If you want to judge a restaurant, don’t order the chef’s specialty. Go for the hamburger or the omelet. If the man in the funny hat prepares these prosaic dishes with the same passion he puts into his Suprème de Turbot Rôti aux Asperges Vertes et à l'Ail en Chemise, you have a winner. The same applies to cars. If you want to judge an automaker’s prowess, check their basic models. Scope the ones with standard engines and base interiors that hide in the back of the lots. A few miles behind the wheel tells you more about the manufacturer’s passion for product than anything their spinmongers could ever publish. Which brings us to the Impala LS.
Again, forget the Impala SS. That’s the fancy one with a V8 engine and a $28k price tag that tells you precious little about Chevy’s gestalt (save the fact that they don’t mind putting 303hp through the front wheels). Clock the LS– if you can find one. Oh there are plenty of them out there. It’s just that the model’s design is inoffensive to the point of invisibility. Admittedly, the new Impala looks better than the old Impala, but it’s not a patch on the really old Impalas or all the great Bel-Airs from the ‘50’s and ‘60’s. Why did GM’s designers settle on an update of a late-90’s Chevy Lumina? That design defined generic in 1998. Park the Impala next to a Dodge Charger or a new Camry and the Chevy disappears.
On the inside, more vanilla. The cabin is slathered in plastic with all the warmth of a German headmistress, accented with shiny petrochemicals that are less wood-evocative than a pine-scented air freshener. The three-passenger front seat lives up to its billing– provided one of them is an amputee. There’s a choice of fuzzy fabric upholstery in three dull colors, whose main advantage is that it keeps you from sitting directly on the foam. A center stack hangs down like a gigantic uvula, chiding you for being too cheap to spring for the higher-priced model (that includes the console). It’s easy to understand why the 2006 Impala was selected as Fleet Car of the Year by Automotive Fleet and Business Fleet magazines. The cabin sacrifices comfort and style for longevity and price.
Other than bland, the one word that describes the Impala’s driving experience is “adequate.” Adequate power from its pushrod 3.5-liter V-6 for keeping up with traffic. Adequate comfort for mindless interstate cruising. Adequate steering, handling and braking for avoiding accidents. Adequate sound insulation to keep road noise from interfering with the adequate AM/FM radio. After a few miles driving– I mean “operating” the Impala, you begin to manipulate the controls with all the emotional engagement you normally lavish upon your toaster. You find yourself wondering if the engineers who designed the Impala ever drove a base-model Accord or Camry– of any vintage.
Surprisingly, there isn’t a lot to recommend the entry level LS compared to its price/class competitors. The trunk is roomy enough to hold all your sales charts, sample cases, rolling luggage and whiskey bottles. And that’s about it. Side curtain airbags and one year’s OnStar-enabled Big Brotherhood are standard, but buyers more concerned about avoiding accidents than recovering from one have to stump-up an extra $600 for ABS and traction control. Don’t even ask for wheels larger than 16” (which come complete with bolt-on wheel covers), a sunroof, satellite radio, automatic climate control, remote starting or bucket seats. Those luxuries are only available on more expensive models.
No amount of money will buy you a modern transmission. The competition may offer five or six-speed manual or automatic transmissions, but the Impala buyer’s only option (which equates to no option) is a 1980’s-era four speed Hydra-Matic. It handles the changes well enough, but it’s not exactly what you’d call a paragon of cog swapping precision. Of course, this deficiency is something of an American tradition: the Impala is made by the same company that continued selling two-speed Powerglide automatics into the 70’s, when others had moved on to three and four-speed designs.
This Impala illustrates why Chevy (and by extension GM) lose market share daily. Instead of engineering a world-class product, they’re content to produce something that’s not even more than merely adequate. Then they try to dress it up in expensive trim packages and million-dollar ad campaigns and pass it off as something special. Unfortunately, a pound of chopped ground round is still a burger when it goes downtown. Eventually, even the least fastidious die-hard sees the advantages of a no-cost taste upgrade. Before long, everyone’s eating at the place up the street where the quality is higher and the fare more fulfilling. The Impala can run, but it can’t hide from restaurant reality.
