2009 Avalanche

Overviews

For Release: June 9, 2008

2009 CHEVROLET AVALANCHE

New for 2009

Model Lineup

 

Engines

Transmission

 

Vortec 5.3L V-8 (LY5)

Vortec 5.3L V-8 (LMG)

Vortec 5.3L V-8 (LC9)

Vortec 6.0L V-8 (L76)

6-spd auto
(Hydra-Matic 6L80)

Avalanche 2WD

s

o

–

o

s

Avalanche 4WD

–

s**

s***

o

s

*Available on LTZ
**Will be standard on 4WD shortly after start of production
*** will not be available once LMG becomes standard

Key  

Standard

s

Optional

o

2009 CHEVROLET AVALANCHE ADDS FUEL-SAVING SIX-SPEED AUTOMATIC TRANSMISSION AND BLUETOOTH WIRELESS PHONE CONNECTION

Chevy Avalanche is the industry’s most flexible utility vehicle, combining the passenger-comfort attributes of an SUV with the cargo capability of a truck. It is based on GM’s full-size SUV platform that features segment-leading fuel economy and flex-fuel capability; a sharp, precise driving feel, interior refinement and notable quietness – it also has a maximum towing capacity of 8,100 pounds (3,674 kg).

Avalanche’s efficiency is enhanced in ’09 with the new, fuel-saving six-speed automatic transmission that is standard on all models. The advanced, Hydra-Matic 6L80 transmission helps deliver improved highway fuel mileage by incorporating two overdrive gears (fifth and sixth gears) that allow the engine to operate at a lower speed on the highway. Less fuel is used when the engine rpm is lowered, enhancing fuel economy. The lower engine speed also contributes to a quieter passenger environment.

“There’s no other vehicle that offers the spaciousness and versatility of the Avalanche,” said Ed Peper, Chevrolet general manager. “With technologies such as Active Fuel Management and its high towing rating, the Avalanche delivers effortless capability with surprising efficiency.”

New technologies that enhance safety are also added to the Avalanche for 2009, including Bluetooth wireless phone connectivity with specific steering wheel controls, and an available rear camera system that can be displayed in either the inside review mirror or the Navigation display depending on radio choice. These new features complement an already strong package of standard safety items, such as head curtain side-impact air bags and StabiliTrak electronic stability control system.

New features for 2009

In addition to the new six-speed automatic transmission, a host of new features and revisions across the lineup gives Avalanche customers more choices. The changes for ’09 include the following:

Additionally, several changes have been made to previous Avalanche packages and content. They include:

Avalanche lineup

The Avalanche is available in LS, LT and LTZ models, with 2WD and 4WD. The standard powertrain includes an efficient 5.3L V-8 with Active Fuel Management™ technology that seamlessly switches from eight-cylinder to four-cylinder operation to save fuel. A 6.0L V-8 engine with Active Fuel Management and variable valve timing (VVT) is also available, giving Avalanche customers more choices for selecting a vehicle that has the capability they demand. Several of Avalanche’s engines are FlexFuel-capable, meaning they can run on E85 ethanol-based fuel.

Also available is the popular Z71 Off Road appearance package. This optional package includes the Z71 Off Road suspension with high-pressure, gas-charged monotube shocks, 18-inch on/off road tires, automatic-locking differential, front recovery hooks, a durable skid plate and high-capacity air cleaner. Large, color-keyed wheel flares, an aggressive front fascia and satin chrome tubular assist steps, and bright chrome front grille insert provide a one-of-a kind appearance. On the inside are leather-appointed bucket seats that are available in solid Ebony, Cashmere or Titanium.

Midgate flexibility

Avalanche’s unparalleled flexibility enables it to function as an SUV, truck or both, thanks to the exclusive Midgate. Pioneered on the first-generation Avalanche, the Midgate opens to extend the cargo-carrying capability from the cargo bed’s 5-foot-3-inch-long (1.6 m) length to 8 feet 2 inches (2.5 m). The rear seat must be folded to achieve maximum storage capability; with the rear seat up and the Midgate closed, Avalanche has room for up to six passengers.

