- 23,800
- Philippines
As @Custom878 notes, it's an appliance.
Rear wheel drive and a stick would make it a nicer driver's car. Maybe. Possibly.
But they wouldn't make it anything more than an appliance plus extras.
GTP Cool Wall: 2000-2005 Chevrolet Impala
- Thread starter Wiegert
- 71 comments
- 4,118 views
As @Custom878 notes, it's an appliance.
Rear wheel drive and a stick would make it a nicer driver's car. Maybe. Possibly.
But they wouldn't make it anything more than an appliance plus extras.
- 4,741
- Bogota,Colombia
- GTP_ARP93
Meh. Beige. Nondescript. It's like you literaly walked into a dealership and asked for a ton and a half of "car".
But, to me, "meh" is unacceptable when it comes to coolness. You're either cool or you aren't and if you're "meh", it means you're de facto not cool. It means you're as uncool as puting things in latin in italics. The description @Obelisk gives in his first post just confirms it: "it does it's job". No offense meant, my car also does it's job but fact of the matter is that a dusty, champaigne Mazda 626 4-door isn't cool no matter how many Audis it sentds back to the dealership for a refund after a highway blast.
But, to me, "meh" is unacceptable when it comes to coolness. You're either cool or you aren't and if you're "meh", it means you're de facto not cool. It means you're as uncool as puting things in latin in italics. The description @Obelisk gives in his first post just confirms it: "it does it's job". No offense meant, my car also does it's job but fact of the matter is that a dusty, champaigne Mazda 626 4-door isn't cool no matter how many Audis it sentds back to the dealership for a refund after a highway blast.
- 1,035
- United States
- LM7325
Rotary Junkie
Premium
- 9,810
- Canton, MI
- RJs_RX-7
By itself, the Impala should be merely "uncool". There's just one problem with that.
There is literally nothing that can be done to make this generation of Impala "cool". At all. Ever.
And that drops it to seriously uncool. You can't fix it. Even if I'd suggest one with the 3800 to literally anyone I know without blinking or a second thought.
There is literally nothing that can be done to make this generation of Impala "cool". At all. Ever.
And that drops it to seriously uncool. You can't fix it. Even if I'd suggest one with the 3800 to literally anyone I know without blinking or a second thought.
- 21,286
- GR-MI-USA
- YSSMAN
- YSSMAN
Back in the early '90s, GM used to offer the W-Body with the Quad-4, 5MT, and the FE3 suspension in the Oldsmobile Cutlass. In hindsight, man, that would have been a really cool car to have in the driveway. Realistically, I can't imagine they sold any at all. The W-Body, at least in 1991, was a very competitive chassis that was tailored to a wide variety of tastes that, in some respects, was reasonably class-leading.
...But by the time the 2000 Chevrolet Impala came around, the expiration date was coming up. The Impala was arguably the worst of the W-Bodies of that time, perhaps only the Buick Century getting as bad as the Chevrolet. It was a bean counter's car in design and execution, which made the Lumina look good by comparison. Sure, the later 2006-Infinity update made the car much more tolerable, but even then, it didn't become a good option again until they added the corporate 3.6L V6 into the mix.
EDIT: GM used to be CRAZY with the W-Body
I seem to remember an old article in a C/D floating around my old bedroom at home. There was a time at GM where the W-Body was ready to be converted to rear and all-wheel-drive to meet market demand, and that included pairings with turbo V6s and V8s. Just like everything out of GM around that time, they were way ahead of the game... Miles ahead of it... That everyone thought they were crazy.
- 21,286
- GR-MI-USA
- YSSMAN
- YSSMAN
Yes, the LS4 was dropped into the Impala/Monte Carlo SS, as well as the Grand Prix GXP, and the Buick LaCrosse Super. It's the only time GM managed to stick the Vortec 5.3L into a "sporty" application, and it is something I wish they'd repeat. Didn't make the car all that great, though. Sure, they could run over 150 MPH in a straight line, but it was a big V8 out over the front wheels, handling didn't come easy.