148 Comments on “Chevrolet Impala LS Review...”
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Right on the money. There’s more driving satisfaction in a base Accord than in any Impala. Even the SS. What good is a honkin’ V-8 when it drives the WRONG WHEELS?
This review should be required reading for everyone in Detroit.
I turned down a job recently as a travelling rep. Good pay and easy hours, but I would have to use a company car.
The company car was an Impala LS.
I’m still here, and am pleased with my decision.
For the same 21k, you could get a base model Passat or a Legacy (with AWD, a sunroof, ABS, a longer warantee, and alloy wheels standard)… I can’t see why anyone would go for the Impala. Unless you really need the bigger trunk.
Wrong wheels? I guess you must live in California or some other warm climate. I’ve owned rear wheel drive my whole life and driven in the winter and it SUCKS!!! I just bought a fwd Monte SS with the 5.3 and it’s the best car I’ve ever owned.
I had an Impala LT as a rental for a week this past March. Worst piece of caca I’ve had the displeasure to drive in many a moon. No power, brakes, handling, comfort or even quiet – way too much road noise.
Only thing it offered was SPACE with a capital S – the trunk comfortably swallowed my family of four’s 2 weeks’ worth of luggage with nary a whimper, which is why I picked it from the rental car line up in the first place. I just didn’t expect it to drive like a drunken hippo.
What REALLY brought into stark relief, though, was the rental Chrysler 300 Touring that I had the second week of our vacation. Interior’s not much more than adequate, but the thing’s not bad at all to drive. Decent power, secure, semi-sporting handling, comfortable-enough seating – nice. Trunk was way smaller, but we stuffed all the stuff in anyway, and it was worth the trade off.
Perfect concept for a review, BTW, Mr. Williams – the Impala indeed says all anyone needs to know about GM. Sad.
Hutton, $21K is the sticker price for the LS. With “incentives” (read: we’ll pay you to take this car off our hands) I’ve seen them offered in the low $17K range. Still, unless you just have to have the absolutely biggest car you can find, you have a lot more satisfying choices available even in that lower price range.
Frank
Point taken… forgot the price isn’t really “the price” when we’re talking GM. They should just lower the sticker to $17k then, and avoid the comparisons to more satisfying vehicles.
Love the way the article began: “If you want to judge an automaker???s prowess, check … the ones with standard engines and base interiors that hide in the back of the lots” where you find “all the warmth of a German headmistress.”
Sweet.
This is the 2007 version of the car Chevy intended as its “prestige car.” Take a look at the 1958 Chevy Impala Couple. And the 2007 version disappears next to a Toyota?
Change sweet to sad.
And fire somebody.
You’re such a hate-blinded moron that you fail to lookat all at what the Impala is really about- long-lasting competence. The Jap cars you’re so fond of touting on these pages will fall apart at approximately 180-200k uncomfortable, cramped miles, ( if a real car doesn’t accordian them in a wreck beforehand) and then need to be thrown away because you can’t fix them. GM vehicles, on the other hand, with their proven pushrod engines, will continue to go on and on and on and will inspire their owners and admirers to continue to hold on to them. I’ve owned, (and for over five years, sold) Jap cars and I can tell you, they’re much, much worse in the long run than their American counterparts. Try to find someone who can actually rebuild a Honda transmission, or a Nissan engine. Then, try to afford it! No thanks, I’ll stick to my pushrod V-8’s and V-6’s from an AMERICAN company that deserves much better than your Kraut and Jap car loving tripe! You, and others in the press, are the main reason that lots of younger American car buyers believe the crap that “German” or “Japanese” cars are somehow superior. I totalled up my 37 years of ownership experience the other day, comparing the problems I’d had with my GM cars versus my Japmobiles, and the GM cars won by better than 2-to-1! My wife’s Maxima (my current, and, thankfully, LAST Japmobile) was never fun to drive, was never pleasant on the road, was never up to the interior quality level of my cheapest Chevy truck. It currently runs, but that’s about all. No a/c (compressor crapped out, can’t find a replacement that fits), no radio (good luck finding one!), no power windows in front (can’t find used, can’t afford new, electric motor for the crappy OEM that burned out), numerous repairs to keep it moving, this car’s a goner as soon as I can find a moron lilke you to unload it on! The single Toyota truck I owned blew up at 62K miles and cost me 4K in repair! I can buy a mighty good 350 SBC for 4K! Why don’t you go back and revisit the Impala LS, and look at it for what it really is, a decent, reliable import fighter that offers more than enough room and comfort to guarantee that it will continue to serve as long as its owner desires its services.
