Auto Connection Plus
  • Home
  • Request a Quote
  • Dealers
    • Acura >
      • Sterling McCall Acura
    • BMW >
      • BMW of Houston North
    • Buick >
      • WestPoint Buick
    • Chevrolet >
      • Munday Chevrolet
    • Munday Chevrolet
    • Chrysler >
      • AutoNation Chrysler
    • Dodge >
      • AutoNation Dodge
    • Fiat
    • Ford >
      • Helfman Ford
      • Russell & Smith Ford
    • GMC >
      • WestPoint GMC
    • Honda >
      • Russell & Smith Honda
    • Hyundai
    • Jeep >
      • AutoNation Jeep
    • Kia
    • Lexus >
      • Sterling McCall Lexus
    • Lincoln >
      • WestPoint Lincoln
    • Mazda >
      • Munday Mazda
      • Russell & Smith Mazda
    • Mercedes-Benz >
      • Mercedes Benz of North Houston
    • Mini
    • Nissan >
      • McDavid Nissan
    • Toyota >
      • Sterling McCall Toyota
  • Credit Unions
    • Bayer Employees FCU
    • Chocolate Bayou FCU
    • Community Service CU
    • Light Commerce CU
    • Lincoln City CU
    • Our Mother of Mercy FCU
    • PIE FCU
    • Schlumberger Empl. CU
    • Sugar Land Empl. FCU
    • Walker County FCU
  • Research
    • Feedback
    • Privacy Policy
    • Buying Tips >
      • Before You Buy
      • How to Buy a New Car
      • How to Buy a Used Car
      • How to Lease a Car
    • Car Pricing
    • Payment Calculator
    • Rebates
    • Other Helpful Links >
      • Car Manufacturers
      • Car Parts
      • Car Care Products >
        • Wheels
      • Tires
      • Sound Systems
      • Security & Radar Systems
      • Car Magazines & Publications
      • History of Toyota Cars
      • Model Cars
      • Driving Schools
      • Motor Oil
  • Car Review
  • Contact Us
  • About Us
  • For Sale
  • Rebates
Car Review of the Month
2014 Chevrolet Impala
Picture
Picture
Picture
Chevrolet Impalas of the 1960s were immensely popular  cars, for good reason. They combined youthful design with a graceful elegance   that embodied the brand's promise of offering more than you'd expect for   "low-priced three" money. The car that preceded the Impala seen here was nothing   like the swingin' '60s model, even if it looked old enough to be designed from  a  rejected drawing discovered in Bill Mitchell's sock drawer.After  a close look at and a short drive of the new Impala,  it's easy to predict  commercial success with sales at about one-third of what
they were last  year. 

  Huh?
Besides being a Fleet Queen, the Lame  Duck Impala was sold with the kinds of  cash incentives you'd find in the trunk  of Walter White's Pontiac Aztek, if it  had one. The old Impala competed with  Chevy's own Malibu instead of the Ford  Taurus, Toyota Avalon, and Hyundai Azera.  Calendar 2011 Impala sales totaled  171,434 to the Malibu's 204,808 and the  Taurus' segment-normal 63,526. For  2014, Chevrolet has substantially upped the  Impala's game in its look,  features, and premium interior quality. As Chevy's  flagship, it should command  much higher average transaction prices, with the  resulting margins helping to  offset inevitably lower sales volumes. It will be  available with lane-departure  control, adaptive cruise control, a heated  steering wheel, heated and cooled  seats, and an infotainment system that's  pretty much the same as the new  Cadillac User Experience (CUE). Impala LTZ  stickers north of $40,000 will seem  reasonable. The popular mid-level Impala LT  trim looks like it could be a  top-of-the-range LTZ, and the LTZ's decor is rich  enough to be in a Buick  LaCrosse.The design is what makes it look more  premium, though.  Interior design director Crystal Windham says she and her team  were going for a  good mix of sport and luxury with the Impala's interior. The  Impala gets a very  stylish Corvette-inspired dual cockpit, with rich-looking  padding covering the  gauge cluster cowl and part of the dash. The dash material  extends to the tops  of the front doors. The Impala LS comes with cloth seats,  while the LT has  leather-look vinyl with suedelike inserts repeated in the door  panels. 
 