When the Midgate is open and the rear seat is folded flat, Avalanche can carry 4-foot by 8-foot (1.2 m by 2.4 m) sheets of plywood with the tailgate closed. Storage compartments alongside the cargo box provide ample and lockable storage. The storage compartments also have drains, so they can be filled with ice and used as coolers. A three-piece rigid cargo cover with interlocking panels also is available.

Avalanche’s flexible attributes also include a central-locking tailgate and cargo cover retaining straps. Also, the tailgate is spring-loaded to reduce the effort needed to open or close it.

Efficient performance

Avalanche is powered by the small-block V-8 family. Standard on 2WD models is an iron-block Vortec 5.3L V-8 with 320 horsepower (239 kW)* and 340 lb.-ft. of torque (461 Nm)*, which offers Active Fuel Management.

At the beginning of the 2009 model year, Avalanche comes with a 5.3L aluminum-block V-8 as standard on 4WD models, delivering 310 horsepower (231 kW)* and 335 lb.-ft. (454 Nm)* of torque. Shortly after start-up production, the standard engine will change to a 5.3L iron-block V-8 with 320 horsepower (239 kW) and 340 lb.-ft. of torque (461 Nm), with Active Fuel Management and FlexFuel capability.

Two versions of the Vortec 5.3L V-8 are compatible with E85, a renewable fuel made of 85 percent ethyl alcohol (ethanol) and 15 percent gasoline.

An all-aluminum 6.0L V-8 with variable valve timing (VVT), as well as Active Fuel Management, is available on 2WD and 4WD models. It is rated at 366 horsepower (273 kW).* Variable valve timing helps optimize camshaft timing to improve low-rpm torque and high-rpm horsepower. The system is enabled by a unique dual-equal cam phaser that adjusts the camshaft timing at the same rate for both the intake and exhaust valves.

All of Avalanche’s engines are matched with a new, fuel-saving Hydra-Matic 6L80 six-speed automatic transmission.

Interior refinement and convenience

Avalanche’s interior represents a high level of refinement, comfort, quality and convenience. It is roomy and airy, thanks to a low instrument panel and deep windshield that improve outward visibility.

Avalanche’s front seats are designed to provide comfort and easy entry/egress. Door pillar-mounted first-row three-point safety belts facilitate a slim seat design, which helps enhances cargo space behind the seats. Comfort comes from firm seat foams, including aggressive bolsters. The rear seat is unique to the Avalanche and enables easy access to the Midgate system. The seat folds flat, allowing longer items to be carried between the cargo bed and into the rear passenger compartment.

Avalanche’s spacious interior creates an environment that exudes quality and precision. Flush-mounted accessories and controls, such as the climate control/radio center stack, create a seamless, “single unit” appearance. Also, there are almost no exposed metal hardware or latches, as all models feature enclosing “close-outs” around the seat bottoms and door sill trim plates. Comfort features include an efficient HVAC system, and generous storage capability – with the segment’s largest center console storage bin, a large glove box and numerous storage compartments. Avalanche also offers a host of available convenience features, including:

Avalanche also features an impressive audio/navigation lineup, which provides quality entertainment and information. GM’s family of CD/MP3-compatible radios leads the audio lineup, with an available DVD entertainment system that includes an eight-inch screen (with in-dash loading). A touch-screen navigation radio is available and incorporates the monitor for the rearview camera system.

Distinctive design

Avalanche’s monochromatic design is lean and agile, with a steeply raked windshield and smooth roofline that accentuates the exterior length. Avalanche wears the distinctive face of Chevrolet, with a large Chevy gold bowtie, centered on a twin-port horizontal grille. The body-color grille surround is inset with an argent texture mesh. Fog lamps and headlamps feature jewel-like optics.

Avalanche’s front end styling reflects its capability. It includes the fast-rake windshield; a power dome hood; a prominent fender design with integrated wheel flares; bold grille and headlamps; and a full-wrap fascia. The wraparound fascia eliminates the conventional bumper-to-body gap and is one of the numerous attributes that gives the Avalanche its refined look. It also enhances aerodynamics.

