I was bored at lunch, so I drove to a local Chevy dealer... they are pretty big, so they usually have a lot of stuff in stock. Probably have 90 or so Impalas... probably a good 15 of those were SS's, which was nice.

Anyway, I sat in the following:

2006 Impala SS

Very nice clean and classy looking, yet borders on the verge of a touch boring... pretty much the exact way I would describe the exterior. Overall, I liek the Impala SS a lot. I find it interesting that everyone of them had the woodgrain dash inserts. The SS-specific stainless steel looking ones are standard, and I have yet to find one since the woodgrain is a no-cost option, every dealer must check off that box when ordering just because they must think it's an upgrade. I don't know which I'd perfer, since I can never find one with the standard stainless look.

Quality-wise, everything seemed great, except a few areas:

1) The HVAC control buttons tend to 'wiggle' inside their chrome rings.
2) The quality-by-touch rating of the plastics on the bottom halves of the door panels, center console, and back side of the steering wheel were not real great. The map pocket slots seem weak, being that they are molded into this same cheap feeling plastic, and the flex a lot when you push against them.

2007 Tahoe LTZ

Very nice overall. About a 1,000,000,000 times improvement over the old Tahoe interior. Only compaint really is the same exact things listed in Complaint #2 for the Impala SS.

 

i've seen the SS-specific stainless steel looking ones and i'd get the wood grain as well. it looks real cheap.

 

I do like the woodgrain look myself, but I'd like to at least see the other.... I guess there are 3 inserts... a brushed stainless steel look that is on the base Impalas... the woodgrain, and then the 'turned' stainless steel look that is standard on the SS...

 

did you try a different chevy dealer as they might have one?

 

I actually did a www.gmbuypower.com search a month ago and went through about eight Chevy dealerships without finding one, and just gave up.

 

For some reason whenever I see the latest Chevy Impala commercial where you see the interior/dash before seeing the outside of the car first, I think it's the new Tahoe. The two new interiors remind me a LOT of each other.

Impala:


Tahoe:

 

i found those web site cars don't exsist and i just drive to each one looking for what i want.

 

Hey Threxxy, the shifter's on the tree in the Tahoe. Pretty dead giveaway.

 

I just mean at a quick glance, overall look and feel.

I mean there are million details that'll give away which interior you're looking at, but I'm just talking about they seem very closely related in terms of look and feel - for a car and suv, especially.

 

Every time I sit in a car with one of these newfangled interiors, I find them boring and bland. My sister in law has an '06 Impala.

Sure, they've upped the material quality and the build quality, and that's all well and good. And sure, the designs are a little more modern-looking. But have they really changed the driver's experience? Not to me. The buttons are in pretty much the same place they were before.

Things like HUD, white-faced gauges, steering-wheel-mounted audio controls, etc. Those are the real improvements to car interiors I've seen over the years. Things that actually change how the drivers and passengers interact with the car.

I'm not saying they should go back -- these are definite improvements. I just don't think they warrant all the fuss.

 

A lot of people would say the same for more powerful motors - 'it's ok but I don't see what all the fuss is about, the previous motor was plenty powerful'.

I personally appreciate the new interiors and the new motors but I understand how people can look at one or the other and not care.

 

Likewise, I don't care about little improvements in engine technology either.

Big improvements, yes. Direct injection, DOD, even fuel injection -- those are real advancements that truly matter.

On the other hand, the 3800 in my 1993 Buick makes 195hp, and the 3800 Series II in my 2000 Bonneville makes 205hp. Whoop-de-do.

 

The brushed stainless steel look (best in my opinion) is not available on SS; only standard silver dot-matrix (gives me a headache when I look at it too long) and the fake wood. Wood isn't horrible, just too much of it. I was impressed with the way they trimmed the interior of a Subaru Legacy I sat in at the auto show last week. It was very tastefully done... just a small strip of wood here and there to contrast the aluminum-look plastic. The matte finish on the wood trim contributed significantly to making it look expensive, though I'm sure it wasn't.

 

Complete opposite around here, every Impala SS I've seen at dealer lots and the auto shows were the silver dot-matrix, kind of dull and cheap looking. I've never seen the granite silver looking trim, and I think the I like the glossy fake burled wood trim better than the dull silver.

I am kind of confused, I thought that were 3 options:
Standard: Glossy fake wood
SS Standard: Dot-Matrix dull Silver
SS Option: Granite or brushed alum.

I think all standard cars come with the Glossy wood, even our '06 9C1s have the glossy fake wood.

 

Ok scratch part of my last post, I just dug out the '06 Impala book.

Here is the options listing:

Burled Walnut Trim: Standard on: LS, LT, LTZ Optional: SS
Techno-Metallic Trim: Standard on: SS Not Available on: LS, LT, LTZ
Brushed Metallic Trim: Optional on: LT, LTZ Not Available on: LS, SS

Interesting combos, I didn't know that the burled walnut was available on the SS and further more I didn't know that the brushed metallic wasn't available on the SS.

I guess what I was calling the granite looking trim is actually the brushed metallic trim.

The book doesn't say anything about the Burled Walnut trim being "fake" or "simulated" so I guess I was wrong on that too. I am kind of surprised that its real, if its really real.