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2003 Chevrolet Avalanche Full-Size Sport Utility Vehicle and Pickup Truck Crossov
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I love its good looks
Now, this feature is cool, and while Chevrolet isn't the first to have it, it's still a really neat feature. This system figures out whether the person sitting next to you is an adult or a kid, just by the weight and tension of the seat belt. If it senses it has a child in front, the air bag turns itself off. It there's an adult in that seat, the air bag is automatically enabled. And all the while you know the status, because in the bottom of the rear view mirror, it will tell you.
The Avalanche I drove has the Autotrac four-wheel-drive system, and although we had a 6-inch snowstorm, I never had a reason to turn it on. The two-wheel drive mode handled all that snow without a complaint or a slip or a spinning tire. Now that's cool.
Available on the Avalanche are all the neat entertainment systems now coming with just about every car and truck on the road today. Stuff like the DVD player with flip-down screen, radio data system and XM Satellite Radio. Rear seat passengers can control their own audio controls or have separate audio choices from the front seat passengers (read that as mom and dad, who like that funky country stuff -- hey, it's a truck, what do you want?)
Inside, the entire truck is extremely comfortable and the instrumentation on the driver's side is truly refreshingly simple. There's a driver's information center that monitors nearly 35 vehicle systems and can tell you whether the door is ajar or whether conditions are favorable for "ice" -- and you can read that as "it's c-c-cold out there."
There's also a new exterior color to choose from this year -- yellow. C'mon, Chevy paint folks, next you'll offer chartreuse, right? Yellow. Yuck.
Finally, the Avalanche is also offered in a North Face Edition for those outdoorsy types. It features the North Face logo, white instrument cluster backpacks, storage bags and exterior colors like sage green, sunset orange, onyx, black, pewter and white.
Oh, I did have one complaint about the Avalanche. It was the price: About $40K. Ouch.
I had a great week in the Avalanche and it served me well in the many conditions I threw at it. Now you go take a look.