Avalanche offers a range of 17-inch and 20-inch wheels. Seventeen-inch wheels and tires are standard, with 20-inch factory-installed wheels available (standard on LTZ; available on LT). The larger wheels fill Avalanche’s wheelhouses, giving the vehicle a confident stance.

Avalanche also offers convenient power-articulating running boards on LTZ models, which blend smoothly with the vehicle’s design. They automatically move downward and outward when the doors are opened, providing a lower step-in height.

Accessories

Numerous Chevy Accessories are available for Avalanche:

Full-size SUV foundation

Avalanche is built on GM’s full-size SUV platform, which incorporates features such as a fully boxed frame, coil-over-shock front suspension, rack-and-pinion steering and a premium interior system that bolster the vehicle’s comfort, quality and capability. Wide front and rear tracks enhance handling and vehicle stability for a more confident road feel.

A stiff frame reduces vibrations transmitted to the passenger cabin, while the strength and accuracy of the fully boxed frame also enable precise mounting and tuning of chassis and suspension components. Even the tires on the large, 17-inch and 20-inch wheels were designed to reduce noise.

Noise-reducing components and materials are used throughout the body structure, including the headliner material, door seals and front-of-dash area. The engines also feature a quiet-tuned alternator and an acoustically tuned engine cover that reduce engine noise heard inside the vehicle. The door seals help reduce seal “pull-away” at highway speeds, which can cause wind noise.

Avalanche’s quietness and smoothness are complemented by the Autoride suspension system, which is standard on LTZ. This segment-exclusive bi-state, real-time damping system provides an extremely refined ride with greatly reduced body motion. The system consists of a semi-active, two-position damping control system that responds in real time to road and driving conditions, based on body and wheel motion sensors.

Avalanche offers up to 8,100 pounds (3,676 kg) of towing capability, when properly equipped, enhancing its flexible, ready-for-anything capability.

Safety story

The Avalanche offers security in the form of a 360-degree safety system of occupant protection and crash-avoidance technologies. Features include standard head curtain side air bags with rollover protection for both rows and front-seat safety belt pretensioners that are linked to the vehicle's sensing system to provide segment-exclusive deployment in rear-end crashes.

The roof-mounted head curtain air bags include design features that provide increased rollover protection and occupant containment. These head curtain side air bags stay inflated longer than air bags developed only for side impacts, since rollover incidents can last longer. The deployment duration and other design features of the air bags combine to provide increased occupant protection and the ability to help keep occupants inside the vehicle.

Sensors located at the front of the vehicle, in the side doors, and within the occupant compartment provide increased and more immediate crash detection. The vehicle's sensing system provides industry-exclusive capability to deploy front seat safety belt pretensioners during certain rear-end collisions, enhancing the belt system's ability to hold the occupants firmly in place.

Crash avoidance is bolstered through strong design and driver control dynamics, such as wide front and rear tracks, as well as responsive suspensions – including a standard coil-over-shock front suspension design and rack-and-pinion steering. Avalanche’s fully boxed frame contributes to enhanced crash energy management. The front frame section has been designed to optimize crush progression, resulting in energy absorption efficiency. The improved crush performance, enabled by hydroformed frame rails and efficient chassis component packaging, also comprehends design provisions that help improve vehicle-to-vehicle compatibility in the event of a frontal impact with a smaller vehicle.

Additional safety features include:

LS models come standard with OnStar and a one-year Safe & Sound service plan; LT and LTZ models come with a one-year Directions & Connections plan that features Turn-By-Turn Navigation. OnStar includes the General Motors Advanced Crash Response System, making crash data available to emergency services to potentially dispatch the appropriate life-saving personnel and equipment to crash scenes faster. If the vehicle is in a crash that activates an air bag, the OnStar system automatically notifies an OnStar advisor, who will check on the occupants or summon emergency help if necessary. OnStar also can assist authorities in locating a vehicle if it is reported stolen (ability to locate stolen vehicles varies with conditions).

*SAE certified.

