To whomever it was that mentioned the GM Cyclone, you are quite right. I dont know the stats off my head, but I do remember reading not too long ago in Truckin' that the Cyclone still holds the title for fastest stock (ie. off production line) truck ever built. Kudos for bringing up a great vehicle.
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I just saw an '06/'07 Avalanche!
- Thread starter TXAVy
- Start date
Well, I haven't heard anything from the person who I gave my contact info to at the survey so I'm going to spill what I saw for now while I still remember it. Blue_03 can confirm or correct what I write here once he gets a chance to go to the survey as well. If this post disappears in the near future, then you can guess that I probably hit pretty close to the mark.
Before I get into the AV there were two demos there that could have been from any car maker.
The first one was a rear bumper demo. I'm 99% sure this was a Chevrolet product as it was built from the current Silverado bumper. The difference was that in the corners there was a step cut into the chrome portion of the bumper face similar to what's on the cladded AVs today. It really made it a LOT easier to get into the back of the pickup, I definately hope they start selling these soon. If I recall, the surveyor said that the actual price for this option was going to be something like $75-$125. They also had a new "step-side" type assist to get into the bed, but I didn't like it much.
The second demo was a new dashboard which I definately hope is Chevy/GM, but could just as easily be someone else I suppose. First impression when looking at it was Audi-TT with lots of stainless steel circular shapes and black leather everywhere else. Everyone who viewed it said they would expect this type of interior to be in a sportscar, but that it would be a pleasant surprise to find it in a pickup. Two interesting features were the storage areas, and the control knobs. There were THREE glove boxes on this dashboard. One was in the normal position, in the bottom half of the dash in front of the passenger. The second one was immediately above the first, in the top portion of the dash in front of the passenger. The third glovebox was immediately to the left of the first one, on the bottom half of the dash between the first and where the ashtray might be. The control knobs were fairly large (~2" diameter) with a raised black center. In the center were icons that I assume lighted up as you made your selection with the knob. The outer surface of the knob was made of knurled stainless steel (like the handle of a ratchet). There were large knobs like this for the HVAC selections and the transmission (2WD, 4HI, 4LO, etc.) control as well. Overall the controls looked a little more complicated on first glance, but as I got a chance to look at them closer and learn what they all did I started to like them a lot. The transmission control icons looked identical to the ones in the AV today which is what makes me hope this is a Chevy dash, but I'm not sure what the other trucks use there so I'll not hold my breath for now.
Finally, on to the new AV. As I said above, there were three Avalanches at the survey. The first two were Cladded and WBH '03 models and the third was a demo model with no interior at all (there was a piece of black carpeted plywood running across the entire cab at the bottom of all the windows). The question "would you consider buying this model if it was on the lot in 2-3 years" is what makes me think this is the current '06 or '07 Avalanche.
At first glance, the new AV reminded me of a cross between the current WBH and maybe the EXT and definately had a more "street" appearance to it. I thought it was even lowered a little bit (1"-2") but I didn't eyeball across the 3 AVs there so I won't swear by that. I'm going to paste a WBH picture here for reference, but don't get your hopes up too much if you like this look, because although it was similar, there were plenty of differences as well.
The rear end and bed/bed covers of the vehicle were identical to the current AV except for two things. First, all of the chrome portions of the rear bumper were painted to match the body color (which was LPM). The black step pads remained as they are today, just the chrome was covered. Second, there were some posters on the wall showing an AV with a body colored sail-panel and they asked questions about which we liked better. So it's possible that the sail panel will be painted to match the body as well.
The side of the vehicle had three differences from today's WBH. First the handles were painted body color like the cladded AV today. Second, there was a newly designed running-board which tied in tighter to the body lines of the truck than the current one does. Except for the black step pads this running-board was painted body color as well. Third, the rearview mirror was smaller, and oval shaped, wider than it was tall. The front of the mirrors were cut almost exactly in half with body colored paint on the top half and black plastic on the bottom half. Personally I didn't like the smaller oval mirrors at all and the black plastic was really out of place with all the rest of the body colored paint on the rest of the truck. They definately looked like they belonged on a car instead of a truck. The wheels appeared to be ~17" normal Chevy wheels.
