Just a few months from now, the last of the W-Body Impalas will be rolling off the line. By the late Oughts it had been largely reduced to fleet status, with the Malibu being the popular retail model. But it carried on, and plenty were still seen in traffic, especially here in the Midwest. But now, the end of the road is in sight. The fat lady hasn’t yet sung, but she’s on the podium and clearing her throat…
Introduced in Chevy form in 1989 as the Lumina, it was meant as Chevy’s mainstream family sedan, with the B-body Caprice being more of a luxury/fleet/police offering. It lasted in Lumina form until 2000, when the redesigned W was rechristened Impala. Well into the mid ’00s it battled the Taurus, first for retail buyers, and later on for fleet sales, though a small but dedicated group of GM lifers kept buying them.
And why not? While not quite in line with more modern mid-size sedans on the market, the Impala was roomy, got decent mileage for its size, and had lots of trunk space. And if you wanted a good-sized, reliable three or four year old car, an Impala was a bargain. I still see fairly new Impalas in the paper for well under $10K.
The W-body was introduced in 1988 as the Buick Regal, Olds Cutlass Supreme and Pontiac Grand Prix coupes, to be followed in 1989 with the Lumina coupe and sedan. While the early models had their share of problems, the platform was upgraded through the years and the bugs worked out. Just like there was not a ton in common between a Panther ’80 Continental and ’11 Signature Limited, so too was the case with an ’89 Lumina and ’12 Impala.
And while the current Impala is a lot smoother (and has lost the 1989-94 Lumina’s underbite) the overall proportions are not drastically different. The alloys are a nice touch, too, but I miss distinct greenhouses on modern cars–and the resulting shrunken glass area.
While there were plenty of Impalas on the lot back in September when I took these photos, all of them were LT or LS models with cloth seats–except for one loaded black LTZ, our featured car. These look so much nicer with the leather seats, but they are not seen very often, as rental companies–a big fan of the Impala, they are–tend to order the base-spec version.
This black over beige LTZ may have been a customer order, as the top-trim version is pretty thin on the ground around here. I have driven a couple of LSs that my dad used to have as company cars and found them to be comfy, pleasant cruisers. While both of those cars had the bucket seats and floor shift, I believe these Impalas are the last remaining GM car with an available bench seat–unless that’s been discontinued the last couple of model years.
At the time I took these pictures, I thought the ’12 was the last model year, but apparently it is making one final curtain-call for 2013. While not too many people will miss the last W-body–they are, after all, a bread-and-butter family car, not a 911–I will. However, the new ’14 Impala looks very good, and if the commercials are any indication, they’ll be much closer to the Caprice Classics of yore. I’m all for that.
The 2014 Chevrolet Impala: (wallpaper)
Not bad looking at all!
Personally I don’t like the attempt to invoke the 65 Impala’s hips, it just doesn’t look right at all in this incarnation.
+1
I think the new Impala looks good, but it would’ve looked much better had they toned down or eliminated that curvy line.
The Modern Hyundai school of design. If two “character lines” look good, then four would be TWICE as good! Stuck behind a Sonata I imagine erasing and redrawing the darn thing.
2014 Impala looks like a mild facelift of the current Buick. Seems GM hasn’t learned a darn thing after bankrupcy and bail out.
It was a glory and money hog of a platform from the start.
That it gets to be GM’s final “letter” platform, got more modern powertrains, and somehow transformed itself into a working-class hero is all just more sand in the eye.
Good riddance to it.
They still use letters on a few the cars in the vin, Camaros for example, still carry an F on their vin.
I had a ’12 LTZ as a rental recently. I wouldn’t say anything in particular stood out, but for $10.50/day it far exceeded my expectations.
We used to have these as fleet vehicles at work, till it was dethroned by the less expensive Malibu.
Love the look of the ’13 (edit- 2014- thanks)… Except the steering wheel, which sort of looks like an inverted jellyfish.