 "It's all about getting more excitement and color into the LT  model," Windham says. Three trim levels will offer nine interior   combinations.Outside, the new Impala draws on   "heritage" for pre-1980s expressiveness, explains Mike Pevovar, GM's global   Epsilon design manager for North America. "The Impala has a heritage of its   own," he adds, though his team assiduously avoided nostalgia. If there's any specific heritage in the car,   Pevovar continues, it's '67 Impala-inspired, though to this writer's eyes, the   deep draw beltline crease and Coke-bottle profile meeting at the Camaro-esque   nose suggest the "fuselage"-look '69 Impala. Pevovar's design theme gives depth   to the car, so you'll see something new on second or third   examination.Chevrolet becomes the first brand to   offer a conventional naturally aspirated four-cylinder engine in the full-size   sedan class. The Impala also will be available with the 2.4-liter eAssist four   that's standard in the Buick LaCrosse. Both engine options will be offered soon   after the early '13 launch with the familiar 303-hp, 3.6-liter direct-injected   V-6. All three engines will be available across all trim levels.My brief first drive was in an early-build   engineering-development LTZ with the 3.6, which I followed with a turn at the   wheel of a $40,000-plus 2013 Ford Taurus Limited powered by the 288-hp   3.5-liter. Being a handbuilt preproduction car, the '14 Impala doesn't have the   body rigidity expected of factory-built autos. So with all such developmental   drives, mental adjustments must be made. Still, compared with the Taurus, the Impala   is quieter overall. The Chevy's electronic power steering is lighter and more   direct, with none of the Ford's slight initial understeer at turn-in. The light   steering is appropriate for a big family car, and provided good feedback from   road imperfections. The Taurus' chassis is busier over patched and repatched   pavement, and the large Chevy gets around moderately fast country road corners   with well-controlled body roll for a two-ton full-size sedan while smoothing out   those bumps better. Chevrolet got the big family car's ride-handling balance   right. The Impala simply feels sleeker and more buttoned-down than the nearly   crossover-tall Taurus.The 3.6 remains one of GM's   best engines, and it doesn't disappoint in the Impala. It feels quicker than  the  base Taurus, and its six-speed automatic snicks off upshifts smoothly and   quietly. The four-banger ought to be more than a curiosity in this car. I drove   a 2013 Malibu with the new, 195-hp engine, and it's smooth, quiet, and powerful   in that lighter sedan.This short drive of the   Impala leaves several unanswered questions, such as whether it will remain   Chevy's "flagship" when the RWD SuperSport goes on sale a half year after the   Impala. One thing for certain is that Impala versus SuperSport will work better   for Chevrolet, and for us, than did Impala versus Malibu. 
 
 
 
2014
  CHEVROLET

IMPALA

BASE PRICE
$26,000-$32,000 (MT est)

VEHICLE LAYOUT
Front-engine, FWD, 5-pass, 4-door sedan

ENGINES
2.4L/182-hp/172-lb-ft DOHC 16-valve I-4 plus 15-hp/110-lb-ft electric motor;
  2.5L/195-hp/190-lb-ft DOHC 16-valve I-4; 3.6L/303-hp/264-lb-ft DOHC 24-valve 
V-6

TRANSMISSION
6-speed automatic

CURB WEIGHT
3800-3950 (mfr est)

WHEELBASE
111.7 in

LENGTH x WIDTH x HEIGHT
201.3 x 73.0 x 58.9 in

0-60 MPH
7.5-8.5 sec (MT est)

EPA CITY/HWY  FUEL ECON
18/28 (mfr est)

ENERGY CONS, CITY/HWY
187/120 mpg (est)

CO2 EMISSIONS
0.90 kW-hrs/100 mi (est) 
 

Proudly powered by Weebly