…and so it begins
What can I say? There are also some people who think the 99 cent burger off of some fast food place’s “value menu” is haute cuisine.
I think the camparisons made here are a little harsh. The Impala delivers full size V6 transporation for a street price of about $18K. Neither Honda or Toyota will sell you much for that amount of cash.
Having driven a few as rentals, I would not want to trade my 330ci for one and I understand that most readers of this site would not be interested either but we are a small part of the car buying public. Not every sedan can be a rear-drive sports car. Looks at the Crown Vic – it’s old and dreadful but it delivers space and value and that sells.
Toyota and Honda have made themselves rich by selling boring FWD family transportation. If GM trasformed the Impala to a RWD 300C competitor then the cost would increase significantly.
While pistonheads may not get excited over it, there is nothing wrong with producing affordable familiy transpoertation (particularly once the Crown Vic goes out of production).
Yes, there is absolutley nothing wrong with producing affordable family transportation. But car companies on the ropes need to be focused on building the best affordable family transportation possible. Adequate is not an “American Revolution”.
And if GM wants to make “appliance” cars for people who just want to get from here to there, they can forget it (at least for now). The buying public has already awarded that market to the Japanese. If they want to win the hearts and minds of Americans, its time to stir up some passion, even in their most basic of products. And that is precisely what this article is about. Pride in your product that goes all the way to the bottom.
“The good is the enemy of the best,” and all that.
By the way, porker, in case you haven’t bothered to read any of my other articles my daily driver is a Chevrolet with a pushrod V-8. It’s called a CORVETTE and it proves Chevy can get it right when they want to. If they’d put half the engineering efforts into their family cars they do into the Corvette, the Impala would be an entirely different driving experience. (Now if they could just do something about that bleak interior that seems to infest their entire product line!)
Also, if you go back and read my comments to Sajeev’s Camry review, you’ll see that I state the hands-down worst car I’ve ever owned is a Toyota Camry. Before you start name calling and spewing racial epithets you need to get your facts straight.
Porker:
Good, objective review! A couple of quibbles, though…
You over-used the term “Jap” and should have thrown in a few “Nip”’s. Also use “Yankee” to refer to American stuff. You don’t appear to be quite as unbiased when you save the slang terms for the Germans and Japanese only.
Also, what’s your take on those KimChee-mobiles that everyone is buying?
” Unfortunately, a pound of chopped ground round is still a burger when it goes downtown.”
Wonderful quote, Frank. Simply wonderful.
Part of the problem is the way car reviews are done in comparing cars that cost differing amounts and are aimed at different demographics. The way cars should be reviewed is the way most families buy them.
Consider the needs the vehicle needs to meet in terms of space, efficiency and such and then then the budget available. Depending on these parameters the Impala may be a good choice as neither Honda nor Toyota have any product that directly competes with it. Stop comparing a V6 Accord or Campry with am Impala LS – they cost thousands more.
Why don’t you complain to Toyota that they don’t sell a stripped Avalon for $18K or that the Accord V6 option is too expensive?
There is no free lunch – you get what you pay for and if you have 25K to spend then you will get a more appealing vehicle then if you have 18K to spend and the Impala LS is very competitive for $18K
Maybe delivering a full size V6 family sedan for 18K is an American Revolution after all as neither Toyota and Honda can do it.
The Koreans are where the Japs were when I was suckered in to them in the late ’70’s. They build reasonable, decent cars for a cheap price, hoping to sucker enough people into their cars to continue to copy the American cars and later to really stick it to the American companies like Japan, Inc. did. Reviewers like the moron who wrote this article will see to it that the bread and butter cars are always overrepresented by the Japs and Krauts, though.
My last two Chevy trucks were both built in Yankee plants- the ‘95 in Indiana, the ‘93 in Michigan. But, how many displaced good ole boys work there?
