You might have seen these trucks and had no idea what to call them. Mid-gate pickups, is what. We're talking about those trucks where you can fold the rear seat down, allowing the bed to flow right into the cabin, freeing up extra storage space for 2x4s or surfboards or whatever you don't want to risk losing to the highway by dropping the tailgate.In some vehicles, you essentially open up a little window in the back of the cabin for extra storage. In others, like the GMC Envoy XUV, you can create a pass-through cabin that lets passengers easily navigate between the front and back of the vehicle, blurring the line between truck and SUV.Chevrolet The feature has never been incredibly common, but we think it's always been incredibly cool, and we're happy to see Chevrolet keeping it relevant with the Silverado EV, and Hyundai with a potential mid-gate pickup in the works. The Chevy Avalanche Introduced The Mid-Gate To The Mainstream Ford Many drivers remember the Subaru Baja as the first mainstream truck with a mid-gate feature. The Baja actually went into production in July 2002 (for the 2003 model year). The Chevrolet Avalanche had already been on the national market since September 2001, launching for the 2002 model year, after a regional rollout earlier that year.The 2002 Avalanche was based on the Chevy Suburban, and packed a 5.3-foot bed. Drop the mid-gate, and you've got an eight-foot bed. The Avalanche-based Cadillac Escalade EXT was a luxury pickup that shared the feature until both models were discontinued after the 2013 model year. The GMC Envoy XUV Was An SUV That Turned Into A Truck GMC The GMC Envoy XUV was available for the 2004 and 2005 model years, and it's the closest thing we've seen to a real-life, mass-produced Transformer.Bring A Trailer The roof was convertible, and the back seat would fully retract, allowing you to turn the back-end of the SUV into a truck bed. Watch this thing in action to see what we mean, courtesy of Geneva Motorcars LLC on YouTube.How cool is that?Chevrolet You could count mainstream models that have featured mid-gates on both hands with some fingers left over to scratch your belly, but there have been plenty of concept trucks over the years that have featured the option. One that we really like is the 2001 Chevy K5 concept, which would have featured fold-down seats, allowing the truck to serve as either a pickup or an open-air off-roading SUV, depending on your mood. How Come The Mid-Gate Never Really Took Off? Chevrolet Check the user forums for Avalanche owners, and you'll find plenty of threads noting the cost of repairing the mid-gate. A report on CarComplaints for a 2009 Avalanche notes water leaking in through the mid-gate. The 2004 Envoy XUV has four complaints on file for general "tailgate issues," averaging $1,350 a fix, with an average mileage of 101,250 miles.The mid-gate is a really cool feature, but, for many drivers, it's just one more thing that can break. And, for automakers, it's one more thing driving up the cost of production. It's a niche feature, and unless they're cheap to produce, niche features rarely justify their production expense.Usability is also fairly limited. You're adding a couple of extra feet of bed length, but at the sacrifice of your back seats, and with a stack of lumber wobbling around inside the cabin. Dropping the tailgate and securing everything with a set of straps is an easier, simpler, cheaper solution than building a whole second tailgate and compromising the passenger space.Ultimately, the downsides to the mid-gate outweigh the upside, which is a little extra storage space and hearing your friends go "Woah, neat," when they see you drop the backseats (and make them ride in the bed). Hyundai And Chevrolet Seem To Be Working Out The Bugs ChevroletThe patent is for a water drainage system, which would solve the Avalanche's problem of water leaking into the cabin through the mid-gate, by using holes in the seals, guiding water through the floor, rather than into the cabin. Not the most exciting patent we've ever seen, but it's worth noting for the simple fact that Hyundai has never produced anything with a mid-gate, so why would they need that patent unless they were cooking something up?Meanwhile, the Chevy Silverado EV has single-handedly kept the mid-gate on the market with its Multi-Flex system, wherein the bed folds out from 5' 11" to a whopping nine feet in length. Drop the tailgate, and you've got an incredible 10' 10" to work with. Where a mid-gate's downside might be that it isn't worth the hassle for an extra two or three feet of space, the Silverado EV nearly doubles your bed length. Mid-Gate Trucks Are Hard To Find Used, Too Subaru Unless you want a two-year-old Silverado EV, we can't find many listings for mid-gate pickups on our marketplace. There's a 2003 Subaru Baja with 161,849 miles on the odometer selling for $8,995 in Nevada, and that's about it. Even if the mid-gate can be a pain in the neck to maintain, it seems that drivers who own these trucks aren't in a hurry to part with them.Checking in with the auction sites, we can find the following listings, to give you an idea of what's out there, and what it costs. A 24,000-mile 2008 Chevy Avalanche sold for $28,500 in 2024. A 24,000-mile 2004 GMC Envoy XUV sold for $9,750 in 2025. A 1,700-mile 2005 Cadillac Escalade EXT bid to $34,000 without reaching the reserve price in 2024. A 56,000-mile 2003 Subaru Baja sold for $16,750 in 2021. A 39,000-mile 2006 Subaru Baja Turbo sold for $25,500 in 2023. There's no way to know what will be available when you're ready to shop around, but these listings should tell you what to expect. Is A Mid-Gate Pickup Worth The Hassle? Bring a Trailer Whether you consider a mid-gate truck to be worth the downside, obviously that's going to vary from driver to driver. One drop of rain in your cabin, and you might never want to take your Avalanche out of the garage ever again. On the other hand, a pickup that can transform from daily-driver to work truck with the flip of a gate might be just what you've been looking for.It's hard to imagine a scenario where the mid-gate would be a must-have feature, but making all of your buying decisions on necessity alone is no way to go through life. This feature is super cool, and worth the extra maintenance.