Last the front of the vehicle, where there were a LOT of differences. Overall the entire front end was very "smooth" with more body colored paint and almost no chrome at all. One of the guys at the survey said he hated the front and that it looked "like a toad" to him. He was a die hard Ford guy, but most of the people in the survey had some kind of negative comments about the front view including myself. All of the angles of the hood were missing, with a flat line where it meets the grill and I think even the ridges in the hood surface were mostly flattened. The flat hood line also took away the mean scowling eyelids feel that our headlights have today. Seems like the headlights had round lights behind the rectangular clear lens like some european cars but I'm not sure about that. The "power bar" across the middle of the grill was wider and "flatter" as well. It also blended smoothly into the front quarter panels with no break so it made it kind of hard to tell where the side of the truck stopped and the front started. Same went for the bumper which looked similar to the truck above, except without the air intakes. It also was very close to the same width of the truck instead of wider as shown in the picture. Again, it blended in smoothly with the sides of the truck and the grill as well with no break lines so that it made it hard to tell where the side of the truck stopped and the front started. As in the picture above though, the bumper was all body colored. There also was no Chevy Bowtie in the middle of the power bar, but all of the brand emblems were removed or covered up anyway so it wasn't a surprise to see that missing on this demo.
That's about all I can remember at the moment. Perhaps once Blue_03 gets a chance to view and comment I'll remember other details. For now though I hope that gives you a fairly good idea of what to possibly expect to see on the lots in a couple years from now. Personally I hope they take some of our comments to heart and do some tweaking before they release it, including keeping an option for cladding and more of a "work truck" feel instead of the "street truck" that they had to show us.
Before I get into the AV there were two demos there that could have been from any car maker.
The first one was a rear bumper demo. I'm 99% sure this was a Chevrolet product as it was built from the current Silverado bumper. The difference was that in the corners there was a step cut into the chrome portion of the bumper face similar to what's on the cladded AVs today. It really made it a LOT easier to get into the back of the pickup, I definately hope they start selling these soon. If I recall, the surveyor said that the actual price for this option was going to be something like $75-$125. They also had a new "step-side" type assist to get into the bed, but I didn't like it much.
The second demo was a new dashboard which I definately hope is Chevy/GM, but could just as easily be someone else I suppose. First impression when looking at it was Audi-TT with lots of stainless steel circular shapes and black leather everywhere else. Everyone who viewed it said they would expect this type of interior to be in a sportscar, but that it would be a pleasant surprise to find it in a pickup. Two interesting features were the storage areas, and the control knobs. There were THREE glove boxes on this dashboard. One was in the normal position, in the bottom half of the dash in front of the passenger. The second one was immediately above the first, in the top portion of the dash in front of the passenger. The third glovebox was immediately to the left of the first one, on the bottom half of the dash between the first and where the ashtray might be. The control knobs were fairly large (~2" diameter) with a raised black center. In the center were icons that I assume lighted up as you made your selection with the knob. The outer surface of the knob was made of knurled stainless steel (like the handle of a ratchet). There were large knobs like this for the HVAC selections and the transmission (2WD, 4HI, 4LO, etc.) control as well. Overall the controls looked a little more complicated on first glance, but as I got a chance to look at them closer and learn what they all did I started to like them a lot. The transmission control icons looked identical to the ones in the AV today which is what makes me hope this is a Chevy dash, but I'm not sure what the other trucks use there so I'll not hold my breath for now.
Finally, on to the new AV. As I said above, there were three Avalanches at the survey. The first two were Cladded and WBH '03 models and the third was a demo model with no interior at all (there was a piece of black carpeted plywood running across the entire cab at the bottom of all the windows). The question "would you consider buying this model if it was on the lot in 2-3 years" is what makes me think this is the current '06 or '07 Avalanche.
