My VW Touareg apparently ate some bad tacos for lunch because the transmission, at 84,000 miles, has some bad shifting going on . . . so into the dealership it goes for a burp, a hug and a repair bill. So I get a rental.
A brand spanking new Chevy Impala, 94 miles on the odometer when I pick it up.
I'm not posting pictures of the car exterior, the professional photographers at GM posted those all over the Chevy website, go look there. I'm just going to post my impressions of the vehicle from driving it, and some camera phone shots of the inside, etc.
First off, at 136 miles the "Check Engine" light came on
Something tells me that is a bad thing?
Secondly, it shifts hard. I'd bet it is within spec, but there is a noticeable thump at every upship from gear to gear. This is nothing like the smooth shifting I've felt in the various Chrysler, Volvo, VW, Audi, M-B products that I am more familiar with. Its been quite a while since I've owned a GM car but I don't recall shifters that "thump".
ONE, just ONE cup holder in the front? There are 2 holes, one is suitable for a cup, can or bottle, the other is not and won't fit any can larger than one of those skinny RED BULL cans. Its more suitable for coins but it has a hard plastic bottom so coins rattle around in there. A soft rubber insert would solve that problem.
The plastic interior is sort of cheezy and cheap. The plastic is everywhere, just like every other vehicle, so that is not a surprise. But there are at least 3 different patterns of fake leather texture that I could discern, one on the lower dash, one on the upper dash and a third on the steering wheel. I presume all 3 were different because each was a different type of plastic? They were close, but just a little different and it made for an odd look.
Chrome accents were nicely placed around gauges and various controls. There was just enough chrome to be nice, not enough to be gaudy. Ditto with the plastic wood. The woodgrain was actually very attractive, my daughter even commented on how it looked very nice, that there was 'just enough' to be classy, but not too much.
Oddly while the chrome accents were tasteful and well placed, there is a dull finished cheap looking aluminum Chevy 'bowtie' emblem in the center of the steering wheel that really looks crappy
The car does have automatic headlamps, a nice touch of luxury there. It also has the optional Sirrius/XM satellite radio, another nice touch that I appreciated. I found the radio controls a bit odd, but easy enough to figure out.
But my short experiences in driving this thing (about 100 miles so far) have given me a long list of minor complaints. The rear view mirrors on the sides of the car are very odd shaped and while they may look good from an exterior point of view, they are nearly worthless. They need to be larger so you can actually see what is behind/adjacent to the vehicle. The interior rear view is also very limited, not by the mirror size but by the 3 rear seat head rests and the rear trunk spoiler on the vehicle. All those things add up to about a 40% reduction is the view out the rear window and that is a pretty dramatic loss of rear visibility!
The gear selector lever is not marked with gear indicators
Seriously? While you can pretty much 'feel' what gear you are selecting, and while the selection does show up on the dash, it should also be indicated next to the selector. Not only did I notice this, but so did my daughter as she commented about how "stupid" it was not to have those indicated.
The windows are all electric, the drivers window is marked "AUTO" and with a single depress the window will retract all the way down. However it will not automatically rise. None of the other windows are automatic either. In contrast, my little VW Jetta, which is classified as an "economy car" in the industry, has all 4 windows operating as "automatic" in both directions. Unlike my Jetta, the Chevy Impala is not an "economy" car and I expected better, but, this and many other little things leave me disappointed.
Engine performance was about average. Honestly I don't know what engine is in the car. It seems to work a bit in the hills, performance is not snappy but its acceptable if this is the base engine. Given we have a rear spoiler and some other fancy trim work on the exterior I'd hope this does not have their performance engine inside. . . if so then this car is all show and no go.
Front seats in the Impala are nice looking leather, but they are made for fat people. Not sure how else to say that. They are wide buckets but have no lateral bolsters so people of average build will find no support in these front seats. The leather is smooth appears to be very nice quality. The seat heaters are dual temperature, controlled by buttons on the dash. Your 3 choices are SMOKING HOT or JUST WARM or OFF. I found the high setting way too hot. But as the temps are in the 20's I'd rather have a hot butt than a cold one. I find running them on HI for 15 minutes then turning down to LO is viable option in this weather. Still, I'd prefer more choices, something in between would be great. Oddly, and uncomfortably, the heaters only heat your butt. Every other car I've been in heats your butt AND your lower back, some your upper back. This only gets your butt so your lower back is left cold. Just another strike against this car.
The gas cap is not locked. The gas cap cover does not lock. That seems odd. Again, I'd prefer that there was a lock, preferably on the gas cap cover.
Dual Climate Control was a nice feature that I didn't expect. Given that so many of the features of this car were just 'average' and given that dual controls are generally more of a premium feature I was surprised by the dual controls. I also didn't like the controls. They were very imprecise and despite the fact that they had detents to feel your way through the throw of the levers, the levers were small and the detents so mild that it was easy to move them farther than intended. Dials might be a better choice? Or bigger levers with stronger detents? The dual zone works, but its not a real climate control that controls to temperature, it actually a manually controlled heater/AC unit that has dual zones.
Rear seat leg room is surprisingly LACKING in this car. It really surprised me but when the drivers seat is pushed back there is really very little room behind the driver so adults may be cramped in the back. Given the overall size of the car I was surprised by the lack of leg room.
