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.

Japanese brands accounted for nearly half the models in Consumer Reports magazine’s roster of vehicles winning the highest praise from their owners.

Toyota Motor Corp. came out ahead, with 10 of the 39 vehicles whose owners said in overwhelming numbers that they would buy the same model again, according to the survey released today.

American brands accounted for seven, or fewer than 20 percent, of the models rated “most satisfying” by U.S. consumers. But domestic vehicles gained ground for the first time in five years in the important family car category, where the V6-powered Ford Fusion and Saturn Aura won high marks.

Other top-rated U.S. vehicles included the Chevrolet Corvette, the Lincoln MKZ, the V8-powered Ford Mustang and the Ford Edge sport utility vehicle.

“These latest results suggest that domestic carmakers are getting better at capturing what people want in the car they drive every day,” said Rik Paul, Consumer Reports’ automotive editor.

Domestic vehicles still fill the ranks of “least satisfying” models, but many of those, like the Ford Freestar minivan, are no longer in production or are getting old.

Consumer Reports compiled the results from the responses to the same subscriber survey that generates the magazine’s closely watched reliability ratings. The magazine said the responses covered more than 300 models.

The findings confirm the results of other polls, which show that while the Japanese are ahead in terms of pleasing consumers, others are narrowing the gap.

“There’s no question that the quality gap has narrowed” and that Detroit’s automakers also are producing more attractively styled cars now, said Christopher Chaney, vice president at the San Diego-based consulting firm Strategic Vision, which also conducts auto surveys.

Fun, reliability big factors
Consumer Reports said the Toyota Prius hybrid car was rated the most satisfying vehicle for the fourth year in a row, with 92 percent of Prius owners saying they would definitely buy one again. Close behind were the BMW 335i coupe/convertible and the Porsche Boxster.

European models accounted for 12 cars on the list — a slight increase from last year and a disproportionately high number, given their small U.S. market share of less than 10 percent. European nameplates dominated the sporty car and roadster categories.

Two South Korean models, Hyundai’s Azera sedan and Santa Fe SUV, made the list of “most satisfying” cars for the first time.

David Champion, director of vehicle testing at Consumer Reports, said the highest-rated vehicles tended to be fun to drive and reliable. “If you buy a car and it doesn’t give you any problems, you tend to be satisfied with it.”

Although performance is a big factor, fuel efficiency is also an important consideration now, Champion said. “Cars that get good fuel economy are also very high in terms of owner satisfaction.”

Consumer Reports rates vehicles “most satisfying” if at least 80 percent of owners say they would definitely buy or lease that model again. They are rated “least satisfying” if fewer than half the owners would buy that model again.