- 22,551
- Arizona
- HamiltonMP427
I never found any car other than pre 80s cool, when it became a dedicated Police car, to me it just says it only has the simple job of transportation and that alone. There is nothing to me that's cool about it, it was a boring looking car, then and nowadays when I see when I get the same bad feeling I did when I saw sunfires and cavilers of the 90s running around every where.
I'd appreciate if they didn't ever do it again, and rather keep doing it with stuff like the SS. Even if it meant downsizing the V8 or going V6 tt. If you're going to do sporty the formula isn't that hard, no reason to do it on the cheap though.
I'd appreciate if they didn't ever do it again, and rather keep doing it with stuff like the SS. Even if it meant downsizing the V8 or going V6 tt. If you're going to do sporty the formula isn't that hard, no reason to do it on the cheap though.
- 22,551
- Arizona
- HamiltonMP427
delete
All the more reason to have a manual. Why not accept that extra redeeming quality, or possibly the only redeeming quality? If it's your preference, it makes a world of difference...and arguably more of an impact in an appliance-mobile compared to a sporty car. It's sorta like a fixed quantity of fun that is most valuable in the least-sporty cars, and makes less of a difference in high-performance cars that have long since switched to sequential transmissions anyway.
Again, I'm not saying it would be viable or that people who bought Impalas would (or should) care.
- 23,800
- Philippines
The problem is, while this would arguably make the car better from a performance, economy and reliability point of view (the last is debatable, but a good, simple manual with a single mass flywheel should cost less to maintain than an automatic), people who buy appliances don't actually want to have to think about the driving. They just want something that goes from A to B with minimum fuss. Even more so if the cars are used for urban work commutes... a duty for which traditional manuals are ill-suited.
(disclaimer, all my personal cars are manual... but I don't buy appliances)
@Tornado -- I've driven two W-bodies. It would have been fun to run up through the gears in the Grand Prix with the LQ1 V6, but the Cutlass Supreme was the most miserable car I've personally experienced and the five-speed would have been very welcome to make up for it.
Unless the point @Doog was getting at was to convey what you just said to @Neddo.
I know. But the question was, "Who the hell would want a manual in a big FWD sedan?" Which appeared to call into doubt that anyone would. So my question is, why wouldn't someone like me want a manual in a big FWD sedan? Or an appliance? Excluding the urban work commute point, which I expected.
Unless the point @Doog was getting at was to convey what you just said to @Neddo.
- 1,035
- United States
- LM7325
I forgot they had a manual paired with the twin cam 3.4.
As far as the engines go, the 3.4 was meant to be an alternative to more high strung 4 cylinders. The 3.8 being set to be on par with a 3.0 dohc will more power under the curve. By 2000 this ruse was not holding up when the twin cams started growing in displacement, Maxima went to 3.5, Toyota to 3.3 etc.
The 3800 I still think of as ok. It may be low power density, but it is nearly indestructible because of it. If I had to go 500k miles on one engine it would be on my short list.
As far as the engines go, the 3.4 was meant to be an alternative to more high strung 4 cylinders. The 3.8 being set to be on par with a 3.0 dohc will more power under the curve. By 2000 this ruse was not holding up when the twin cams started growing in displacement, Maxima went to 3.5, Toyota to 3.3 etc.
The 3800 I still think of as ok. It may be low power density, but it is nearly indestructible because of it. If I had to go 500k miles on one engine it would be on my short list.
- 3,566
- Connecticut
- SPhilli
- SPhilli911
It's so bland I can't find a reason to care about it. Seriously uncool.
- 6,257
- Ottawa
- Pyano1132
This is so boring, but it's not that bad of a car. This is the epitome of meh.
- 40,723
The LQ1 is altogether a different beast than any of the engines that the Impala was saddled with, though. I can actually understand why someone in 1993 or whatever would have bought a Lumina Z34 so equipped instead of an SHO. I can certainly understand (making an assumption for how the Cutlass Supreme was equipped) how awful a Quad 4 is behind a slushbox.
