AMA - 2015 Impala LS - Yes, it jumps (Short Review)

"Moves-Like-Senna" (moves-like-senna) 11/17/2015 at 10:42 • Filed to: None

1

17

The last Great American Land Yacht, the Chevy Impala is massive. Here in Canada, rental companies don’t purchase Impala’s, they purchase everything else. Ever since this iteration of the Impala came out I’d been trying to snag one as a rental. This past weekend, I was headed up north and low and behold, they had one hidden away, behind a few Camaro’s as it has NH plates.

Hauling four passengers all over 6 feet tall, the rear leg room was just as much if not more than the front. Both rear passengers were astonished at how comfortable it was, one said it was like sitting in a poor man’s S-class (in terms of space and comfort). With all our camping and hiking gear, food and alcohol, we only filled the boot about 40% capacity. It’s bigger than a manhattan apartment back there and is by far the biggest trunk I’ve seen in a sedan or coupe with a “proper” trunk.

Upfront, I have to say, I was fairly impressed I didn’t hit my head, my knees weren’t banging and the arm rests were in the right spots (I’m 6ft 3). I did run into a few pain points, the seats are made for the larger fellow. I’m not slim, but athletic, and on any corner the Impala’s body roll is almost hysterical (more about that later) which meant sliding across the seat and having to physically bolster my self with my arms. Though, the most critical issue I had was the mirror positioning. No matter how I positioned the seat or the mirrors, I was unable to get a safe view out of either side-mirror and with the rear window being so small it was like driving an SUV again.

ChevyLink - No, just no. I’m sorry, but it looks like Yahoo in 1999 and is about as useful as my palm pilot. I knew it was bad, but not that bad. I’m glad for the 2016 model year, Car Play is coming. Otherwise, an odd little bit of the dash, there’s two lights - one for MPH the other for KPH, the numbers don’t change and only go up to 140KPH. Even driven a car with the speedometer topped out for most of the ride? It’s rather eerie.

A throwback to the 80’s perhaps, the handling was in true boat like fashion. The suspension was floaty but every bump felt, steering numb and a lot of input necessary, and body roll - LOL . Driving along a highway with sweepers, my half empty can of Monster (I just finished 2 days of hiking) started spilling over. I was grabbing anything and everything to hold myself in my seat.

Offroad things became a bit squirlly. Approach angles and ride height were so bad, that even on speed bumps (not speed humps) in the city the Impala would bottom out ... not picture that on an ATV trail. Normally I don’t mind GM’s traction control, but whatever they did in the Impala wasn’t working. I promptly turned it off and relied on my experience. Growing up rural, mudding and off roading was a norm, I did it in a 2WD RWD crew cab truck. Approaching a very steep, long, loose rock and muddy climb, I realized at the bottom that I needed to approach with speed to make it. All passengers already being city mice were not exactly calm, I gunned it, rotating hand over hand to try and maintain a path that we wouldn’t get stuck and flew over the crest, jumping for about 20 feet. The drop on the other end was even steeper than the one we’d come from. TLDR: The Impala can jump 20 feet comfortably off road.

From a performance stand point, it’s nothing to write home about. It’s 305HP V6 galloped the heavy boat to 60 in about 8 seconds, shifting like a 16 year old learning stick. It’s not a performance vehicle, but a highway cruiser. It has enough power for that, however, the 6 speed from Ford still hasn’t been sorted out by Chevy. Here’s to hoping they drop the 8 speed in from the Corvette very soon as this is the worst transmission I’ve driven all year (roughly 40-50 cars).

So OPPO AMA anything about the 2015 Impala!

MontegoMan562 is a Capri RS Owner > Moves-Like-Senna 11/17/2015 at 10:53

1

Firstly, this is why people shouldn’t buy used rental cars. Off Roading an Impala is crazy.

Second - it’s kind of unfair to judge an Impala on ground clearance, approach, departure and break over angles isn’t it?

Milky > Moves-Like-Senna 11/17/2015 at 10:54

0

Here’s to hoping they drop the 8 speed in from the Corvette very soon...

Wouldn’t count on that happening, since the ‘Vette has a transaxle.

Smallbear wants a modern Syclone, local Maple Leafs spammer > Moves-Like-Senna 11/17/2015 at 11:05

0

1. The last Impala was pretty woeful as a base model as well, but the higher trim levels were pretty nice. I imagine this is the same, since most people seem to like it.

2. Where are you a native of? I got mixed signals from this (this is a curiousity, not a criticism).

3. Seeing as this is a FWD and the Corvette is a RWD with a transaxle, not gonna happen. Would LOVE to see this done though. With V8, from factory, new Impala SS. Replace the SS when Holden shuts up shop.

Moves-Like-Senna > MontegoMan562 is a Capri RS Owner 11/17/2015 at 11:22

0

No, I completely agree. I’ve seen the most ridiculously insane stuff done to rental cars. Look at Jalopnik’s own articles - paraphrasing - “Rental cars are the funnest/fastest cars you can drive because you can do anything to them with insurance”

I threw that in there as who offroads one? No one, I did so I thought I’d just note it in case anyone was curious and the biggest problem to me with all three of those was that I couldn’t get over the speed bumps in the city without hitting the front bumper and rubbing/bottoming out the center.

Moves-Like-Senna > Milky 11/17/2015 at 11:25

0

Bah I forgot about that. You’re right, they do need a better transmission for this class. FCA’s 8 speed in the charger/300 etc is amazing and you can barely notice it’s shifts, Ford’s 6-Speed SelectShift isn’t perfect but does pretty well in the Fusion.

