Chevrolet Avalanche

Which Chevrolet Avalanche years should you avoid?

Going by 1,966 owner complaints filed with NHTSA, the Chevrolet Avalanche years to avoid are 2002, 2007 and 2008.

• 2002444 complaints, 3.5× a typical Avalanche year, most often about the brakes; and 2.4× the usual share of fires, crashes and deaths for a car of its age (0 fires, 38 crashes, 3 deaths).
• 2007377 complaints, 3.0× a typical Avalanche year, most often about the airbags.
• 2008258 complaints, 2.0× a typical Avalanche year, most often about the airbags.

Better bets: among years old enough for a low count to mean something, the 2012 and 2013 drew the fewest complaints without an unusual share of serious ones.

How this is worked out: each year is compared with a typical year of the same model, which takes most of the difference in sales out of it, and its share of serious failures is compared with every other car of the same model year, because older cars were complained about differently. A year needs 25 complaints to be judged at all. Complaints are unverified owner reports. Full method →