Avalanche 2.0: Chevrolet Silverado High Desert Package

Steph Willems
by Steph Willems

The buttress is back, baby!

Chevrolet fans still in mourning over the loss of their beloved Avalanche get an early Christmas gift this year. A new Silverado package arrives this fall with all the goodies a ‘lanche aficionado could want, minus the acres of grey bodyside cladding.

The High Desert Package, inspired by a concept vehicle shown at the 2014 SEMA show, is available on LT, LTZ, and High Country trims, adding upscale exterior fittings and a versatile locking cargo system with dual side storage bins. You’ll never find that hammer you left…somewhere.

Chevrolet views the waterproof, multi-compartment storage system as the answer for people who really want a pickup, but opt for an SUV due to the stuff they’re forced to cart around.

“The High Desert package blends the capability and utility of Silverado with the refinement and luxury of Suburban,” said Sandor Piszar, director of Chevrolet truck marketing, in a statement. “It’s ideal for those customers who want both the security of a lockable cargo area, as well as the flexibility of a pickup truck bed.”

The package also brings GM’s Magnetic Ride Control suspension into the Silverado lineup. The self-aware, road-damping suspension lends a refined, SUV-like ride to the pickup, filling out the “luxury” side of the package.

While not a standalone model, Chevy clearly knows who it’s romancing with this package. The proof is in the pillars, or more specifically, the flying buttress treatment out back.

The Avalanche is dead, but it has a son with another name.

[Image: General Motors]

Steph Willems
Steph Willems

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  • Dukeisduke Dukeisduke on May 13, 2016

    "High Country", "High Desert". What kind of lame committee comes up with these names? Ford has the King Ranch, named for a real place, and Toyota has the 1794 Edition, which refers to the founding date of the ranch where today the TMMTX plant outside of San Antonio is located. GM needs to get a clue.

  • RHD RHD on May 13, 2016

    Maybe they asked Art Bell for suggestions about the name of the special edition.

  • Kwik_Shift_Pro4X The dominoes start to fall...
  • IBx1 Get the standard established, then stop building the chargers while you let others license the design from you to build more stations with your standard disgusting
  • IBx1 “Dare to live more”-company that went from making the Countach and Diablo to an Audi crossover with an Audi engine and only pathetic automatic garabge ”live mas”-taco bell
  • Pianoboy57 Not buying one of these new when I was a young guy was a big regret. I hated the job I had then so didn't want to commit to payments. I did own a '74 Corona SR later for a short time.
  • FreedMike This wasn’t unpredictable. Despite what the eV HaTerZ kLuBB would like you to believe, EV sales are still going up, just not as quickly as they had been, but Tesla’s market share is down dramatically. That’s the result of what I’ve been saying for a long time: that the competition would eventually start catching up, and that’s exactly what’s happening. How did this happen? It boils down to this: we’re not back in 2019 anymore. Back then, if you wanted an EV that wasn’t a dorky looking ecomobile like a Leaf or Bolt, it was pretty much Tesla or bust, and buyers had to deal with all the endemic Tesla issues (build quality problems, bizarre ergonomics, weird styling, and so forth). That’s not the case today – there is a ton of competition, and while these newer models aren’t quite there when it comes to EV tech, they’re getting closer, and most of the Tesla weirdness just doesn’t apply. And then there’s this: stale product is the kiss of death in the car biz, and aside from the vanity project known as Cybertruck, all of Tesla’s stuff is old now. It’s not as “bleeding edge” as it used to be. For a company that made its’ bones on being on the forefront of tech, that’s a big problem.I don’t think Tesla is out of the game – not by a long shot. They’re still the market leader by a very wide margin, and their EV tech is the best in the game. But they need to stop focusing on stuff like the Cybertruck (technically fascinating, but it’s clearly an Elon Musk ego trip), the money/talent suck that is FSD, and the whole robotaxi thing, and put product first. At a minimum, everything they sell needs a very heavy refresh, and the entry level EV is a must.
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