I am aware that the writer of this article likes his Corvette. Good, it shows he can recognize superior engineering when it slaps him in the face so hard that he can’t ignore it. But, what this author needs to recognize is that there are all types of car buyers out there, but what people really want is value for the money. For that, you have to go to GM in the long run. If all you want is a throwaway, then, by all means, get that BMW or Toyota, or Honda. Use it up, enjoy its cramped interior and inferior use of space, then, when it breaks, RUN FROM IT!
Me, I’ll take my Roadmaster and Chevy truck, or my daughter’s Camaro, and watch in my rearview as you struggle to get comfortable in your overpriced Kraut or Jap crap. I’ll also watch as the resale of my 11 year old Buford, the 12 year-old Camaro, and 13 year old Chevy truck continues to escalate. In the meantime, I’ve got to find SOMEBODY who is as clueless as the joker who wrote this tripe to unload that Maxima on!
Wonderful review of the Impala, wonderful piece of criticism. (This website is getting to be a terrible distraction from those things I should be doing.)
Porker, I’m sure your observations have validity, but it’s hard to listen to the substance of what you say when you call Mr. Williams a “hate-blinded moron.” The review was highly critical, but hate? I don’t find any. As for moronic, quite the opposite.
Uhoh, level of discourse has dropped below that on fark.com. Farago, are you going to make subscriptions troll-free?
Throwaway? BMW? Honda? Toyota? You can honestly string those words together in the same sentence? Trucks are a different story. This is a family sedan, so if you want to talk, try comparing apples to apples. GM actually does a good job with trucks, but their passenger cars, mid-market and up, are simply not comparable to any of their competition. For fun, I took a comparison at autos.msn.com against your 'jap' competitor (accord) and korean (Sonata) to task…on your so called "cramped interiors and inferior use of space". Here are a few numbers…
Interior Dimensions Impala LS Accord EX Sedan AT Sonata GL Standard Seating 6 5 5 Front Headroom (in.) 39.40 38.30 40.10 Rear Headroom (in.) 37.80 36.80 38.20 Front Legroom (in.) 42.30 42.60 43.70 Rear Legroom (in.) 37.60 36.80 37.40 Front Shoulder Room (in.)58.70 56.90 57.40 Rear Shoulder Room (in.) 58.60 56.10 56.90 Front Hip Room (in.) 56.40 54.60 55.50 Rear Hip Room (in.) 57.20 53.50 55.30 Seems like everything is within 1 inch of each other…and the Koreans trump the Chevy on most categories. Do some research before you post an uninformed rant on this website.
I personally gave up on American Chevrolet after my family has owned a multitude of American Chevrolet cars from the 50’s through the 90’s. I’m sticking with GM DAT’s Korean-Built European-Designed Chevrolets. At least I know they’ll last, take a beating, and aren’t ridiculously oversized (No one needs a family car longer than 4.3 metres, that’s just rubbish. I’m 1.91 metres (6′2″+), born and raised in the US and quite frankly have always found that American cars never fit me just right. If I want a all-too-large family sedan, i can buy a Chevrolet Epica, if I want a mid-sized family sedan, an Optra, but I’d get it as a Hatch (Like I currently have) as an Optra 5, and if I wanted a wagon, that too is available. If I want a runabout, I’ll take a Kalos/Aveo.
The exception to the above would be the Cobalt which shows that Chevrolet has come quite a way since the Cavalier. The corvette is a good sports car (finally), even though it still feels cheap when compared to the rest of the worlds offerings. It’s got a great motors and a great german transaxle, but that car itself still has issues outside of the wonderful engineering.
As for SUV’s.. Chevy should bring the Captiva to the US. It’s getting high marks around the world, and for once, it is a well built and reasonably sized SUV (as if a family needs such a thing when a wagon will do). Either way, GM is moving forward by looking to Russelsheim, Bupyung, and Melbourne for their future product designs and engineering, and away from oppressive UAW contracts and build ‘quality’. (ever notice the huge difference in mm’s of the gaps where doors, bonnetts and boots mate up to the body of American made GM cars? Take a look, you’ll be disgusted.
Eric
I think I’ve found my new retirement strategy. Purchase a 1995 Roadmaster, a 1994 Camaro, and a 1993 Chevy Truck and watch them all go up in value!