It’s a 2014 model @Daniel Siebert.
I’ll agree that it looks good in pictures, but in person it’s not as great. I sat inside a 2014 at the Chicago Auto Show. Although the interior wasn’t small by any standard, it felt oddly confining. Combined with the form-before-function controls, sitting in the driver’s seat seemed really awkward. Even if GM’s improved interior materials since the Lumina era, their practical design sense still has a long way to go.
Confining describes the interior experience of a lot of modern cars. It’s like cars today want to ensconce you. I’m not crazy about it.
The 2011-13 Taurus is really bad for confined front seat space.
Is that a hump sticking out of the center console into the driver’s footwell? That would drive me crazy.
(Then again, AWD Lexuses – even the latest GS – have a similar ergonomic goof.)
I dont think it it is, its platform-mates, the LaCrosse and XTS dont have a hump there. I would like to see a push towards the elimination of the center console, and wider seats, especially on not sporting cars. A push button on column mounted electronic gear selector.
Carmine, I’m with you entirely on this. I hate consoles, center stacks and all the other modern interior design cues. The current Ford Taurus, as big as it is, makes me feel like I’m sitting in a torpedo tube. I know I’m reactionary, but why can’t we have bench seats and column shifters anymore?
Yes, it’s a hump (or at least it felt like it). My first thought was, “I didn’t know the next Imapala would have an all wheel drive option” (note: it won’t). My second was, “wait, it’s not nearly this bad in other AWD cars I’ve been in!”
My father has a 2006 Impala, and previously had a 2001. Fortunately his still has the bench seat, which is getting almost impossible to find now…it comes in handy to get him in the passenger side of the car…he’s now having to us a wheelchair, and we use a transfer board to get him into the car. I can crawl in in the driver’s side and help “pull” him into the passenger side of the car…something that would be awkward at best with a console in the way…otherwise we’d be looking for some sort of wheelchair accessble van or minivan…but once in, he gets to sit on his (more comfortable) car seat rather than in his wheelchair…makes a difference for longer distances. I wonder where we’re going to be able to find another car with a bench seat, as he’d prefer having a car to a minivan (and a pickup is a bit high for him to get in, he’d like “standard height” seating which is also getting hard to find, as you sit pretty low in cars and pretty high in trucks or vans).
As the population average age gets older, you’d think you’d find more cars that “cater” to older crowd (except the market for repeat buyers is pretty bad I’ll bet). Sounds like they need to keep buying some older 50’s to 80’s cars if they’re reliable enough.
I have to say I preferred his 2001 Impala…seemed roomier in the back seat. Also my father went with the base 2006 model and the rear seat doesn’t fold down…as this car has a pretty deep trunk, if it is almost empty I’ve found myself almost swimming to get to something that has slid all the way forward in the trunk (guess cargo net helps with some things, but you can’t secure everything that can slide with the net he has). His 2001 had the fold down rear seat (but I guess he could have ordered them on the 2006 but as a base model it didn’t come with it)
It looks like GM is trying to copy Ford on steering wheel design (steering wheel from 2000-2003 Ford Taurus).
My grandma loves her low-miles 2009 Impala LS she got in C4C in 2009.
And she, in fact, represents the largest demographic for GM vehicles. Has been for some time, too.
And her husband (my grandfather) worked skilled trades (welding) at Chevy In The Hole until the late 1990’s.
I sat in a ’14 Impala at the Toronto Auto Show a few weeks ago. It was a loaded LTZ V6 model, and I came away very impressed. It looks great, and the interior is easily competitive with what you’d find on a German car costing $20k more. I’m still not a fan of that steering wheel though.
I had a 2002 Impala – never again! My 2007 Ford 500 is so much better…
Your pictured car is a 2012 according to the sticker in the last pic. Unlikely to be a customer order (unless it was cancelled I guess), that car has probably been sitting for awhile.
