.

*Back-seat room. Too little, despite the generous 39 inches of legroom GM publishes.

It's a fair bet that if you buy an Avalanche, you plan it as a family vehicle, with lots of back-seat room so the kids have squirm-and-sprawl space. You don't get it in any of the new GM trucks.

In comparison, specification sheets show the back seat of a 2007 Toyota Tundra CrewMax pickup has 5 inches more back-seat legroom than Avalanche.

Hillenbrand argues that there's plenty of room in Avalanche's back seat. He says some drivers might compromise it, though, by sliding the front especially far back: "The front seat has 2 more inches of travel, for tall drivers. We changed it at the request of our tall customers, of whom (GM CEO) Rick Wagoner is one." Wagoner is 6 feet, 4 inches.

Still, Hillenbrand acknowledges, "We have been talking about the room in the rear of the Tundra (CrewMax) and are thinking about what that might mean for our future designs."

That rear-seat issue is a heartbreaker, because Avalanche and the rest of the new GM trucks are otherwise remarkably nice to drive and use. (c) Copyright 2005 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.