Impressed? Nope. This is not a car I'd buy.
A brand spanking new Chevy Impala, 94 miles on the odometer when I pick it up.
I'm not posting pictures of the car exterior, the professional photographers at GM posted those all over the Chevy website, go look there. I'm just going to post my impressions of the vehicle from driving it, and some camera phone shots of the inside, etc.
First off, at 136 miles the "Check Engine" light came on
Something tells me that is a bad thing? Secondly, it shifts hard. I'd bet it is within spec, but there is a noticeable thump at every upship from gear to gear. This is nothing like the smooth shifting I've felt in the various Chrysler, Volvo, VW, Audi, M-B products that I am more familiar with. Its been quite a while since I've owned a GM car but I don't recall shifters that "thump".
ONE, just ONE cup holder in the front? There are 2 holes, one is suitable for a cup, can or bottle, the other is not and won't fit any can larger than one of those skinny RED BULL cans. Its more suitable for coins but it has a hard plastic bottom so coins rattle around in there. A soft rubber insert would solve that problem.
The plastic interior is sort of cheezy and cheap. The plastic is everywhere, just like every other vehicle, so that is not a surprise. But there are at least 3 different patterns of fake leather texture that I could discern, one on the lower dash, one on the upper dash and a third on the steering wheel. I presume all 3 were different because each was a different type of plastic? They were close, but just a little different and it made for an odd look.
Chrome accents were nicely placed around gauges and various controls. There was just enough chrome to be nice, not enough to be gaudy. Ditto with the plastic wood. The woodgrain was actually very attractive, my daughter even commented on how it looked very nice, that there was 'just enough' to be classy, but not too much.
Oddly while the chrome accents were tasteful and well placed, there is a dull finished cheap looking aluminum Chevy 'bowtie' emblem in the center of the steering wheel that really looks crappy
The car does have automatic headlamps, a nice touch of luxury there. It also has the optional Sirrius/XM satellite radio, another nice touch that I appreciated. I found the radio controls a bit odd, but easy enough to figure out.
But my short experiences in driving this thing (about 100 miles so far) have given me a long list of minor complaints. The rear view mirrors on the sides of the car are very odd shaped and while they may look good from an exterior point of view, they are nearly worthless. They need to be larger so you can actually see what is behind/adjacent to the vehicle. The interior rear view is also very limited, not by the mirror size but by the 3 rear seat head rests and the rear trunk spoiler on the vehicle. All those things add up to about a 40% reduction is the view out the rear window and that is a pretty dramatic loss of rear visibility!
The gear selector lever is not marked with gear indicators
Seriously? While you can pretty much 'feel' what gear you are selecting, and while the selection does show up on the dash, it should also be indicated next to the selector. Not only did I notice this, but so did my daughter as she commented about how "stupid" it was not to have those indicated. The windows are all electric, the drivers window is marked "AUTO" and with a single depress the window will retract all the way down. However it will not automatically rise. None of the other windows are automatic either. In contrast, my little VW Jetta, which is classified as an "economy car" in the industry, has all 4 windows operating as "automatic" in both directions. Unlike my Jetta, the Chevy Impala is not an "economy" car and I expected better, but, this and many other little things leave me disappointed.
Engine performance was about average. Honestly I don't know what engine is in the car. It seems to work a bit in the hills, performance is not snappy but its acceptable if this is the base engine. Given we have a rear spoiler and some other fancy trim work on the exterior I'd hope this does not have their performance engine inside. . . if so then this car is all show and no go.
Front seats in the Impala are nice looking leather, but they are made for fat people. Not sure how else to say that. They are wide buckets but have no lateral bolsters so people of average build will find no support in these front seats. The leather is smooth appears to be very nice quality. The seat heaters are dual temperature, controlled by buttons on the dash. Your 3 choices are SMOKING HOT or JUST WARM or OFF. I found the high setting way too hot. But as the temps are in the 20's I'd rather have a hot butt than a cold one. I find running them on HI for 15 minutes then turning down to LO is viable option in this weather. Still, I'd prefer more choices, something in between would be great. Oddly, and uncomfortably, the heaters only heat your butt. Every other car I've been in heats your butt AND your lower back, some your upper back. This only gets your butt so your lower back is left cold. Just another strike against this car.
The gas cap is not locked. The gas cap cover does not lock. That seems odd. Again, I'd prefer that there was a lock, preferably on the gas cap cover.
Dual Climate Control was a nice feature that I didn't expect. Given that so many of the features of this car were just 'average' and given that dual controls are generally more of a premium feature I was surprised by the dual controls. I also didn't like the controls. They were very imprecise and despite the fact that they had detents to feel your way through the throw of the levers, the levers were small and the detents so mild that it was easy to move them farther than intended. Dials might be a better choice? Or bigger levers with stronger detents? The dual zone works, but its not a real climate control that controls to temperature, it actually a manually controlled heater/AC unit that has dual zones.
Rear seat leg room is surprisingly LACKING in this car. It really surprised me but when the drivers seat is pushed back there is really very little room behind the driver so adults may be cramped in the back. Given the overall size of the car I was surprised by the lack of leg room.
Impressed? Nope. This is not a car I'd buy.
