[TrailLeadr]

I personally like my Avalanche with body armor. I've seen a lot of people who don't like it, and try to buff it smooth so they can paint it to match. Almost trying to make it into the poor man's Escalade. With the way that people have no consideration in parking lots, I wouldn't trade my body armor for anything.

I'm actually not so sure I like the look of the new ones without the armor (cladding)

 

[rmreid]

Cladding is the only way to go... when my '03 crapped out in '06 I could not find a loaded cladded AV that I liked so I ended up buying a Silverado

 

[TrailLeadr]

Yeah, GM totally moved away from the cladding as of '05 I think.

 

[rmreid]

RI

TrailLeadr
I have quite a few friends in RI that have AV's most I met off of the CAFCNA site at various GTG's

 

[ChevyFan]

Was body armor standard or was in an add-on for those years?

 

[TrailLeadr]

That's a good question. We got ours used. I think the cladding was standard, but I've heard of people who didn't have it. So honestly, I think it was an option to not have it.

 

[rmreid]

Was body armor standard or was in an add-on for those years?

2002 standard, 2003 an option but most AV's that year were cladded, 2004 an option, 2005 an option, 2006 an option but harder to find cladded AV's - 2007 cladding was not an option.

 

[occupant]

When the Avalanche first came out, I was against the plastic cladding. Thought it looked like a Pontiac pickup truck. The first time I saw a plain Avalanche, I thought it looked much better. Now that most of them DON'T have it, and have chrome bumpers and what not, I like that, but I seem to get drawn towards the ones that have the cladding.

It's like I'm rooting for the underdog here. Plastic on the Avalanche. Caprice wagons. Geo Metros. Anything with a manual transmission. Why do I always want what no one has?

 

[ChevyFan]

Well, it was a bold move adding it to the Avalanche. I agree, the Aztek was designed to be an Xtreme looking vehicle, going for a younger crowd. I think GM didn't hit the marketing exactly right for the Avalanche at first. The vehicle is REALLY practical. I mean, it's a GM Transformer that lets you have good seating, or a lot of cargo room ... in the same vehicle.

Anyhow, the Body Armor, or Cladding, took time to grow on me.