I turned 47 in 2011, an age at which many are said to go through a midlife crisis. Perhaps, though mine was exclusively car related! It was the year when I purchased my only sports-car like ever, a used 2007 Chevrolet Impala SS.
Earlier in that 2011, I had one child driving and one child who was desperately trying. About the latter, it only took our daughter 8 tries to finally get her license, but that’s another story! With our cars doing service duty with our kids, Mrs. Chip and I needed an extra car. So we went to our usual dealer, which we’d been buying from since 2000 in Delaware, Ohio: Cheswron.
As is my normal practice (and Cindy’s as well), we don’t go in looking for a specific car. Rather, we ask for “the most car for the least money.” In fact, when I first started shopping at this dealer (it was under different ownership then), I would ask for any cars that were close to 90 days. For those who don’t know, back in those early aughts, used cars were financed by banks on what was known as a floor plan. The banks would routinely check how long a vehicle had been sitting, and those that were approaching 90 days needed to go -either at a reduced price or through an auction. So those are the cars that I would shop for most of the time.
Looking around that day, Tom my salesman, pointed out that they had a line of maybe 6 or 7 Impalas-different trims, colors and equipment levels. One of them, an Impala Super Sport! Now, I’d never owned a sports car or a fast car in my life, so when I saw the 2007 Impala SS in the lineup, my interest was piqued.
The car was silver over black leather and loaded with all the options, including a moonroof. It only showed 63,000 miles on the odometer. Cindy and I liked the looks and decided on a test drive. Needless to say, it was faster than any car I’d driven until then, and I was still drinking the GM Kool Aid at that time, so we struck a deal. My midlife crisis was in full swing! But all would not be chocolate coins and puppies as we would find out.
William Stopford did an excellent article on these SS models, talking about what a “hot mess” they were, and it is worth reading. He did a lot of research, and I wish I’d known before I signed up.
At first, Cindy and I found that we liked this car very well. However, I really felt that Chevy missed the mark by not having a full set of gauges in a car of this type. And while front wheel drive is very nice, having a strong V8 driving those wheels really wasn’t ideal.
Trouble started very soon, when we drove to Kalamazoo for a weekend to visit some lifetime friends and all was well until it wasn’t. I was looking in the rear view mirror at one point, just as the cylinder deactivation went from 4 cylinder to 8, when I saw a large amount of blue smoke. That’s never a good sign and at the next fuel stop, I checked the oil. It was a quart low. Odd. So, I decided to start keeping track of the oil consumption.
After a month of driving, the oil burning was a quart per 950-1000 miles, so a trip to the service department was in order. They did some repairs to the car based on what GM was telling them to do, but the manager told me that the biggest issue those engines were having was that GM had failed to install an oil splash guard internally. This meant that every time the cylinders would cycle from 8 to 4 and back, oil was burning off. They asked me to continue to track the condition. So we drove it for another month.
Of course, things didn’t improve and it was time for me to figure something out, so I called Tom. He fully understood and asked me to give him some time to work something out.
He took the problem to the dealer’s owner (Jim) and his son (Ryan) to ask what they could do. Ryan had a great idea: They had taken in a one owner Buick Lucerne, crimson red over an oyster leather interior, that he’d personally driven and knew we would just love. The Buick had the Northstar V8 and was a CPO unit, so it came with a warranty. The money was spot on and so we traded cars. That’s why I’ve done business with them for so long.
So for three months, I got to live out my midlife crisis with a fast car! I look back on trading the SS, and I wouldn’t have changed anything. The last time I drove a fast car was a rental Charger in 2016 and even then, fast driving just wasn’t for us. And the Buick? Well, that’s a story for another day. But suffice to say, it was a really nice car.
Related CC Reading
Future Curbside Classic: 2006-2009 Chevrolet Impala SS – A Hot Mess
Buyer’s remorse on a car you are really excited to get is a terrible thing, but I applaud you for deciding to move on quickly. And kudos to your dealer for being reasonable with you and getting you into a car that made you happy.
After reading both this and Will Stopford’s piece, I realize that my V6 Charger is only 3 horsepower shy of the power of your Impala SS. And without the nonsense like cylinder deactivation.
That cylinder deactivation was really ridiculous! I get why, but GM certainly didn’t (and IMO hasn’t perfected it yet)
A nice story about a bullet dodged .
I remember these from rental service and would have prolly just fed it’s oil habit .
-Nate
Neat car but too bad about the issues. From your description it sounds like disabling the cylinder deactivation might have been a possible fix.