Oh, I knew it was a 2012. It’s just that LTZs are not commonly seen in inventory. I took those pictures six months ago.
My mom has had Impalas for the past 20 years or so. She currently has an ’09. It’s a nice car; roomy and it get’s good mileage for a car that size. You see a lot of them here in MI, and they aren’t rentals. As Tom mentions, they are an excellent used car value.
The first W body Impala was model year 2000.
20 years ago, 1993, there were no new Impalas until the 1994-96 SS. Did your mom have a 1994-96 Impala SS? 😉
I had no idea this was off the old Lumina platform. That’s almost Porsche 911-like for platform longevity!
Do I recall correctly that these cars came with the small block V-8? Seems I’ve seen a few on the roads here or there; they had a nice little rumble to them with that motor. But for that kind of money, wouldn’t a Chrysler 300 or Dodge Charger with the Hemi V8 have been a better buy?
My grandpa has a ’09 SS, which has the V8 in it. Not sure the power numbers, but it drives pretty good, and has all the options. He got a great deal, buying it used from (you guessed it) a rental company.
Rented one a couple of years ago. It had a tiny back seat into which a rear-facing child seat barely fit. Yes, it had a big trunk, but the car would have been much better if trunk space had been traded for interior volume.
I rented one for a day while my F-150 was in the shop, I was truly prepared to hate it but I didn’t. While I liked the Impala, it wasn’t the kind of like that would result in ever buying one. I guess the like was mostly just not hating it.
I attended the Daytona race the weekend before last (although I was not there for the big incident) and among the festivities was the display of the 2014 (Impala) SS. The car will be powered by a 6.2 V8 415hp and be rear wheel drive. The car has already been homologated from NASCAR.
I will be at the NY Auto Show at the end of the month and will have a chance to spend some time with the new SS and Impala which should be nice.
The Impala SS was available from 2006-2009 with the 5.3 V8 but with FWD. The SS has been an enduring model for Chevrolet since it was introduced in 1961.
The looks of the SS do nothing for me. I guess it looks better than the G8 without all the stupid scoops and such, but the basic architecture of this car is just so generic. Ditto on the ’04-’06 GTO. Sure, some folks like a sleeper, but overall sleepers don’t sell and they never will.
There must be a business case for this car though, otherwise why would GM bother? I mean, Lutz isn’t still around promoting more salesproof crap.
If they want to resurrect something, bring back the Solstice/Sky with a less-idotic folding top and something resembling a trunk. I might actually be interested in that.
1) Lesson learned from the GM10 experience and $7bln start from a good existing platform and work from there. No matter how many they build, GM will make money on every single one of them.
2) RWD is fashionable for larger sedans these days. Virtually everything over $30K is RWD now. Again see above, doesn’t make sense to drop a $1bln to develop a brand new sedan when a good one already existed.
3) As far as styling goes, I don’t know yet its new to everyone so we’ll see. I will say this, every other car in that category, or even midsize or fullsize, is mostly of that design so that is where the market is.
4) One thing that will help the SS and the Impala, is that the models will be separated. A major problem that many of these cars had, and was discussed in the previous piece, was that they tried to appeal to both the generic sedan market and the performance sedan market. A car cannot really do both adequately and that was always a holdback.
5) The SS is the platform that GM homologated for NASCAR. Historically they were all 2 door cars, but since NASCAR cars haven’t been built off of real vehicles since the 1980s and since they let the Taurus in as a 4 door its the way it goes.
They still have to homologate the cars? What’s the point, they don’t share a single thing with the production cars.
That said, I really like the ’14 Impala. I will definitely have to check one out when the local dealer gets one in and report back for CC. They didn’t have one at the regional auto show but I got a brochure and like what I see.
“3) As far as styling goes, I don’t know yet its new to everyone so we’ll see. I will say this, every other car in that category, or even midsize or fullsize, is mostly of that design so that is where the market is. ”
The only thing really new about it is the front clip and the rear end styling, which itself doesn’t look much different from a typical recent chevy. The whole center looks to be carried over from the circa 2006 designed Commodore/G8.
