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Why No Reviews For The AV?

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douganm

GUEST
I've been doing a ton of research on the Avalanche before I nuy one and you know what I've noticed? There are no reviews that I can find about how it does off road, either alone or compared to other vehicles. Why is this? Even 4x4mag gives as review but only talks about how good it is on the road... but I want to know if this thing can really go places. There are no reports from any of the four-wheeling magazines that have anything to do with off-road testing of this thing. If someone runs across one, please let me know.
 
If you search these forums, you will find numerous write-ups on how well the Avalanche has performed offroad. :)
 
? Also, go to the CAFCNA resources page, and look up the reviews there. ?There is quite a list! ?Also check out the magazine reviews in LINKS.? ;D ;D ?
 
Really? Can you tell me one review in the review link section that talks about it's off-road ability? Because I sure didn't see any.

And yes, I have been through the forum, but you OWN the vehicles... I want more of an unbaised opinion... like from a magazine. :D:

But thank you for your response! >:D
 
"Unbiased" and "magazine" should never be used in the same sentence. Want to see the winner of any review? Flip through and find the biggest ad...there's your winner!

Trust the people that have been living with this machine for close to a year. If it was a dog, we'd be screaming about that just as loudly as we are singing its praises.

How is it off-road? I dunno yet. Approach angle, departure angle, and overall wheel base are not what you would hope for in a true rock crawler, but then that wheel base sure is nice when you pull back on the pavement. For trail riding (which is what you originally asked about) I would say it would be a worthy ride. There are quite a few regular contributors who have had theirs off-road a lot. I would bet considerably more than any magazine writers.
 
Digitaldiver is very correct

Being unbaised or not judgemental is not a human trait.

As an AV owner who has over 20K miles and goes off road in sime manner every weekend, I would say that you can't find a better mix of a truck that is not to soft or stiff that perfroms good on both the road and off road.

Are you going to be rock crawling with the AV? Nope - can you drive over many things and have the power to hill climb or play in the sand - Yes.

If you want to ask me any questions feel free to drop me an e-mail.
 
You didn't look to hard obviously - it at all - because the Motor Trend Death Valley off-road review, (48 Hours In Hell) is clearly available. It is a complete review off-road in Death Valley during the summer for two-days against the Cadillac Escalade, Ford Explorer, GMC Envoy, Jeep Liberty, Nissan Frontier, Toyota Sequoia, Chevrolet Silverado HD, which the Avalanche received rave reviews on its ability.

Here is the link page URL

http://www.chevyavalanchefanclub.com/resources/links.html

Here is the story URL

http://www.motortrend.com/sept01/hell/1.html

There is another story in the Award section where Canada awarded the Avalanche truck of the year - shoot the darn picture they took the Av's got to be on a 20 degree incline in mud...again on the links page...

http://www.canadiandriver.com/news/011205-1.htm

Here is an updated URL to the Northwest Mudfest - that the Avalanche won...

click here

As far as owner reviews they aren't biased - there are pretty frank and there are a fair share of complaints.

Actually the more I think about it, the more this thread feels more like a troll because the information you're looking for is clearly here...
 
Also check out this month's Consumer Reports. These guys are clearly aligned with the Fern Fairies and Bunny Huggers, but the Avalanche got a fairly rave review.

Steve
 
As offered by Blue, I'd also be happy to offer my observations about the Av's performance off road. Sure, it's no Jeep, but compared to other trucks with such a long wheelbase, it performs remarkably well, even with the IFS.
 
SteveTimm said:
Consumer Reports. ?These guys are clearly aligned with the Fern Fairies and Bunny Huggers
Steve
Click to expand...

Steve - That made me laugh very hard - thanks :)
 
Blue,

Forgot to mention the Earth Muffins. Oh God, the Earth Muffins. ?

Dammit, it is politically incorrect to discriminate in this kinder and gentler world.

Glad you had a chuckle. ?My published writing often incorporates my (admittedly bent) humor.

Seriously, I can't believe the Consumer Reports staff writers. Any vehicle that doesn't get 50 mpg is garbage. Then they complain because it has no acceleration, room for people or trunk space.

Obviously, these folks don't live in the real world. No hunting, fishing and off-roading. Must be boring.

Steve
 
Kevin,

Consumer Reports compared the Avalanche, Ford-150 and the Dodge. The Avalanche came out the clear winner.

Interestingly, the CR guys loved the AVs midgate and the idea of extending the useable bed.
 
SteveTimm said:
Consumer Reports compared the Avalanche, Ford-150 and the Dodge. The Avalanche came out the clear winner.
Click to expand...
No doubt the Av would come out ahead, but that seems like comparing apples and oranges.

I wrote a summary of the CR article you're referring to in this thread:
Consumer Reports
 
I will say in defense to this post that I have this years SUV review for the best off-raod all-terrain vehicles and the AV is not one of them.

