The last Impala

End of the line. My grandparents owned several. 

Good riddance. Impala died in 95/96 SS models 

Meh. It's died and come back before.

One of these newest ones nearly ran me off the road the other night. Geriatric didn't appear to even notice. As a Chevy guy I'm sad to see what has become of gm. 

Very sad even though the Impala has really been an Impala in name only for years. It once really stood for something and the name plate is still iconic from the late 50s through the 60s. The times they are a chang'in.

Eh, it will come back as a crappy crossover in a couple of years. GM gonna GM, after all.

Tom_Spangler said:

Meh. It's died and come back before.

Like an infection that gets stronger because you stop taking your antibiotics because you feel better so you forget to take the pills

Dave M said:

Eh, it will come back as a crappy crossover in a couple of years. GM gonna GM, after all.

GM isn't FORD.  Tey may suck but there's a line they won't cross over.

Knurled. said:

Dave M said:

Eh, it will come back as a crappy crossover in a couple of years. GM gonna GM, after all.

GM isn't FORD.  Tey may suck but there's a line they won't cross over.

I dunno man, 4 cylinder import rebadged econobox LeMans and Nova?

I just rented an Impala for work and drove 750 miles in two days and crossed over the Smokey mountains twice.  

I kinda liked it except for the high doors and large floor sill.  In my work you need the appearance of an "American" car so this fit the bill.  The V6 version had power and it was roomy inside.  Also I had two generations for company cars.   

Patrick said:

Knurled. said:

Dave M said:

Eh, it will come back as a crappy crossover in a couple of years. GM gonna GM, after all.

GM isn't FORD.  Tey may suck but there's a line they won't cross over.

I dunno man, 4 cylinder import rebadged econobox LeMans and Nova?

The Nova was Chevy's POS in the 60s, a rebadged Corolla makes sense.

The 80s LeMans was a rebadged, offshore built Opel Kadett, which had a pretty successful motorports career.  The fact that it didn't take off in the US is because of a complete lack of marketing.  It would have been a GTI-beater if GM gave a crap, but they didn't, because they didn't want to actually sell any, they just wanted a cheap model to advertise "Cars starting at $9000!" to bring feet in the door.  (AKA "Why every compact GM has failed")

I will say, the 2012-2013 Impala's hauled ass. They were the last of the lighter '07-'13 body style, 3700lbs compared to the later cars 4100lbs) but with the 300hp 3.6L V6 and a 6-speed (earlier came with the 3500/4-speed). Holy smokes, those things were kind of a sleeper. The first time I drove one I was shocked, ended up pulling over and popping the hood to see just what engine it had.

Knurled. said:

Dave M said:

Eh, it will come back as a crappy crossover in a couple of years. GM gonna GM, after all.

GM isn't FORD.  Tey may suck but there's a line they won't cross over.

Sorry it took me so long to reply, I had to clean up my barf after seeing a new Blazer in the wild.

Edit: also, my first car was an 87 Nova I inherited from my Gramps. My most indelible memory of it was how much worse the Delco stereo was compared to the Corolla.  Just pure junk. The car was a NUMMI Corolla so it was fine.

In reply to Dave M :

The new blazer is in the exact same market segment as the old one. 

The Impala is dead!  Long live the E-mpala!

(GM, you owe me if you use this...)

In reply to dculberson :

Hopper's Blazer disagrees!

In reply to Dave M :

Just because it's uglier doesn't mean it's not in the same market segment. "Small suv" is "small suv" even if it's "small ugly suv."

and actually I didn't mind the only new blazer I saw. Not that I would ever buy one.

In reply to dculberson :

I can't believe I'm making another post on this but hey, it's Saturday and I'm stuck at a school event.

The new Blazer is a midsized crossover.

The old one was originally a full-size BOF SUV.

My expert judgement is that the new one is some weak sauce being marketed based on the name of the old one. That is all.

I had an  84 Impala, police package. It was awsome.

In reply to Dave M :

"Full size?" The Blazer was the small SUV compared to the Suburban.

GM was still building Impalas?

It was all downhill when the front driver came out. The 3.6 cars weren't "bad" but no one really cared. They were sleepers for sure. The V8 SS would do 150mph (and scare the daylights out of you in the process. Car was very unhappy over 130). The last ones are comfy boats but marketing has convinced the world to buy SUVs....

Datsun310Guy said:

I kinda liked it except for the high doors and large floor sill.     

To be fair, those issues are common to most new cars these days.

stuart in mn said:

Datsun310Guy said:

I kinda liked it except for the high doors and large floor sill.     

To be fair, those issues are common to most new cars these days.

Right.  That's the trade off for side impact protection ratings..

dculberson said:

In reply to Dave M :

"Full size?" The Blazer was the small SUV compared to the Suburban.

And the s10 blazers were even smaller