The centre section (doors, roof, glass) does indeed carry over. That’s been the traditional Australian-designed/built Ford/Holden model cycle procedure since the 60s. They’d launch a new model and upgrade it over an 8-10 years (being a small market, the costs need to be amortised over a long cycle). There’d be a minor front/rear update (lights and bumpers) at 3-4 years and a more major update (sheetmetal) at 6-7 years. The 2006 VE Commodore (aka G8/SS) follows this schedule – 2010 brought a Series II upgrade (new 3L V6, new headlights and bumper); 2013 brings the major sheetmetal changes. I guess that’s the way for much of the world (although the Japanese manufacturers generally have 4-5 year cycles and change the doors too).
@craig – I appreciate your enthusiasm, but your posts sounds like commercial from Chevy. The “SS” isn’t an Impala or in any way related to the new Impala, it is a completely different platform and a pricey one at that. While I like the concept of what Chevy is trying to do with it, the idea of spending $40-50k on it makes it a non-starter for me, and I suspect it will not sell in any significant numbers. And for the record, until 2014, “SS” was never a model for Chevy, it was always a trim package, and through the malaise era even that was a stretch. Your post proves just how confusing this is going to be for people.
The new SS is just a V8 powered Commodore and a vast improvement on anything Chevy can build, It will probably come with Impala badging if the takeup rate is high enough. The Holden is sold as a Chevrolet all over the world and now available in the US
And, ironically enough, it is called a Lumina (at least in the Middle East).
That Middle Eastern RWD Lumina was basically an identical model to the defunct Pontiac G8 and the current Chevrolet SS if I am not mistaken.
It will also come at a price that most Americans will never pay for a Chevy, courtesy of the strong Aussie Dollar.
It was better off left as a Pontiac here in the states, but we all know how that went. Go figure…just when Pontiac was becoming “exciting” again, they killed it.
The ’14 looks nice, nicer from the rear than the front. The front looks a bit Accord-ish. But looks good over-all.
Someone mentioned that the w is the last letter platform. I faintly recall in 1988 when the new platform debuted that they were calling it GM10 or something like that. Anybody remembr that, too, or is my brain vetting foggy now that I am old enough to remember decades past?
GM10 was the original code name for the car and then it migrated to the W-body when production was lined up.
I had an ’11 rental with the 3.5 V6 about a year ago. While it certainly wasn’t the worst car I’ve encountered, it was thoroughly mediocre. The “upgrade” only cost me an extra 2 bucks a day and it got about 30 mpg highway, so there’s that.
Fortunately, this seems to be the last blatantly underperforming passenger car GM still produces (I’m still underwhelmed by everything they make, save for maybe the Sonic, but at least everything is reasonably competitive now). When this car debuted in 2006, the W-body was about as good as GM sedans got; The first-gen Delta and Epsilon cars were so half-baked that the Impala looked good in comparison. Not anymore, thank God.
The honor of the last letter platform belongs to the Corvette, which officially still resides on the Y platform although its pretty much in name only. At least in the US, what used to be the Chevrolet Uplander minivan is still being produced under the Buick nameplate in China and is still designated the U-body.
I too had one as a rental last year, on a US road trip vacation. Comfortable enough but it was the ’11 model which meant only 200HP from a 3.5L engine and a dreadful 4 speed auto (’12 has 300HP and 6 speed). Though, in a way, it was fun to get a taste of ‘classic’ American motoring that way. This year I’ll probably go for a Taurus, if only to guarantee a 6 speed.
BTW, I think the W-body Impala is going to be made through at least 2014 as the fleet only Impala Classic.
18/30 MPG? Holy gearing!