The H2 was in there along with some really wimpy imports. I'm sorry but after a life in the military and going off-road in several H1's the H2 is about a soccer mom rendition of the H1.

As for the others in the review how can the Ford expedition outrank an AV??

Motor Trend is backing these models for the money not the specs or track record!
 
SandmanAV said:
I will say in defense to this post that I have this years SUV review for the best off-raod all-terrain vehicles and the AV is not one of them.

The H2 was in there along with some really wimpy imports. I'm sorry but after a life in the military and going off-road in several H1's the H2 is about a soccer mom rendition of the H1.

As for the others in the review how can the Ford expedition outrank an AV??

Motor Trend is backing these models for the money not the specs or track record!
Click to expand...

In fairness to Motor Trend Magazine, let's stop and take a longer look at this.

#1 - The Avalanche is not eligible for SUV of the year for a couple of reasons. To be considered;

"Eligible vehicles were all sport/utilities that are new or substantially redesigned for 2003, and that will be on sale by January 1, 2003.

The Av is not new or substantially redesigned for 2003. It is also not considered as an SUV, but a pick-up truck.

#2 - Motor Trend magazine has already made the 2002 Avalanche its "Truck of the Year".

 
I know there are some of you out there who will beg to differ, but I see a serious off road vehicle as having less that a 130" wheelbase. I also think high front and rear bumbers with good ground clearance and real steel skid plates, would be a big plus.

It's just hard to beat the old jeeps for serious off roading. Notice I didn't say for off roading in comfort.
 
You'll get no argument from me, Mac. Being narrow comes in handy also. These same attributes which makes the Jeep so manageable off-road makes it less than fun going down the hi-way for any length of time. The Avalanche is a very good Jack of all trades. Mine is filling the job of three vehicles. I can't think of another that comes close to its versatility.
 
Steel's point is a good one. My Av fills the space of a car, a pickup truck, and a 4x4 rig. Sure, it doesn't get the gas mileage of a car and its dimensions don't make it the ideal trail rig, but having one vehicle that will fill all of these roles to some extent is awesome.

As an aside about 'wheeling in the Av:

When I took my Av over the Woodpecker Mine trail here in AZ (3 on the 1-5+ scale), we came down out of the hills mid afternoon to the staging area where all the hardcore guys park their trailers. There were probably a dozen Jeeps, old broncos, blazers, etc there. (there are several trails in the area, some very extreme). When we stopped to BS with them for a while the fact that I had just put an Av over that trail got a LOT of attention. Sure, some people probably thought I was not real bright, while others thought "wow, that's pretty damn cool", but everyone thought something ;D. It took me about twice as long to get through the trail as it would have taken a Jeep (LOTS of rock stacking and friends to jump on the bumpers to get a lifted wheel some traction), but I did it and (most importantly) had a blast! Isn't that what it's all about?
 
dmacker said:
I know there are some of you out there who will beg to differ, but I see a serious off road vehicle as having less that a 130" wheelbase. I also think high front and rear bumbers with good ground clearance and real steel skid plates, would be a big plus.

It's just hard to beat the old jeeps for serious off roading. Notice I didn't say for off roading in comfort.
Click to expand...

I do not think anyone would disagree. But for many of us, we only have an Avalanche, not an Avalanche and a Jeep. And the Avalanche still makes a nice showing. :) And I definitely agree about comfort.

The only problems I have experienced with my Avalanche thus far that might have to do with offroading - apart from tearing off the brakelight installed in the receiver hitch, bending my running boards, and tearing off a splash guard - is a leaking front shock absorber. The shock absorber may not have been due to offroading, as I hadn't gone offroading for a couple months prior, but I am giving it the benefit of a doubt that I broke it doing that. :)

It's a big vehicle, but nimble for its size. :)
 
Chief said:
You didn't look to hard obviously - it at all - because the Motor Trend Death Valley off-road review, (48 Hours In Hell) is clearly available. ?It is a complete review off-road in Death Valley during the summer for two-days against the Cadillac Escalade, Ford Explorer, GMC Envoy, Jeep Liberty, Nissan Frontier, Toyota Sequoia, Chevrolet Silverado HD, which the Avalanche received rave reviews on its ability.

Here is the link page URL

http://www.chevyavalanchefanclub.com/resources/links.html

Here is the story URL

http://www.motortrend.com/sept01/hell/1.html

There is another story in the Award section where Canada awarded the Avalanche truck of the year - shoot the darn picture they took the Av's got to be on a 20 degree incline in mud...again on the links page...

http://www.canadiandriver.com/news/011205-1.htm

Here is an updated URL to the Northwest Mudfest - that the Avalanche won...

click here

As far as owner reviews they aren't biased - there are pretty frank and there are a fair share of complaints.

Actually the more I think about it, the more this thread feels more like a troll because the information you're looking for is clearly here...
Click to expand...

