2007 Chevrolet Avalanche LT 4WD’s strength and weakness is that it tries to be “All things to all men” (First Corinthians). Indeed, the 2007 Chevrolet Avalanche LT 4WD comes well equipped at a base price of $35,295 ($47,730 as tested), with a 3 year/36,000 mile basic warranty, a 5 year/100,000 mile powertrain warranty and an EPA estimate of 15 mpg city/20 mpg highway. Can Avalanche cause a landslide of opinion?

First Glance at the Chevy Avalanche

For 2007, the armor is gone, and Avalanche looks leaner, more athletic and just plain cooler than before. Beauty is more than skin deep in this case. Avalanche now rides on the new GMT900 platform, the same architecture that underlies the 2007 Cadillac Escalade, GMC Yukon and Sierra, and Chevrolet Tahoe and Silverado, among other GM offerings. There’s something about the proportions of the half pickup/half SUV that always throws me — kind of like when you see a Welsh Corgi running at the dog park. It looks like a real dog, but where’s the rest of it? Avalanche looks like a pickup, but where’s the rest of the bed? After the initial sense of imbalance, Avalanche starts to make sense, especially once you start driving it and using it.

Fit and finish on Avalanche is very good, with rich paint and subtle, firmly attached trim pieces. Big headlights and taillights do a good job of making the truck highly visible, as did my test vehicle’s Sunburst Orange Metallic paint job.