I dont think shelving the rwd Impala has anything to do with mpg. I think its politics within GM. Buick gets a new rwd sedan, Pontiac gets a new rwd sedan. The new, almost as nice, lower priced Chevy steals their sales. The other divisions have won the battle for now. I still think Chevy needs a rwd sedan.

 

They said RWD Impala...not RWD sedan...

 

EDIT: Wrong car, wrong opinion, my bad.

 

You're kidding, right?????!!

 

I think you may be confusing the Impala with another car...Because it's exactly the opposite. All the 'modern' Impalas (I don't know dates) have all been sedans.


....You thinking Monte Carlo, maybe?

 

GM owned the police car market up to '96, building the LT1 powered Caprices that were faaster than anything else out there. They walked away from it to use those plants to build the more-profitable SUV's. I have been driving for about 40 years, and even most of the economy cars I have owned, as well as all the trucks and utility vehicles have been RWD- it is my preference, my choice. Even now, my 2001 car is a V8 RWd Camaro, and my DD is an S10 Blazer. If GM contiues to build FWD cars they are building themselves out of my market- I have driven several Mercurys and Crown Vics and wish that Ford would put a real V8 in them. They will hold 5 or 6 real adult sized people, carry a trunk full of luggage or golf clubs, and hold up well in a crash- they handle better and get better mileage than a suburban or van that I would otherwise be looking at-

GM just doesn't get the market- Look how the new retro styled Camaro is coming out years after Ford brought out (and sold thousands of) the retro Mustang, and Chrysler has brought out the Charger. GM will hit the ground with their sporty performance car the same time gas hits $4 a gallon- good luck selling any V8 then

I used to be a total GM guy, like my dad, but it breaks my heart. They don't even have anything on the lot I want to look at- I lke the vette, but a 2-seater without a trunk? A 2 seat pickup truck with the vette motor for 'only' 50 k $? They still build a nice truck, I am driving one now and *might* continue to do so, but I guess for cars it will be Ford or Dodge for me- sorry, GM

 

1mpg * 100k cars a year for fleet can be significant. Especially since trucks realistically are not going to make 35mpg on their own and GM needs help since over 50% of their sales are SUV/Trucks.

 

I was all for a rear-drive, full-sized Chevy. Now, not so sure. My wife drives a 2006 3.9 Impala that pulls down 27 mpg in her daily commute. It's a decent car, but there's plenty of room for improvement (primarily in NVH). The old W-chassis is not really competitive anymore, but can they afford the cost/delay of engineering a new, modern full-size FWD platform? I know, everyone says stretch the Malibu; length isn't it's problem, width is the problem. The Malibu is narrow, even by midsize standards. It is not, IMHO, a real alternative to a full-sized Chevy sedan. A clean-sheet-of-paper car the same size as the current Impala would be. BTW, after test-driving a 3.6/6-speed Aura and a 3.9/4-speed Impala, my wife said she preferred the Impala drivetrain by a significant margin.

 

oh. HAHAHHA.

This is me leaving this thread, my apologies to all those who read what I typed. I will edit it for future viewers.

 

I agree the malibu is too narrow, its narrow by midsize standards. I wonder how hard it would be to put 2-3 inches in the middle of the floor pan, 3 inches of wheelbase and 6 inches overall AND keep it under the current weight.

Wild ***** you are a dying breed. I feel for you and I have alot of friends up there in the snow belt that think like you do. Its cheaper to build FWD and it gets better gas mileage. Two things GM needs right now. I am really surprised how many people are upset about this. Whats the the real difference between buying a rwd impala or a rwd G8? Its not the 60's anymore, theres no 396 or 400 under the hood. The whole
drivetrain would be exacly the same.

 

While I too regret this, and was very frustrated with the decision at the time, the Impala SS (the only B body that was selling to consumers, really) wasn't enough to keep the platform profitable. Police Cars may do volume, but they offer little profit. Nonetheless, if they hadn't made this change, GM would have had plant ready to take advantage of the return to RWD.

Ford may be preparing to build themselves out of your market as well. Crown Vic is fleet only as of the 2007 Model Year and Grand Marquis may not be long for the world. If Lincoln introduces a large FWD that will be a suitable replacement for the Town Car in livery fleets, I think Panther will go quickly.[/QUOTE]

Unless you're rear ended at speed. Several police departments have brought suits against Ford saying that the Crown Vic is unsafe in a rear end collision - the cause of more than a dozen officer deaths.

I think GM gets the market more than we give them credit for, but GM is a big ship and turning her takes time. I think she's missed the iceberg, but it will take longer to fully turn around. The fact of the matter is GM couldn't have built a Camaro earlier even if the wanted to. There were contractual issues with the plant and then they had to wait for Zeta to be ready to be able to proceed with a production version. Then, a completely new line with all new tooling has to be done. That is some serious work. Mustang and Challenger are on existing platforms and being built on existing lines. That's a much easier task. We'd all have loved to have had a new Camaro for 2005, or even 2007 for the 40th anniversary, but there are limitations to what is possible.

I think as long as the 6 gets decent mileage, the car will still succeed. I don't think people who buy V8s will be as affected by or concerned about $4.00 a gallon gas. If you have a 16 gallon tank, that's 16 bucks per fill up more than the current $3.00 or so gas. If you fill up once a week, that's another $64.00 a month. That's not an insignificant amount of money, but probably not a deal breaker for someone looking at a $30-$40,000 performance car.

I feel your pain, man. But there's hope out there. I haven't heard anything about Alpha being cancelled, so we could still see a sporty rear drive Chevy. And after all this waiting, another year for Camaro won't be a big deal. It will likely be here by the time affordable (non SRT/8, non huge dealer markup) Challengers are, for sure.

 

East Palo Alto, California uses them. So does Stanford.

Right now, there's quite a few smaller police departments that are trying out the Chargers.

The one down side to the Chargers to the Vics is the Chargers cost a little more. Most public agencies have to go with the lowest bidder.

 

Going back to the title of the thread, a RWD Impala most certainly would not be an evil gas pig!

As Bob Lutz has mentioned publically at least twice, GM is making decisions based on just ONE MPG!

There is only 1 mpg difference between the FWD and RWD Impala according to BL himself. He's not talking about a V8 powered car. He's talking about the high volume V6s that most will buy (the difference in the low volume V8s... 5.3 versus 6.2... will be greater).

I see this as a bit of a cop out and here's why.

GM put on display 3 high mileage cars at the New York show last year, and had the public pick the one they liked the best. Immediately afterwards, GM said something to the effect of "Oh.... we weren't actually planning to sell those cars here in the US! We might after we study the market.... perhaps sometime early next decade...."

No doubt those cars would sell in high volume to at commuters from the suburbs and young people. At the same time, it would contribute greatly to CAFE. But it wasn't till new standards seemed inevitable that Gm actually seriously considered selling those cars here by the end of this decade.

GM locked out diesel engines from Holden's Zeta. Even Chrysler has a diesel planned for the 300. Now with CAFE, GM's backpeddling.

A RWD Impala never was going to sell at the volume of a FWD Impala, even discounting sales to rental and fleet buyers. There was alot of resistance to Zeta and RWD at GM-NA. CAFE is just an excuse to kill off the program.

 

CAFE is forcing GM to either sell cars people don't want to buy, or to make changes to the cars that people do.

Personally i wish they had a way to de-tune a V8 to get kickass MPG at the expense of power. Then those of us who don't give a crap about MPG can "fix" the tune via aftermarket.

 

why is gm that stupid?