At first glance, the new AV reminded me of a cross between the current WBH and maybe the EXT and definately had a more "street" appearance to it. I thought it was even lowered a little bit (1"-2") but I didn't eyeball across the 3 AVs there so I won't swear by that. I'm going to paste a WBH picture here for reference, but don't get your hopes up too much if you like this look, because although it was similar, there were plenty of differences as well.
The rear end and bed/bed covers of the vehicle were identical to the current AV except for two things. First, all of the chrome portions of the rear bumper were painted to match the body color (which was LPM). The black step pads remained as they are today, just the chrome was covered. Second, there were some posters on the wall showing an AV with a body colored sail-panel and they asked questions about which we liked better. So it's possible that the sail panel will be painted to match the body as well.
The side of the vehicle had three differences from today's WBH. First the handles were painted body color like the cladded AV today. Second, there was a newly designed running-board which tied in tighter to the body lines of the truck than the current one does. Except for the black step pads this running-board was painted body color as well. Third, the rearview mirror was smaller, and oval shaped, wider than it was tall. The front of the mirrors were cut almost exactly in half with body colored paint on the top half and black plastic on the bottom half. Personally I didn't like the smaller oval mirrors at all and the black plastic was really out of place with all the rest of the body colored paint on the rest of the truck. They definately looked like they belonged on a car instead of a truck. The wheels appeared to be ~17" normal Chevy wheels.
Last the front of the vehicle, where there were a LOT of differences. Overall the entire front end was very "smooth" with more body colored paint and almost no chrome at all. One of the guys at the survey said he hated the front and that it looked "like a toad" to him. He was a die hard Ford guy, but most of the people in the survey had some kind of negative comments about the front view including myself. All of the angles of the hood were missing, with a flat line where it meets the grill and I think even the ridges in the hood surface were mostly flattened. The flat hood line also took away the mean scowling eyelids feel that our headlights have today. Seems like the headlights had round lights behind the rectangular clear lens like some european cars but I'm not sure about that. The "power bar" across the middle of the grill was wider and "flatter" as well. It also blended smoothly into the front quarter panels with no break so it made it kind of hard to tell where the side of the truck stopped and the front started. Same went for the bumper which looked similar to the truck above, except without the air intakes. It also was very close to the same width of the truck instead of wider as shown in the picture. Again, it blended in smoothly with the sides of the truck and the grill as well with no break lines so that it made it hard to tell where the side of the truck stopped and the front started. As in the picture above though, the bumper was all body colored. There also was no Chevy Bowtie in the middle of the power bar, but all of the brand emblems were removed or covered up anyway so it wasn't a surprise to see that missing on this demo.
That's about all I can remember at the moment. Perhaps once Blue_03 gets a chance to view and comment I'll remember other details. For now though I hope that gives you a fairly good idea of what to possibly expect to see on the lots in a couple years from now. Personally I hope they take some of our comments to heart and do some tweaking before they release it, including keeping an option for cladding and more of a "work truck" feel instead of the "street truck" that they had to show us.
Yeah we need to keep the option of cladding!!!!!!!!!!
TimInOhio
Full Member
Not to stray too far off-topic:
I recall reading somewhere a few years ago that the GMC Syclone would beat a Ferrari 348 GTS in the quarter mile. Of course, on a road-type course, the Ferrari would be able to eat the Syclone, but for the 1/4 mile, all the Ferrari saw was tail lights of the little S10 truck heading down the drag strip!
Here is a magazine article from February, 1991, about the Syclone.
Here's the CAFCNA of the Syclone and the Typhoon, the S10 SUV with the same turbocharged 4.3L.
And, one more with some specs and pics.
And, finally, from NHRA.com, the stock quarter-mile record holders. Scroll down to class BT/SA.
P.S. Upon posting this, I noticed I have a +1 karma rating, my very first! Thanks to whoever applauded me!!!