But while an L67 might be better if it is anything like a MN12 SuperCoupe when put behind a five speed, the L27? Any of the 60° engines that weren't the Twin Cam? Maybe in a Grand Am or Beretta or whatever, but in the full size sedan I have to imagine it would do nothing but replicate the experience of driving the skinflint three on the tree fleet versions of the full size cars from the 1970s.
GM didn't have a four cylinder powerful enough to haul the car around, and the 60° family was cheap enough that they could get away with it.
- 19,618
- Alabamamania
In the automotive world, something has to be the poop emoji. We don't know why it's there, but it sure is overused, abused, as well as unironically and pointlessly inserted into the mainstream, and mysteriously, nobody calls for its removal after every update.
"Large, lethargic, feels like you're stepping on a rock when you accelerate. Mushy brakes, numb steering, doesn't handle any body motion reactions performed even under local speed limits, let alone over them. Looks dull, acts dull, feels dull and completely uninspiring to my emotions. This car has no interesting nor bizarre feature that makes you curious about it. It's passionless, which makes it perfect as a hearse for deceased exponents of public transportation and those who despise anything automotive. In return, it's compassionless, it seems to have a aura of not giving any care to whether you like to use an Impala for lawn decorations, permanently holding parking spaces, or if you needed a large paperweight. The shifter gate refuses to tell you what gear range you're in, and the lever has a selector switch in the middle, for some mutant race of humans where a thumb might be grafted if your middle finger was suddenly divinely detached due to petulant overzealous usage. Everything slides around in the trunk, and everyone slides around in their seats, no matter how you drive. Engine does a lousy aural impersonation of Corvette, accelerates as a Chevette. Visually boring to the point of ugly, and they mechanically fall apart internally at about 100k miles. I even deserve be pulled over by law enforcement officers who are forced to drive them for work, because it's unfair that tax money is squandered on these rolling penalty boxes, and that they're forced to spend 40 hours a week driving them. It's the definition of surplus; it even unset my alarm clock and stole my keys when I was running late one morning. Rental fleets love them, and I sadly have to drive one roughly once every four months."
Seriously uncool.
"Large, lethargic, feels like you're stepping on a rock when you accelerate. Mushy brakes, numb steering, doesn't handle any body motion reactions performed even under local speed limits, let alone over them. Looks dull, acts dull, feels dull and completely uninspiring to my emotions. This car has no interesting nor bizarre feature that makes you curious about it. It's passionless, which makes it perfect as a hearse for deceased exponents of public transportation and those who despise anything automotive. In return, it's compassionless, it seems to have a aura of not giving any care to whether you like to use an Impala for lawn decorations, permanently holding parking spaces, or if you needed a large paperweight. The shifter gate refuses to tell you what gear range you're in, and the lever has a selector switch in the middle, for some mutant race of humans where a thumb might be grafted if your middle finger was suddenly divinely detached due to petulant overzealous usage. Everything slides around in the trunk, and everyone slides around in their seats, no matter how you drive. Engine does a lousy aural impersonation of Corvette, accelerates as a Chevette. Visually boring to the point of ugly, and they mechanically fall apart internally at about 100k miles. I even deserve be pulled over by law enforcement officers who are forced to drive them for work, because it's unfair that tax money is squandered on these rolling penalty boxes, and that they're forced to spend 40 hours a week driving them. It's the definition of surplus; it even unset my alarm clock and stole my keys when I was running late one morning. Rental fleets love them, and I sadly have to drive one roughly once every four months."
Seriously uncool.
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- 40,723
The problem is that the W-Body in general wasn't targeted on the market to need one or really was designed for one, which is kind of a whole different story to begin with. The whole GM-10 program was a disaster. They really were all in a different size class than the CamCord at the time were, and that carried over to the Impala; and the only one that was really close to any of the supposed competition, and within spitting distance to the Taurus, was the Cutlass Supreme.
The Malibu/Grand Am/Corsica/Alero were the ones that were CamCord sized, and they were the ones that had four cylinders as base engines.
- 5,551
- Controls set for heart of sun
- GTP_RogerTheHors
Ugly old saloon.