So Porker, do I get to blame the Media when my saturn (GM) electronics fizzle at 60k miles like freaking clock work? No Radio, No Sunroof, No AC makes Jack a Honda buyer.
An innate desire to make sense is going to put most of us at a disadvantage when arguing with Porker, or any other troll who washes up on this board (see manny on the camry review) so I wouldn’t try to hard.
Re-reading the comments, I’m convinced ‘porker’ has to be a joke. Someone is messing with us – between this and “manny” the other day.
Really, no one reading this site can be that blind. Unless Farago’s hits and unique visitors are going through the roof, reaching a demographic that is beyond the limits of taste, education, and IQ.
Then again, I was at Wal-Mart the other day, and heard someone ask why DVDs don’t have to be rewound when you’re done watching them…so I guess it’s possible.
I was pretty convinced that Manny was a joke when he first posted… but he was so damn persistant, I figured he could be for real. Maybe its some BMW or GM execs trying to tear this place apart.
GM execs can use a computer? The Hell you speak!
There comes a time in the life of every website that griefers and hoaxers start touching down on the forum. Maybe, Mr. Farago, that time for you is now. Congradulations Pinnochio, you’re a real boy!
Mr. Farago? I’m ready to buy that subscription now. Before the comments were activated, I had assumed that my fellow readers were all about the same: technically knowledgable and unbiased enthusiasts. Little did I know!
I currently own a Saturn which is cramped on the inside and more than a little German. It’s also famous for the BCM failure that I wager stryker1 is talking about. I’m looking at a Jetta now – I guess I just have a thing for Kraut cars!
Since the Impala is in practice priced much less than Japanese and Korean competitors of similar size, perhaps Chevrolet needs to re-price the MSRP of the product to reflect a sub-Kia market tier. While this isn’t exactly a flattering image, there’s no reason it can’t be done. After all, if what you need is space for the least amount of money and you don’t care about interior quality, GM has an Impala to sell you. It’s cheap and it has a dealer on every corner.
This also provides a plausable reason for the existence of so many different brands in GM. Whereas Toyota hopes to sell the current Camry buyer an ES350 in a few years, GM can’t possibly hope to upsell an Impala buyer a STS. They might be able to sell that Impala buyer a LaCrosse, or a future Saturn / Opel large sedan. The Saturn buyer, on the other hand, is expected to upgrade to a Saab or Caddy.
Zarba, if anyone in Detroit could read, and digest what they read, Detroit would not be in the shape they are in. This has been going on for 35 years.
Chandler:
Whoa… you mean saturn is supposed to be an upgrade from Chevrolet? I find that notion overwhelmingly sad, and I pity the poor bastard tooling around in the cobalt I always assumed was a step up from what I was driving.
Rest assured that I’m monitoriing every single comment. I’m ready, willing and able to ban any emailer who goes over the boundaries of civilized discourse.
So far, I’ve banned one commentator and edited out a “douche.” If anyone thinks that a comment is beyond the pale, use the contact button and I’ll delete, warn and/or ban the offending party.
And yes, TTAC has found a new audience. Our site stats are way up, and we’re getting all sorts trolling through.
Remember that there’s nothing as dangerous as an idea when it’s the only one you’ve got, keep using logic to put chowderheads in their place, avoid and report personal slurs, and we’ll all have a nice day!
stryker1: that’s GM’s intention. New Saturn products will be rebadged Opels; your Ion will be replaced with an Astra imported from Belgium next year.
I thought this is supposed to be “The Truth About Cars”. I’m just telling the truth from my 53 years of life experience, 37 of them as an actual car owner. My “research” comes from owning, selling, and buying all different types of cars over this time period. The TRUTH is, the Impy is a good car for what it is. It beats out anything the Japs or Krauts offer for 18K, looks like what the American car-buying public has indicated it wants, and will outlast its competition. It has the further advantage of being easily repairable compared to the overpriced, cramped offerings from Deutscheland or Nippon. Why don’t your reviews reflect these positives, instead of trying to pretend that cars that cost a third again as much, and fall apart much, much quicker are somehow better?
Incidentally, GM’s only problem is its execs.