# # #

Contact:
Brian Goebel
Chevrolet Communications
Phone: 313-665-8049
E-mail: brian.goebel@gm.com

Kelly Wysocki
Product Development Communications
Phone: 586-492-0122
E-mail: kelly.wysocki@gm.com

Antonio Sanchez Jimenez
Gerente de Relaciones Públicas y Comunicación
General Motors de Mexico
Office: 011-5255-5901-3042
E-mail: angelantonio.sanchezjimenez@gm.com

SPECIFICATIONS

Overview

Models:

Chevrolet Avalanche LS, LT and LTZ

Body style / driveline:

4-door sport utility vehicle/pickup, front-engine, 2- or 4-wheel drive, half-ton models

Construction:

body on frame

EPA vehicle class:

half-ton truck

Manufacturing locations:

Silao, Mexico

Key competitors:

Ford Super Crew, Dodge Ram Quad Cab

Engines

 

Vortec 5.3L V-8 (LY5, LMG)

Vortec 5.3L V-8 (LC9)

Vortec 6.0L V-8 (L76)

Type:

5.3L V-8

5.3L V-8

6.0L V-8

Displacement
(cu in / cc):

325 / 5328

325 / 5328

364 / 5967

Bore & stroke
(in / mm):

3.78 x 3.62 / 96 x 92

3.78 x 3.62 / 96 x 92

4.00 x 3.62 / 101.6 x 92

Block material:

cast iron

cast aluminum

cast aluminum

Cylinder head material:

cast aluminum

cast aluminum

cast aluminum

Valvetrain:

overhead valve, 2 valves per cylinder, hydraulic roller lifters

overhead valve, 2 valves per cylinder, hydraulic roller lifters

overhead valve, 2 valves per cylinder, variable valve timing

Ignition system:

coil-near-plug ignition, iridium electrode tip/ iridium core spark plugs, low resistance spark plug wires

coil-near-plug ignition, iridium electrode tip/ iridium core spark plugs, low resistance spark plug wires

coil-near-plug ignition, iridium electrode tip/ iridium core spark plugs, low resistance spark plug wires

Fuel delivery:

Active Fuel Management; sequential fuel injection

Active Fuel Management; sequential fuel injection

Active Fuel Management; sequential fuel injection

Compression ratio:

9.9:1

9.9:1

9.6:1

Horsepower
(hp/ kW @ rpm):

310 / 231 @ 5200*

310 / 231 @ 5200*

366 / 273 @ 5800*

Torque
(lb-ft / Nm @ rpm):

335 / 454 @ 4400*

335 / 454 @ 4400*

376 / 510 @ 4400*

Fuel:

regular unleaded,
E85-capable (LMG)

regular unleaded, E85-capable

regular unleaded

Maximum engine speed (rpm):

6000

6000

6000

Emissions controls:

close-coupled catalytic converter, 58X ignition, returnless fuel rail, fast-response O² sensor

close-coupled catalytic converter, 58X ignition, returnless fuel rail, fast-response O² sensor

close-coupled catalytic converter, 58X ignition, returnless fuel rail, fast-response O² sensor

EPA estimated fuel economy (city / hwy):

14 / 20

14 / 20
10 / 15 E85

14 / 19

Transmission

 

Hydra-Matic 6L80, 6-speed automatic

Gear ratios (:1):

 

First:

4.03

Second:

2.36

Third:

1.53

Fourth:

1.15

Fifth:

0.85

Sixth:

0.67

Reverse:

3.06

Final drive ratio:

5.3L: 3.08 (std.); 3.42 (opt.)
6.0L: 3.42

Chassis / Suspension

Front:

independent, coil over shock; Autoride real-time damping (std. on LTZ and LT with 6.0L)

Rear:

five-link with coil springs; Autoride real-time damping (std. on LTZ and LT with 6.0L)

Traction assist:

all-speed traction control

Steering type:

power-assisted rack-and-pinion

Steering ratio:

17.75:1

Steering wheel turns, lock-to-lock:

3

Turning circle, curb-to-curb (ft / m):