Moves-Like-Senna > Smallbear wants a modern Syclone, local Maple Leafs spammer 11/17/2015 at 11:32

0

1. Agreed, the last gen, higher trim level with the 0hp engine was surprisingly peppy and a great sleeper in a sense. The interior was not luxury by any means but pretty nice.

I’ve sat in a higher end current gen Impala and the surfaces were definitely a bit better. Though in this case, the dash was hardish plastic, the stitching and other details to make it look like leather and wood were nice enough to fool my non-automotive inclined friends to thinking it was a luxury car.

2) I’ve spent about half my life in Canada (both west and east coast), most of the other half in Tokyo and some time in Europe (UK and Germany).

3) Yup, someone else also mentioned this and you’re right a V8 + RW Impala SS would be fantastic and would be nice to replace the SS when Holden’s up. Drop it an inch, tighten it up, and bolster the seats better and you have a highway bomber instead of a cruiser.

Smallbear wants a modern Syclone, local Maple Leafs spammer > Moves-Like-Senna 11/17/2015 at 11:40

1

The 3.9 was straight-up awesome. 240/240 hp and torque numbers, coming in low. A friend had one, that thing would fly.

Weird GM quirk for you—the Malibu SS with the 3.9 was governed at 185kph. The Impala (and afaik the Uplander) with the same engine were not. The I know for a fact the Impala was climbing past 225kph on the straight and level, and apparently he got it climbing past 230. I take no responsibility for his actions.

Moves-Like-Senna > Smallbear wants a modern Syclone, local Maple Leafs spammer 11/17/2015 at 11:59

1

That is really weird! Perhaps it’s the tire’s speed ratings? It’s just alleged right? ;)

Smallbear wants a modern Syclone, local Maple Leafs spammer > Moves-Like-Senna 11/17/2015 at 12:08

0

Oh, righ, alleged. I meant that :)

It could be the speed ratings, but you'd think something with SS on the side would ship with a higher performance tire than the leathered-up version of an Impala.

Moves-Like-Senna > Smallbear wants a modern Syclone, local Maple Leafs spammer 11/17/2015 at 12:13

0

Exactly haha!

For a while there, it seemed like every GM car came with an SS badge. It was an image thing more than performance to squeeze more money out of you. Some of the performance variants had some performance advantage but it was no AMG or modern SS badge. One of my friends in Penn was showing me pictures of a dealership selling dealer created Aveo SS’ hahaha.

Smallbear wants a modern Syclone, local Maple Leafs spammer > Moves-Like-Senna 11/17/2015 at 12:22

0

There was usually something going on that made it worth the premium though.

The Cobalt got forced induction, more power, and later on better suspension.

The Malibu got a bigger engine with more power and bags of low-down torque and a tweaked suspension setup. My brother had a Maxx SS, it drove beautifully.

The Impala got a V8.

Trailblazer got slightly lowered and a bigger engine.

Pickups got more power.

So given the one thing they had in common (not counting dealer scams) was more power, you'd still expect the SS badge to come with better rubber. And personally, I'd like to go back to those days where there's a performance variant of everything in the lineup :)

MontegoMan562 is a Capri RS Owner > Moves-Like-Senna 11/17/2015 at 12:31

0

Haha, well that’s fair. The speed bumps is a problem, a stock ride height car shouldn’t bottom out on speed bumps, that’s crap. It’s not a Veyron, it doesn’t need to go 250+ mph so up it half an inch and give it the clearance. If anyone wanted an off roader though, I’m sure the price tag of a brand new Impala would be high enough they could just buy a Wrangler new (or something off-roadable that actually comes with an interior).

The rental car thing, maybe a year or so ago there were people on here advocating buying rental cars because they’re well maintained, I call BS because they may be well maintained by the rental company, but they’re beat to hell buy the actual users.

Moves-Like-Senna > MontegoMan562 is a Capri RS Owner 11/17/2015 at 12:45

1

Part of the speedbump problem was the suspension as well. It’s so soft, you hop over the bump with the heavy front and the whole thing jiggles like a 4000lbs blob of jello.

For off roading, there are definitely better options for the same price or way less. They offered me a Malibu, then a Mistubishi Outlander (so bad) and a few other CUVs before I went out to see if they had anything interesting cachéd. The Impala is absolutely gorgeous in my books.

I remember that as well and I call BS too. Everyone drives it like they stole it, they have the ‘I have full insurance on it’, and the ‘it’s not my car’ rationing. It’s a horrible purchase, the wear on them is rather insane.

MontegoMan562 is a Capri RS Owner > Moves-Like-Senna 11/17/2015 at 12:46

0

I do actually really like the looks of them.

They found a way to only a few years after the latest Gen Taurus came out make it look crazy dated. Impressive.

Moves-Like-Senna > MontegoMan562 is a Capri RS Owner 11/17/2015 at 12:52

0

Yes they did, the latest Taurus looks far more dated than it should and GM executed the high back/wide hips far better than ford IMO. Driving along and looking at the side mirror and seeing the bulge out is so pleasing.

MontegoMan562 is a Capri RS Owner > Moves-Like-Senna 11/17/2015 at 12:57

0

Like I said, Impressive.

Surprising how well they did, especially with how long the last gen impala lived for.

Moves-Like-Senna > MontegoMan562 is a Capri RS Owner 11/17/2015 at 13:08

1

Yes, it’s very ‘modern chevy’ to it’s looks and fits in with a Colorado, Silverado, Camaro etc.