New York 2012: Impala Is Live, But It's Still Black
Earlier today, Derek expressed his hope that we’d be seeing the Impala t the show in a color other than black. No such luck. Live shots from Julie Hyde and commentary from Byron Hurd below.
“Rental darling no longer, Chevy’s new Impala shows off the new, significantly improved Bowtie grille and elegant, throwback body lines that would (and do) look right at home on a Buick.
The new Impala also sheds its low-rent cabin for gorgeous two-tone offerings with contrast stitching and other nice visual touches. So what’s the catch?
Well, at no point during the presentation was rear-drive brought up, and from the sound of it, the V8-powered SS model will not return. Instead, you can choose from a 303-horsepower V6, a 30mpg 2.5-liter 4, or GM’s new 2.4 with assist, which they claim will return 36mpg on the highway.”
As with the Malibu before it, the Impala’s interior photographs better than it really looks or feels. The fact that Chevrolet debuted the car in black doesn’t bode well, either: it’s axiomatic in this business that black hides styling miscues the same way a black dress flatters a slightly chunky woman. We’ll have to wait until we can see the car in the muted palette of Beiges in which it will likely be sold to fleets.
Note: I finally got over to see the Impala for myself and noted that, yes, it is very very dark blue, not black. There is an ice-blue (not silver) model which was pulled onto the platform as well and we will have that in our video — JB
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I think it looks pretty good but will reserve final judgement until I can see in person. A much better effort than the dreary still looks almost the same as before ES 350 or the weird bland MKZ with an Oldsmobile like front grille. This car still has a recognizable Impala look without looking anything like the previous car which is something that other manufacturers seem to have a very hard time with. With that said I hate the steering wheel and the Lacrosse like melted pancake over the instrument cluster look. GM would have been wise to get the 2.5 liter engine paired with the eAssist system when this car debuted for the increase in power and better mileage over the old 2.4 but using the 195 HP regular 2.5 version in this large of a car is a mistake. The new upcoming 259 HP turbo T would be a much better base engine for this car. So far I prefer this over the current Taurus which still uses it's noisier 3.5, has that interior size reducing massive center console, mail slit trunk opening, low roofline with resulting tiny windows and poor visibility problem. I hope Chevy did better with this car than they did with the mediocre LaCrosse.
Suddenly it's 1977! This is where Impala should have been 5 years ago.. It's a good car. No joke! It's a good car. My 70 year old dad LOVES his 2010 Impala, LOVES it. I think it's sweet that Chevy likes it's oldsters this much.