Well, with the greatest respect, Chief, I think you're a little off the reservation here. I took the time to track down all the references. And the Death Valley one was VERY hard to find (your URL does not work), but I eventually got to it. And it wasn't exactly a review of offroad performance, nor, apart from extreme heat and spectacular scenery, is Death Valley a hard-core off-roading mecca!
Let me also quote an earlier reply in this thread:-
"How is it off-road? I dunno yet. Approach angle, departure angle, and overall wheel base are not what you would hope for in a true rock crawler, but then that wheel base sure is nice when you pull back on the pavement. For trail riding (which is what you originally asked about) I would say it would be a worthy ride. "

I also own, and offroad, a '98 Jeep Wrangler. I just bought an '03 AV Z71. I got the Z71 package because I am going offroad in the AV, but I am NOT 'going offroading' in it.
"Approach angle, departure angle, and overall wheel base are not what you would hope for in a true rock crawler" Hey, I am all in favor of not abusing something for not being what it does pretend to be, but that's rather more than somewhat leaning to the 'innoffensive'.
Approach angle, departure angle, breakover angle, width, length and overall wheel base are ABYSMAL for a true rock crawler. The Avalanche will never be a 'serious' off-road vehicle. Even with a six inch lift (huge for a Jeep lift, for example) it ain't gonna make it through the first obstable on any 'moderate' trail and it might not make it TO the first obstacle on severe trails.
Don't get me wrong, I love my Avalanche, and it can probably (haven't tried it, yet) safely and comfortable go fast and fun on fire-roads and logging trails that would have my Jeep throwing itself off the trail into the shrubbery at thirty miles an hour slower! (I mean that literally, by the way. My Jeep would not control the ride sufficently well at even moderate speed and would be out of control).
The kind of offroading that I do in my Jeep takes place at 1 to 4 miles an hour with experienced spotter(s) and hand signals and multiple re-tries, and often body damage. (you have to not care about the body damage :eek:)
From what I've seen and read on this thread, the AV owners that are having a blast offroad are doing a VERY different kind of off-roading' than I think dmacker is talking about.
The AV is MUCH better than the Jeep for that, and I look forward to doing some.
The AV is UNBELIEVABLY better than the Jeep on-road.
And it gets about the same gas mileage! ;D
But for what a lot of people would regard as 'serious offroading' e.g Tellico, Moab, the Rubicon, even Land Between the Lakes, the Av is the wrong vehicle.
There are a number of other vehicles than Jeeps that can be modified into serious offroaders, but it would not be wise to start from an Avalanche to get there.
 
Tree_Hugger:

Your points are all valid. So much so that I'm considering selling my current toy (an old Camaro) to get a different toy for 'wheeling instead of using my Av.

However, I've crawled my Av through a few moderate trails. It took a LOT of rock stacking and a great spotter, and I did manage to rip off one of the plastic body panels, but the suspension articulation (even though it's IFS), torque, and traction were up to the task of climbing some boulders, even if the wheel base and approach angle were not!

The point remains that the Av is much better suited to blasting down fire roads than to crawling rocks, but I'll put the Av up against any other rig of this size any day!
 
Tree_Hugger - That link is from Aug. 12, 2002... thanks for the info, we'll get it updated ! Is the AV the supreme off road machine...NO. Would I bet on an AV in a rock crawling contest against a lifted and locked Heep ? No. Would I take a 6" lifted AV with 35" BFG M/T's anywhere other than the rocks with a Heep ? Absolutely ! It would be fun to pull the Heep around with the AV. Especially with 5 of my friends in the AV to take pics of it all !
 
Please be assured, I have no intention to diss the AV. After all I just spent twice what I spent on my Jeep, to buy one, and I love it!
As I said, I haven't done anything offroad in my Av yet, but I, too, would bet on it being the BEST on in fire-roads types of offroading.
I'm probably going to be trailering the Jeep behind my AV to go offroading before too long (haven't even bought a trailer yet), and the minimum 100 mile drive to get to any serious offraod trails is going to be so much pleasanter in the AV, but the security of knowing I can still get home, even if I break the Jeep, will be even better. Plus I can easily carry all my tools, plus all my air tools AND my big compressor ;D

Crexis, my hat's off to you.. I recall the old saying that it's 10% the truck and 90% the driver...
Hmm! I wonder if that applies to the fact that my Jeep has TWICE been extracted by a helpful passing ATV! :eek:

I hope I meet some of you guys out in the wilds, sometime...
 
Tree: I didn't mean to sound snippy about your post :). You weren't dissing the Av, just stating that wide and long are often fatal flaws in the hardcore world... valid points for sure!

Thanks for the complement on my driving. Maybe if I'd been a bit better, I'd have avoided the body damage that I did get! I think the only reason I survived that trail without further damage was I was there with a very experienced 'wheeler who spotted everything for me.

I'm also thinking about trailering a trail rig, but haven't decided yet on how hardcore I want to go. In any case, that's a discussion for a different web site... for now, the Av is certainly no rock buggy, but I'll take it against anything else its size!
 
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