As fer educayshun, I got two of them degree thangs. They don’t make me any smarter or dumber than anyone else, they just mean I can look for a different type job than I could without them. And, no, they aren’t “mailorder” degrees, they’re from a real University, one earned after marriage, with a house, two car payments, and a child competing for my time and money.
I’m just fed up with so-called journalists who refuse to see past the mess the Japs have made of the automobile industry, and am not afraid to speak up for some traditional American values when it comes to cars. Bigger is better, comfort is king.
After tooling around in a hyundai elantra for a week, getting behind the wheel of my saturn was like attempting to pilot a plastic coffin with a make-a-wish engine and say-your-prayers brakes. Trying to imagine something thats a step down from that is, well, impossible.
… Maybe a FIAT (short for Fix-It-Again-Tony!)
And Porker, Dood, You’ve gotta crazy uphill battle with a chatroom full of enthusiasts who seem to, at every turn have precisely the opposite experience you’ve had with the cars we’re talking about. Maybe you really have driven a bevy of American gear grinders from hell to breakfast, and found them wonderful, but (at least in here) you are an outlier. Unique in your experience.
Though I’d like to know the dealership where you’re buying these cars, and capture the reliability/comfort gnomes they’re putting to work on your impy.
I think the reason GM hasn’t dropped the Impala’s price to $17K is that then nobody would buy it unless it was incentivized down to $14,500.
Also, Just for the record, If I was in the market for another 2 seater, I’d buy a new mustang in a new york minute.
I don’t hate all american cars (especially the cool ones) ;)
Thanks for the comments, stryker1. But, I’m just relaying my own life experiences. One of those is that I have learned not to judge the toaster by the same standards I judge the multi-level, convection oven equipped, indoor barbeque grill. Even my ‘59 Studebaker Lark had its good points.
One more point, and I’m done. I don’t even pretend to be objective. I worked in the car industry for over nine years, mostly as a salesman/manager at dealerships for what were then called Datsuns. I really have seen, owned, bought and sold most of what the world has to offer. The American companies have won me over with their honest, good value for the money vehicles. I hate Jap cars and Kraut cars and don’t care who is offended by it. The Japs, because they pretend to be reliable when they’re no better than their less-expensive American counterparts, the Krauts for their fragility and huge overpricing.
“Unfortunately, a pound of chopped ground round is still a burger when it goes downtown.”
What an amazing line! I shall use it once a day, everyday for the rest of my life! ( I will credit you each time ofcourse)
My wife has had 2 Impalas as company cars. A 2003 LS and a 2006 LS. I was excited about the 2006 because I never liked the design of the 2003. But it only took us one day to realize that the 2003 was the better of the 2. The 2003 LS came standard with dual climate control and traction control. The 2006, well at least it had an aux input on the radio, although it lost 2 speakers and some watts. To me the 2006 looked better than the 2003, especially the roof line, but then I got in to it. The front and rear roof lines come way into the interior greatly reducing head room. This was most noticeable when putting the kids into their booster seats, I bumped their heads several times on the C pillar and constantly bumped my head on the A pillar when getting in and out of the front seats. There also was a loss of leg room in the back seat. Somehow the end result of the redesign was a car with less room and a less offending exterior. As for the quality of the materials and build, they were both about the same although we didn???t have the 2006 long enough for interior trim to start falling off like it did in the 2003. My wife went to work for another company recently and now has a 2006 Malibu LS which actually has more leg and head room than the Impala but obviously less hip room. Both these models are bland and if I was going to have to make payments on something it wouldn???t be either of them. I’ve started wondering why GM and Ford both don’t dedicate certain models to fleet vehicle status.
I love porker – he reminds me of my old shop teacher who flew a plane in ww2. He was constantly telling war stories using ‘nips’ and ’slants’ – this to a room that was at least a third japanese kids. He was a great teacher at least. I’m thinking hes gotta be joking – 12 year-old Camaro appreciating in value? only as the butt of Italian IROC jokes perhaps…
Mr. Williams
I will say (almost) the same thing to you that I said to Sajeev about the Camry review:
Wow, it’s going to be fun watching all of the GM faithful defend themselves!
(although, I should admit, I am one of the GM faithful)
Yaya, I’d love to take credit for that, but it’s a line from the song “New Train” by John Prine.