I recall reading somewhere a few years ago that the GMC Syclone would beat a Ferrari 348 GTS in the quarter mile. Of course, on a road-type course, the Ferrari would be able to eat the Syclone, but for the 1/4 mile, all the Ferrari saw was tail lights of the little S10 truck heading down the drag strip!
Here is a magazine article from February, 1991, about the Syclone.
Here's the CAFCNA of the Syclone and the Typhoon, the S10 SUV with the same turbocharged 4.3L.
And, one more with some specs and pics.
And, finally, from NHRA.com, the stock quarter-mile record holders. Scroll down to class BT/SA.
P.S. Upon posting this, I noticed I have a +1 karma rating, my very first! Thanks to whoever applauded me!!!
Great links Tim, thanks!
There's another "the avalanche site"?
ava_2500
Full Member
looks about what I thought it would... one consern would be in the grill... from the picture it looks navigator/gmc cats eye style. 
JRider
Full Member
Z71offrd said:And offer some simple things too...like:
When you buy the HD Towing package, INCLUDE THE FREAKIN' HARNESS!
Also, having the tranny temp gauge sure would be nice...
Thanks!
Mike
When I bought my Northface Edition it didnt have the harness either...a quick trip back to the dealer and they just gave me one.
JR
C
chevytrucks
GUEST
I heard that they are dis-continuning the Avalanche 
Blue_03
Full Member
Yes 2004 will be the last year for them.chevytrucks said:I heard that they are dis-continuning the Avalanche
Just kidding.
This topic has been discussed a number of times here and I just wanted to play a little bit with ya.
GM is not stopping the AV or the use of the mid-gate despite what some people want to think. The new ones and the new WBH EXT are sure fine looking trucks, and now that the EXT will be getting the 450 HP V10 it will continue to be the bling bling mobile. I can't tell you anything one way or another with the cladding, but the AV will be around for a while.
valleyfirearms
Full Member
Rltturn
Full Member
Or worse yet Valleyfirearms, it reminds me of a damn D****!!!!!!!!! 
Ugh!!!!
RLT
Ugh!!!!
RLT
Ambalanche
Full Member
Is that a chop? What "other" Avalanche Website? I thought we were the only one!
Ambalanche
Full Member
How about some pics of the front? I thought it might be a chop because the fender flares look somewhat like the cheyenne concept. Also, I would think they would change the sail panels some and it's got the same rear bumper my '04 has. Plus we all know the Blue bowtie is gone in favor of the gold. Overall I don't think it's bad, would have to see some clearer pics.
valleyfirearms said:I am damn glad to have my '02. Looking at that new AV makes me wonder what the designers are doing
Look at this thing for a few. What does it remind me of??
A damn F150
Mike.
Look to me like the front window angle has changed dramaically.... it's sloped more... as a result it looks f**dish...
Speaking of cladding...just noticed the strip along the bottom of the tailgate is gone. Good riddance, but probably means the cladded version doesn't have it either.
And the reverse light is in the middle of the cluster?
And the reverse light is in the middle of the cluster?
chad2fw
Full Member
I never understood why the WBHs had the cladding at the bottom of the tailgate. It seems a little out of place to me. With the cladded version, its more understandable because of the bumper and surrounding claddingempty said:
As for the tail light assembly...I wish we had tails that more closely resembled Tahoe tails. I really like those, and it looks as though Chevy is moving a little closer to that design.
socalsoda
New Member
It does look like a Ford. It has to be a 2007 Model Year doesnt it? When chevy brought out the current generation, they initially brought it out in the Silverado line right? So they sold 2 generations of truck lines side by side for the first year. Wouldnt they bring this out in the pickups first 2006, then phase it into the rest of the line (2007)? Or is do you think the Avalanche will brought out at the same time?
chad2fw
Full Member
socalsoda said:
Not at all, the AV was almost like a tester for the new Silverado front facsia. After a couple tweaks, it was then incorporated into the Silverado. I would tend to think that the AV would switch to a new front design before the Silverados do again. If a new front facsia design is in the AVs future you can bet it will be one of the first to receive the change, not the last.
