2007 Chevy Avalanche: Flex-fuel pickup thinks it’s an SUV

A pickup truck that thinks it’s an SUV, the ’07 Avalanche is also a flex-fuel vehicle

By: Mike Blake
   With Alaskan oil becoming scarce, the automakers as well as the general public are seeking ways to cut our dependency on oil. Hybrids, those half-time-gasoline, half-time-electric vehicles, take center stage, but E85-ethanol fuel-ready vehicles are close behind.
   E85 is a combination of ethanol and gasoline, with about 15 percent of the mixture made from gas, and the other 85 percent from ethanol. If utilized in significant numbers, this combination would cut gas-fuel consumption and also would reduce greenhouse and smog-forming gas emissions. Popular rhetoric has the ethanol made from corn, but the reality is that if the concept becomes widespread, the majority of ethanol will be made from less-expensive switch grass, forestry waste or other specially grown (and cheap) energy crops.
   With a higher octane rating than gasoline, E85 can improve performance, horsepower and torque, but may get you fewer miles per gallon than straight gasoline.
   While E85 service stations are still few and far between, and the price of E85 is as much or more than 87-octane gasoline, prices will come down and locations will increase if E85 becomes a popular and viable alternative.
   One of the most attractive and tough E85 vehicles on the market is the 2007 Chevrolet Avalanche, a truck with multiple personalities. It’s a pickup truck that thinks it’s an SUV, and that makes it an SUT, or sport utility truck. A flex-fuel vehicle, the ’07 Avalanche runs as well on E85 as it does on regular gasoline.
   A true crossover, the ’07 Avalanche is a full-size crew cab pickup with a convert-a-cab trick midgate that folds into the cab and can elongate the short bed (5.3 feet long) by 35 inches to long-bed (8 feet 3 inches) length. The converted bed will accommodate 8-by-4-foot pieces of plywood, or can become a camping bed for kids or adults, under a closed or open roof and rear-window, providing protection, comfort and entertainment (there’s a rear DVD player). If you keep the compartment unchanged, you can seat six adults and still have more than 5 feet of cargo space behind you.
   The 2007 Avalanche may look similar to a Chevrolet Tahoe up front, but it has nearly the same length (221 inches) as Chevrolet’s full-size Suburban SUV.
   This Tahoe-with-a-pickup-bed could revolutionize the niche with its adaptability and its adaptability to E85.
   The first things you notice about the Avalanche are its lines and styling. Trucks have come a long way from the old box-on-wheels look. Angles from pillar to pillar make this a very attractive vehicle. My Black over Ebony test vehicle had an upgraded interior with as many bells and whistles as you will find on most packages, taking the base price of $35,295 to a price-as-tested $46,280.
   Under hood is an iron-block 5.3-liter Vortec V-8 with active fuel management. It produces 320 horsepower, 340 pounds-feet of torque, can haul up to 7,800 pounds and has an EPA rating of 15 mpg/city and 20 mpg/highway. During my seven days of testing behind the wheel, I averaged about 16.3 mpg and found that the four-wheel-drive, four-speed automatic with tow/haul mode worked seamlessly.
   Built on GM’s new full-size SUV platform, the Avalanche has a fully boxed frame, coil-over-shock front suspension, rack-and-pinion steering and wider front and rear tracks. That all makes for a quiet and smooth ride and a vehicle at home on and off road.
   Inside, you have a roomy luxurious cabin that you can convert to an inside truck bed behind the front row. If you choose to utilize the crew cab as an SUV, you can enjoy a DVD screen in row two, a power sunroof, an aesthetically pleasing dashboard, dual-zone automatic climate control, power front seats, rear audio sound system controls and inside rearview mirror with auto dimming.
   My optioned-to-the-max test vehicle gained SUT status with the additions of front leather appointed bucket seats upgraded from cloth; driver side seat with 12-way power, heat and memory, upgraded from the standard six-way power; power-heated 12-way passenger seat; second-row leather-appointed seats upgraded from cloth; power adjustable pedals; AM/FM stereo with CD/MP3 and six-disc CD changer; Bose premium speaker system; XM Satellite radio with three months paid service; rear parking assist; outside power folding mirrors; head curtain side airbags all seating rows; universal home remote and touch-screen navigational system.
   The navi system is helpful, but with a few caveats. The navigational system is easily confused and has not been updated to many roads and off-ramps that have evolved in the past year. It is not as user friendly as many other systems on the market, but its touch-screen technology does beat many of the European knob-push-and-twist units.
   The truck bed is a thing of beauty. Storage compartments alongside the cargo box provide ample and lockable storage. The storage compartments also have drains, so they can be filled with ice and used as coolers. A three-piece rigid cargo cover with interlocking panels also is available.
   The 2007 Avalanche: it’s a truck … an SUV … SUT … all wrapped up in an E85 package.
Visit www.carlisleevents.com
for more on the automotive hobby. Mike Blake, former editor of KIT CAR magazine,
joined Carlisle Events as senior automotive journalist in 2004. He’s been a "car
guy" since the 1960s and has been writing professionally for about 30 years.