Talking about fast cars, I’d think the Lucerne with the Northstar would have been every bit as fast but with a more refined feel. I had a 2006 Lucerne CXL with that engine and it had about 160K when I purchased it. Very refined and fast.
Upcoming article about that car! And yes, it was a delightful car by comparison.
Wow – I’m glad you had a good relationship with that dealer, because it seemed that they saved the day for you! GM makes so many cars that I really want to like, but their real-world quality control just suggests otherwise.
I had to chuckle about you having one child driving and one who was desperately trying. I’m in a similar position right now. One of my daughters is (hopefully) just about to get her license. She’s been extremely motivated and was a quick learner. My other daughter has been apprehensive about learning to drive, but just last week she got her learner’s permit. Teaching her is far different that for our other kid – requires a whole lot more patience, on her part and on mine. Everyone’s different in their learning style, etc., and driving is a great illustration of that.
And incidentally, while at the DMV last week to get her permit, my daughter and I were watching some of the new drivers take their road tests. One girl who was taking the road test hit (very lightly) another car in the parking lot. Not a good start to her driving career! Fortunately, it seemed to be very light paint scraping, and the guy who owned the other car was very relaxed about it said not to worry.
I look back now and was really stupid to continue with GM especially after my Lemon Law experience in 1999.
My poor daughter! One of her failed attempts was in that Impala and the officer told me she was driving way too fast! He even scolded me for having her drive that car! She finally passed in our Buick!
Funny, but that just brought to my mind:
I passed in a 1978 Buick Electra, my son in a 1999 LeSabre that was two years old and my daughter in the 08 Lucerne!
Thank goodness I am passed Middle Age. My first middle age crisis occurred in my mid-40s, I walked away from my prestigious Interior Design position in NYC, moved to Virginia and started my full time graduate studies. I had been out of college for decades and this scared the hell out of me. That was my first middle age crisis. All worked out, I earned my graduate degree, published a textbook, onward as a professor. At age 50, I found myself in the Middle East as a professor, had my ear pierced at a souk, I brought my own rubbing alcohol. Second middle age crisis now in my 60s: I was in Canada, I always wanted another T-Bird, and my older brother told me I was not getting younger so go for it. So I bought my current 1966 T-Bird conv. eleven years ago. No more am I having age related changes in my life. But….I am in my 70s and perhaps one more move, perhaps to Arizona, with my T-Bird.
Chip, I always enjoy reading about your adventures. I was lucky to have my midlife crisis in a new job that offered me a new company car. Or was it the other way around? February 2005 saw me picking out a fresh 2006 Grand Prix GT in black- great car. Three years later, a 2009 Pontiac G8 GT, a much greater, faster, better handling automobile in Panther Black. Even the color sounded better. Finally, in 2013 a new Charger R/T. Bigger, more horsepower, and higher on the comfort scale. All good company car things came to an end in 2016. Down to a shady used car dealer’s well worn and mistreated 2005 Chrysler Town & County that caught fire, an 02 Saturn SL2, an Aztek and now in 2025, a 04 Town Car. An old guy in an old, old guy’s car. Hell of a ride. What’s next?
A friend was looking for one of these, and bought a new looking low-mile example off a reputable used car lot. The car was indeed stupid fast and really was a blast to drive. I had noticed the transmission (an issue on these cars) had a GM parts tag on it and looked to have been recently replaced, and the transmission had clean fluid in it and worked fine. Soon after he purchased the car however, it starting having random ABS fault lights.The code was always for a power loss to the ABS module, but we could never find an issue with the wiring even after repeatedly checking the harness with a digital volt-ohm meter. Finally discovered a lose ground clear on the other side of the engine. Why other circuits on that ground were not having issues was beyond me, but the funny thing about it was that the ground had very likley been disconnected when the transmission was replaced, and the mechanic forgot to retighten the screw. I wonder if the owner got rid of the car because of the ABS problems…
Anyway, despite the car being a case study in understeer it really was fun and was quite reliable. The only real gripe about it was a very strange exhaust note when the engine was at low r.p.m.’s in the 4 cylinder mode. The aluminum-block LS4 5.3L V-8 was modified for front wheel drive with a different bell housing bolt pattern (GM FWD), a shorter crankshaft, relocated water pump and starter, and a ‘backwards’ intake manifold with the throttle body on the flywheel end of the engine. I was told the LS4 was actually lighter than the supercharged iron-block 3.8L Buick derived V-6 used in the earlier FWD Impala SS.