The public will RUN to any car that LOOKS good. Reliability and comfort be damned. Want proof…The Sky & Solstice…tiny cars, same engine that???s in the cobalt, awkward top, cheap interior…looks drop dead beautiful and they cant build enough of them. GM needs to continue this idea in the rest of its models. Look at BMW or Benz, no one is going to claim they are bullet proof, but there appearance and driving behavior inspires ppl. VW/Audi is the same way, sure it may not be 100% reliable but man is that Passat a much more inspired vehicle then this Impala can ever hope to be. The ultimate example of this “style is king” philosophy is Ferrari; they sure look good up on the rack huh. GM needs to just start over, fire everyone in the design department and hire kids right out of school with fresh ideas no one has seen. Look what Toyota/Scion has done with the xB, different sells (I know cause I own an xB) Then go and buy away as many of the Audi interior guys as they can???until then we will be blessed/cursed with these examples of blandness.
I could see buying a chevy again, they just don’t make anything I’d want with the exception of the HHR (Highway Submarine, how awesome is that?) and the corvette (DUH).
Lets keep in mind that none of us in here want GM to fail. We want them to be a great company, that makes great cars, with great management. Thats why we’re so angry and vociferous. Wasted potential is more frustrating than a lap dance for a man with no arms.
Porker, you’ve stated on several occasions that you feel foreign cars are “crapmed” compared to American cars. And from your posts, it seems the size of the vehicle is a very important determinant in your vehicle choice. So the question I have is if you feel foreign cars are so cramped and you want a big car, why did you purchase so many foreign cars? Size of a vehicle and how comfortable you are in it can be easily determined in a 5 minute test drive. Are you purchasing cars without a suitable test drive? Are you not learning from your own past purchasing history?
A little esoteric, but I think the key problem here is not US vs. “Ferrin” cars – it’s the failure of corporate processes worldwide and particularly in the US. GM and most large corporations are process driven; i.e. – product cycles are driven by market research tied to product managers controlled by bean counters. The entire “process” is controlled at a macro level (mostly) by executives and CEOs whose primary responsibility is stock holders (& stock prices) that live and die from Wall Street, quarter to quarter.
The other key issue messing things up is skewed metrics and accountability for final product (cars, computers, whatever…). Mid-level managers and Execs make decisions based on financial models that have little to do with the final product the consumer receives because they are not directly rewarded (or punished) by how good the final product is. Marketing planners isolate themselves from taking responsibility for decisions by hiding behind “focus group” testing – giving us things like GM’s “bland-mobiles” that don’t offend anyone. No one ever got fired for catering to the lowest common denominator.
The actual product managers that bring cars to the market are ham-strung by short-sighted cost controls that discourage differentiation or innovation. Further, I believe the biggest factor is (lack of) passion: just because you can follow a “POR” (Plan of Record) and get a product to market on time doesn’t mean you’ve done your job. When the ultimate evaluation of your success is meeting delivery deadlines and controlling component costs (as defined by your managers) – that is what you have to do. This is why we get mediocre Impalas, under-powered Ford 500s, previous gen Focus chassis and market promotion of higher margin (lower cost) truck based SUVs at the expense of more practical solutions.
Add to this the fact that a huge communication barrier exists between Engineers, Industrial Designers, Marketing Managers and Product Managers (the product development “food chain”) – they don’t even speak the same language. It’s a wonder any good stuff gets out at all. Innovation and excellence rarely comes from a committee and all the financial modeling in the world is not going to guarantee successful sales. It’s been well documented that “hits” in any field come from visionaries or teams that operate outside the usual channels – usually under the protection of some risk-taking exec that shows actual leadership.
Every time it happens, though, the corporate drones descend; analyze everything to death in an attempt to replicate the “lightning in a bottle” with a new process. Somehow it never works – but that doesn’t stop them from trying. Where are the leaders in this industry? Where are the visionaries – and how can any corporation environment develop a culture that nurtures them when quarterly reports rule the day? It’s a downhill slope until someone gets desperate to let these people out of their box – we’ll just have to wait for the good stuff until then.
Sir, you make an interesting point and I’d like to subscribe to your newsletter.