That big metal bowtie in the middle of the tailgate definately reminds me of the Found On Road Dead Truck.
Is it just me or does it seem like they are going backwards in the design? The AV and the new Silverado have a hard body line, more hard angles. These spy pics remind me more of the previous generation Silverado with the softer lines. So does the Cheyanne.
Think it's the rims that make me think More Old Parts and Rust.
One thing that I wish my truck had is the ability to just flip the rear seatback without having to flip the bottoms. Would make it a lot easier to drop the window for warm weather fun. It's a real PITA whith kid seats back there. Of course a power rear window would negate that wish. Not sure I can picure a 60/40 midgate with a power window though. I think it would be a good engineering challenge.
Is it just me or does it seem like they are going backwards in the design? The AV and the new Silverado have a hard body line, more hard angles. These spy pics remind me more of the previous generation Silverado with the softer lines. So does the Cheyanne.
Think it's the rims that make me think More Old Parts and Rust.
One thing that I wish my truck had is the ability to just flip the rear seatback without having to flip the bottoms. Would make it a lot easier to drop the window for warm weather fun. It's a real PITA whith kid seats back there. Of course a power rear window would negate that wish. Not sure I can picure a 60/40 midgate with a power window though. I think it would be a good engineering challenge.
socalsoda
New Member
>>Not at all, the AV was almost like a tester for the new Silverado front facsia.>>
Actually I am talking about the new generation of trucks, not just the year to year update that chevy did with the facia. The "New" 1999 Silverado came out a good 6 months to a year before the new generation 2000 Tahoe and CK Work Trucks. The 1999 Silverado was based on a new chassis, where a 1999 Tahoe was on the older chassis.
Chevy didnt bring out the new generation across the line, all at once last time... I was wondering if they will do the same thing this time and bring out the pickups first, then SUVs? Or will they bring the entire line-up out at once?
Actually I am talking about the new generation of trucks, not just the year to year update that chevy did with the facia. The "New" 1999 Silverado came out a good 6 months to a year before the new generation 2000 Tahoe and CK Work Trucks. The 1999 Silverado was based on a new chassis, where a 1999 Tahoe was on the older chassis.
Chevy didnt bring out the new generation across the line, all at once last time... I was wondering if they will do the same thing this time and bring out the pickups first, then SUVs? Or will they bring the entire line-up out at once?
Rltturn
Full Member
Well,
If that is what they go to my current AV will be my first and last AV!!!
If I wanted a smooth "a" D**** I would have bought one or a Found On Road Dead with the big blue oval on the tailgate. UGH!
I think the design sucks big time and looks like a "weenie mobile" to me. Chopped down--Chopped up--and Chopped from my list for the future if that is what they go with!
Guess GM had too many Hummers burned up and is giving in the enviro crowd!!
RLT
If that is what they go to my current AV will be my first and last AV!!!
If I wanted a smooth "a" D**** I would have bought one or a Found On Road Dead with the big blue oval on the tailgate. UGH!
I think the design sucks big time and looks like a "weenie mobile" to me. Chopped down--Chopped up--and Chopped from my list for the future if that is what they go with!
Guess GM had too many Hummers burned up and is giving in the enviro crowd!!
RLT
jtye01
Full Member
Those taillights suck... with the reverse white in the middle they look very much like the taillights of my wife's Chevy Minivan.
I agree with the other poster that liked the taillights of Tahoes.
I agree with the other poster that liked the taillights of Tahoes.
danlwil said:Look to me like the front window angle has changed dramaically.... it's sloped more... as a result it looks f**dish...
Yeah, that's what I saw. Looks like you got a picture of the poster that showed the truck instead of the truck itself? Any spy photos are good photos.Blue_03 said:
I didn't see any EXTs though. What do you mean when you say "EXT WBH". Is that an EXT without any cladding at all (painted or otherwise)?