43.0 / 13.1

Brakes

Type:

4-wheel disc, 4-wheel ABS

Rotor diameter x thickness (in / mm):

front: 13 x 1.18 / 330.2 x 30
rear: 13.5 x .787 / 345 x 20

Wheels/Tires

Wheel size and type:

17 x 7.5-inch machined cast aluminum, silver sparkle accent (LS, LT)

 

18 x 8.0-inch machined aluminum (Z71 package)

 

20 x 8.5-inch polished aluminum (opt. LT, std. LTZ)

Tires:

P265/70R17 blackwall Goodyear AL2 (all-season) steel belt radials;

 

P265/70R17 white letter Goodyear AL2 (all-season) steel belt radials;

 

P265/70R17 blackwall Bridgestone OOR (on-off-road) steel belt radials (export only)

 

P265/65R18 blackwall Bridgestone OOR (on-off-road) steel belt radials

 

P265/65R18 blackwall Bridgestone AL2 (all-season) steel belt radials (export only)

 

P275/55R20 blackwall Bridgestone AL2 (all-season) steel belt radials

Dimensions
Exterior

Wheelbase (in / mm):

130 / 3302

Overall length (in / mm):

221.3 / 5620.8

Overall width (in / mm):

79.1 / 2010.4

Overall height (in / mm):

76.6 / 1944.8

Track (in / mm):

front: 68.2 / 1731.8
rear: 67.0 / 1701.8

Minimum ground clearance (in / mm):

2WD: 9.1 / 230.7 4WD: 9.1 / 230.7

Step-in height (in / mm):

2WD: 21.9 / 555.6 4WD: 22.2 / 562.8

Ground to top of cargo floor (in / mm):

2WD: 32.2 / 818.9
4WD: 32.5 / 824.8

Approach angle (deg):

2WD: 16.78 4WD: 16.64

Departure angle (deg):

2WD: 20.05 4WD: 20.31

Curb weight (lb / kg):

2WD: 5478 / 2485 4WD: 5645 / 2560

Weight distribution (% front / rear):

2WD: 51 / 49
4WD: 52 / 48

Interior

 

First Row

Second Row

Seating capacity (9 total):

2 / 3

2 / 3

Headroom (in / mm):

41.1 / 1043.2

40 / 1014.9

Legroom (in / mm):

41.3 / 1048.9

39.1 / 1048.9

Shoulder room (in / mm):

65.3 / 1657.9

65.2 / 1657.3

Hip room (in / mm):

64.4 / 1636.7

61.8 / 1570.1

Cargo length behind 1 st row, Midgate closed (in / mm):

31.8 / 806.8

 

Cargo volume (cu ft / L):

 

 

Behind 1 st row, 2 nd row folded, Midgate closed

54.3 / 1537.3

 

Behind 1 st row, 2 nd row folded, Midgate open

101 / 2859.1

 

Cargo box

Cargo Length – bed, Midgate closed (in / mm):

63.3 /1609.1

Cargo Length – behind 1 st row, Midgate open (in / mm):

98.2 / 2493

Cargo width at wheelhouse (in / mm):

50.0 / 1270.4

Cargo height – max. inside w/Midgate open (in / mm):

47.4 / 1204.7

Cargo height – open bed (in / mm):

25.0 / 634.7

Cargo height – w/bed cover (in / mm):

22.6 / 574.5

Cargo volume, open bed, Midgate closed (cu ft / L):

45.5 / 1289.1

Capacities

GVWR: (lb / kg):

2WD: 7000 / 3175 4WD: 7200 / 3266

Payload, base (lb / kg):

2WD: 1320 / 598
4WD: 1350 / 612

Trailer towing maximum (lb / kg):

2WD: 8100 / 3674 (5.3L)
4WD: 7900 / 3583 (5.3L)

Fuel tank (gal / L):

31.5 / 119.2

Engine oil (qt / L):

6 / 5.7 (5.3L & 6.0L)

Cooling system (qt / L):

16.8 / 15.9 (5.3L & 6.0L)

*SAE certified
Note: Information shown is current at time of publication

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