That is common. With computers, moderately tall final drive ratio, and OD transmissions highway mileage has crept up even if the urban figure hasn’t. My old 2002 Park Avenue Ultra would regularly get close to 30 on highway especially if I kept it ar 65MPH or below. City was around 17 but it was a big car. I squeezed 25MPG out of my 83 Eldorado.
What the heck does LTZ stand for…Lutz edition?….
I think its just a marketing “name” for trim levels. I owned a 1974 Camaro Type LT (Luxury Touring?). That’s the first time “LT” was used on Chevrolets in my knowledge. According to Wikipedia, Lutz was an executive for BMW from 1971 to 1974 and then he worked for Ford for more than a decade after that – until 1986..the there was Chrysler until 1998. Lutz was probably not involved in the name. In Chevrolet ordering packages, there is LT1, LT2 etc which refer to groups of optional equipment. “LTZ” probably just refers to the top LT package.
My mom has an ’08 Impala LT which my dad bought new & later gave to my mom when he bought a GMC. The car maybe has 31,000 on it, which for a 5 year old car is nothing, and it’s the biggest hunk of junk they’ve probably owned in a long time.
For starters, the car likes to eat its front tires. Off hand I can’t remember why but I know its an issue with these Impalas. The steering wheel Chevy logo is crooked, The 4 speed is crippling & the accelerator has so much play in it, it’s very annoying.
High belt-line so you can’t see anything out of the rear window (and you can forget hanging your elbow out the window, unless you know a good chiropractor.) The sunroof had leaking issues within the 1st year she owned it, and last but not least, the fit & finish is just downright horrible.
I won’t be sad to see these Impalas go.
I have driven many of these from the ’06 models (first year of current body) to the present. I stand behind the comments I made here:
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/blog/story/drive-it-like-you-dont-own-it-tales-from-the-fleet-manager/
Casey from the blog Art & Colour photoshopped an idea for the 2014 Impala.
http://artandcolourcars.blogspot.ca/2013/02/2014-impala-coupe-sixties-inspired.html
And the 2013 Impala is the last year for the column shifter. 🙁
My son has a 2009 LS..I like the room & mileage, I would buy one.
Car.
+1 🙂
Well…. I like my 2012 Impala LTZ so far.
When I compare my ride to my old 2004 base model, there’s no comparison.
It’s better in every way except I did like the fuel economy of the 3.4L better than the 3.6L monster under the hood of my 2012.
I have never have owned a car with so much effortless power on demand, but then again, the last time I owned a car with a V8 was my avatar, which will be, come July, the 40th anniversary of when I sold it, which I regret to this day…
Looks very clean! Is the badge on the front door custom? I’ve never seen one like that.
That’s my personalization. I added the badge and “Impala” right behind it for my own look.
The perspective makes it look crooked, but it’s straight and really stands out!
This photo is my avatar over on TTAC.
Zackman, how does the Impala do (mileagewise) on the highway? My G37 is fantastic on the highway (29.5 is easy to hit, even at 80 with A/C) but not good in the city, which, unfortunately, is 99% of my driving. I’ve had a number of cars with pretty good power (American V8s, 300ZX Turbo, Maxima) and just can’t give it up (my current defense is freeway onramps:-). Like your special badging – looks great.
@CA Guy:
Well, not as good as my 2004 Impala with the 3.4L.
I filled up this morning, and I averaged only 26.45 mpg @333 miles. Granted, that included some driving around town, but straight highway? I haven’t taken it on a road trip, yet, just my daily 100-mile-long commute, mostly highway.
The best I have gotten was 29+, strictly commuting with no around town driving.
Truth be told, when I owned my 2004, we also had a third vehicle I used to run around town with, and I averaged 30+ in the Impala and reached 35.44 mpg once. After we sold our third vehicle (2007 MX5), the average dropped to under 30 with the Impala, so I’m not really that far off the mark, but I’m cheap and hate to waste gas having a very powerful engine in my new Impala – more than I need, for sure!
