Thats funny... my aunt recently bought a 06Impala and was telling me that while they were test driving the salesman showed them one with the bench seat and when she saw it she refused to even drive that one! She told me "I cant believe they still put those in new cars, I dont want to drive a grandpa car". she is a grandma btw. so if grandparents consider bench seats something THEIR grandparents would have drove. that moves the age group up A LOT!!!!!

 

If the current FWD Impala, and the new RWD car are produced at the same time (which I suspect they will for a time), I would not launch the new car with one..and only add it after the FWD Impala is no longer made.

Is there an LX with a bench seat?

 

Bench seat isn't mandatory for police use, but a column shifter sure is (or at least something other than the average floor-mounted console shifter).

 

What I wanna know is if will have vent windows!

I don't know how many 50 year olds are driving around today with cars with bench seats. What the heck are they driving? Certainly not Crown Vics -- more like Camrys and SUVs.

(Acutally, if GM has anyone left in their market research department, this should be a pretty easy question to answer.)

You know, GM could always tell people that that bench seats are a luxury feature available only on select Cadillac and Buick models. Why let these oldsters get off on the cheap?

 

This is different than the Commodore?

 

I wasn't saying that 50 year olds are clamoring for bench seats, I was commenting on Josh's assertion that the Impala SS would be aimed at the late 20's demographic.

Anyway, I wouldn't choose a bench seat myself, but I don't see anything wrong with having more choices. Hey, you never know, you may actually capture more sales. Some people prefer them, what's the problem? And absolutely no one is stopping anyone from getting front bucket seats and a floor shifter, if that's what they want.

 

Yeah good question doubt the Zeta desiginers even thought of a bench seat.

 

If Chevy is getting the Commodore as she stands as a performance sedan I think its a bad idea. If however Pontiac G8 is getting the Holden sport counterpart and Impala is the pile your friends in Land Yacht alternative. I guess if there is a market for it... Impallas gone from Caprice size to FWD so I have no idea what to expect.

Personally, if its got a bench seat, it should be a work truck...

 

Sure, and an optional shift schedule and quadrant for the 6 speed auto that only uses the even-numbered gears. And a color themed interior with blue and green as options. Then I can comfortably move from my 1970 green (inside and out!) Olds Cutlass.

 

You DID notice that Impala in the picture you posted has a column shifter and no center console, didn't you? (it's a police added unit)

And, those seats. I can see a 40/20/40 with the "20" removed here.


Going back to the bench seat discussion, I think the naysayers here are thinking about the old style bench. One lower cushion the full width of the interior, and a 2 section back. Bench seats evolved quite a bit from that. Again, a 40/20/40 bench is a great idea in that to a degree, you still have "buckets". But you also have a cushion & filp down armrest where the console would be. This is something I'd very seriously consider. Add paddle shifters, and we're talking a whole new ballgame here.

 

Good call, except for one thing. That is a Charger (or maybe a Magnum) in that pic, not an Impala.

 

Those are bucket seats if I've ever seen them. You could say every car with bucket seats is 40/20/40 with the 20 removed. Yeah, I suppose it is column shifter on that Charger. I guess I didn't break this argument down to bench w/column vs. bucket w/column. The link I posted to the Charger fleet also showed there was no bench seat option (at least not being promoted on the site where similar features are listed). Like I concluded in my last post, if it's that important, include it. But I would imagine for most of the public, it's not a selling feature--no more than say, offering a stripper model of a car. I'm not interested in either.

 

The Charger police package doesn't have a bench seat option, as you pointed out. I wasn't clear in what I posted either. Going back to square one...

Impala is going to appeal to a alot of people. Especially those who remember or wer around during the 60s. These folks are in their late 40s and up today. Pretty much the bullseye the Impala is aiming at. There's also a pretty sizeable group of people who want something different, and don't look at bench seats as the exclusive domain of 70-somethings. Anyone who has lived in LA is very well aware of this. The Belair concept (quite probally the point where the next Impala's design started from) had bench seats.

Next, the Impala is going to be marketed as a big roomy car & will be targeted not just at the public wanting a large stylish car, but also at taxis and police sales. Most likely meaning a column shifter for Police.

I'd imagine law enforcement prefer big comfortable seats, not the over bolstrered "sport" seats that tend to get in the way of utility belts, bulletproof vests, and fast entry & exit. Bench seats aren't prefered because it leaves more space for equptment.


The only thing preventing a bench seat would be the size of the floor hump. There is pretty much no issue with cost, and the most expensive aspect (the column shift) if already a part of the car, is done already. The Crown Victoria uses the same seatback for buckets and bench seats (bench have fold down armrests in the center to take up the space) while the lower cushion is just a slightly wider version of the buckets. Both seats still move independently.

The new Impala ISN'T being marketed as a sports car, and isn't likely going to be shown carving up Laguna Seca in commercials. I'd see Pontiac having bolstered buckets standard across the board as well as other enthusiast items, because that's where Pontiac is marketed at. Chevrolet on the other hand is 'all inclusive' and 'volume', meaning offering everybody everything. Plus, on a Camaro site we're going to tend to think everything from Aveos to Boeing 777s will sell more if it had 1000 more horsepower, stickier tires, and seats with bolsters that almost reach the dashboard.



I suspect there's a reason why this thread was started. If the Impala looks as stylish as some who have seen it progressing say, combined with the direction it's being marketed, I'd say bench seats are a no brainer.

If you don't want bench seats in a full size car, just buy buckets.

 

What's kinda funny in a way is in one thread we have no choice between manual and power windows because of cost, and in another thread we have an available bench seat because of ..... cost.

 

Throughout all of this I for one am still not sure if we're ultimately talking about a Commodore sized Impala or a Statesman sized Impala. While the Commodore is considered a large car in reality it's really only a bit bigger than the last gen Grand Am. So do we know or can we best-guess whether the new Impala will be full-size small or full-size big?

For me, really I don't care if the car is offered with or without a bench so long as I could get one in the configuration I wanted - which for most of my driving life has been buckets/console. I owned a non-split bench seat 85 Impala and it was a big, fast, roomy car. I do miss it and have a soft spot for the big car, but I'd rather have had buckets and a floor shifter any day.

That said, I believe that there is a market for bench seats, maybe not big, but it is there. Since it is pretty much ignored by almost everyone, and if it meant additional sales, than by all means at least offer it. Impala in its heyday was always a vehicle for the masses available in a large number of configurations. It's no wonder Chevrolet sold more Impalas alone than most manufacturers sold cars back in the 60s and 70s. The new one should be no different.