I rented one of the 1st gen W body Impalas and thought it was junk. Then I rented an ’11 Impala LS last summer and though some of the ergonomic/user interface details were frustrating (floor shift but PRND3L on the dash???), it was a fast, smooth and economical cruiser for exploring central Virginia. As a current owner of only 4 cylinder cars (one hybrid with no tach and two 5 speeds) I’m just not used to freeway cruising at 1600 rpm. I was annoyed, though, that 2 other relatives attending the family reunion got LT and LTZ models respectively, but Budget only had the LS which was very Spartan. I did have a choice of the Impala, a Sonata, Altima, or a Kia Optima. Sorry, I paid for a full-size car, and I’m not taking one of those pretenders!
A pretty easy “did they give a shit?” test is to look at the way they treated the exhaust system’s rear view. It’s amazing that GM would go through the expense of having the twin tailpipes, each with its own resonator, but leave the tailpipes themselves completely unfinished. Most manufacturers, even on cheaper models, would either style the tailpipe so it looked good without a finisher or use a finisher. Some would paint the muffler black to hide its ugly shape.
Another $200 spent in the right places could have saved GM two grand in rebate costs or converted some of the low-margin fleet sales over to retail. Instead countless negative impressions were formed each day from people stuck behind an Impala in traffic.
If they were trying to make Impala fleet units (most of their sales) as cheap to build as possible why use such an expensive exhaust system? It’s the logic of not finishing it off that speaks to the problems within the organization at building competitive and appealing products that can give a brand value (free profit).
Count me among the multitude who have driven an Impala only as a rental–had one about a year ago for a week or so (I got to the Emerald Aisle behind a bunch of my co-workers and they grabbed all the Sonatas, which at least always have Sirius/XM). Not a terrible car, but I couldn’t see myself owning one, which has been the case for every rental I’ve had the past couple years except for the Sonata, the Mazda5, and one loaded Durango Crew that I lucked into this past December.
The new one, though, I sort of like, although it looks like a cross between a Sonata and perhaps one of the last Rivieras.
Don’t call the undertaker yet, the W body will soldier on for a few more years as ‘fleet only’ car. “Impala Classic”?
Will this car make it to the year 2020? Stay Tuned!
I am also one of the “rental only” multitude. We drove one from western Washington to Las Vegas and back. It was every bit as boring as the Camry we drove the next year, but neither one had any big negatives.
I’m looking to pick one up cheap in the next few years used as a highway cruiser. Love to eat up the miles with 300 hp 6-speed combo.
Dan, my 2012 Impala is very good at that!
I must say that although I’ve never seen a W-body Impala in the metal, in photos I like the profile view of the ’12 model. It reminds me of the 90s Impala SS (which I have seen in the metal and love the looks of). The front end of the ’12 is a major let-down though – very bland and timid. I really like the ’14 inside and out – although it looks to suffer from the high-waistline claustrophobia of so many of today’s cars. But seeing the Impala badge on a FWD car irks me. It nice that the badge is still alive, but yeah, RWD all the way lol!
My dad has a white ’03 (maybe ’04) Impala LS. As to be expected, a former fleet model — it was his company car during his years as a salesman and he bought the car for peanuts when he retired rather than turn it back in. I’ve driven it on many occasions. I was always impressed with the low-end torque and MPGs, even around town. I always thought the “racoon eye” headlights looked pretty slick.
His is strangely optioned — an LS but with floor shift and no appearance package. CD player (that he never uses — AM radio and FM jazz station only!) and Homelink buttons. He still drives it daily to the golf course and back. He’s had few problems with it and seems to enjoy the car. It has 115k on it and is going strong.
I do remember Consumer Reports called the interior quality “borderline offensive” in their auto issue at the time, and I agree. The second-gen Impala W upgraded the interior significantly, and I was surprised at how extreme the exterior refresh was.
Good, honest cars, these Impalas were. Really more of a modern Biscayne than anything.