Very Surprising - http://www.freep.com/money/autonews/...1_20030801.htm

"Chevy will revive the high-performance Impala SS nameplate with a 240-horsepower supercharged model for the 2004 model year. That model is expected to add at least 10,000 sales next year. Prices for the Impala SS start at $27,995. "

 

 

Well well well, look which car is also rated above the vaunted Accord and Camry in quality....

 

Actually, seemingly every imported car in it's class!

I do wonder how they rate it, since both Taurus & Sable are made on the same assembly line

 

makes you wonder if GM will really switch it over to RWD if the FWD version is selling so well.

they would almost be better off making it FWD with an AWD option.

 

$28,000 for a Chevy S/C v6 fwd sedan shows how expensive cars are starting to become. I would guess most of these SS's will sell in the low $30,000's

While I wont argue that its a relative good value compared to other sport sedans on the market but it makes you wonder how much a V8 RWD Impala would cost if GM decided to make it ($35,000??).

As time goes by I doubt the next Impala will have rear drive since it will most likely be more expensive to produce.

An AWD option on a FWD car is more plausable.

 

[SLT's rolleyes were in response to the fleet sales being up on the Impala]

Yes, but the article notes that retail sales are also up significantly. It really does appear that the 3rd shift at Oshawa has allowed dealers to sell more Impys, something which I doubted when it was first announced. The article also says that the average Impy incentive is $3100, which is less than GM's average of $3900 so that's also a plus. I'm happily surprised at how well this car is selling. Imagine how well it would do with a decent interior!

 

Safe to say Chevy will have a RWD sedan starting in the 2006 calender (2007 model) year. The only question is what will it be called.

It also seems there will be a limited number of Lumina SSs from Australia available here during the 2005 model year run (perhaps as the 2006 V8 Impala mentioned in the GM press realease last winter). They sell in the low $20K range down under. You can only imagine the profit margin GM is going to carve out of them when they sell them here (it's a safe bet MSRP won't be lower than our $25,000 FWD V6 Impalas).

 

A few weeks ago the local Chevy dealer got a new shipment of Impala's. They had about 10 total in their lot...two days later I go driving by, NONE OF THEM WERE LEFT! I figured they might have been hiding them somewhere in the garage or something, but nope...they still haven't returned

 

It also seems there will be a limited number of Lumina SSs from Australia available here during the 2005 model year run (perhaps as the 2006 V8 Impala mentioned in the GM press realease last winter).

okay why was it not told right out sooner..Lumina IS comming back as an SS...
so the 3 will be made..Lumina Monte and Impala..wow..thats cool and the one that was never RWD will now be..

anyone have pics or photoshopped pics of a supposed Lumina SS ??

 

Um... actually the Lumina is already made in Australia & sold in the middle east. My understanding is that the changes made to the GTO will be done to the Lumina (already right hand drive) and brought here for at least a year. GM's V8 Impala press release could be this car (they did say 2006), or it could be a version of Jon Moss's FWD V8 Impala.

The only facts in all this is there will be a V8 Impala for 2006, and there will be a large RWD Chevrolet sedan for 2007 along with a performance coupe. As to if the Lumina SS will be the '05 Impala (which though I thought it ridiculous at the time, Motor Trend's story about this very thing last winter actually is looking to be true! ), or if Monte Carlo will continue past 2006 is still just guessing.

Trivia: Monaro and Commodore are for the most part the same car. This means that virtually all the development and certification that went into the GTO will carry over into the Commodore/Lumina. Soon as the next phase of Holden's plant construction is done early next year, their production capacity will go up at almost 20%.

Remember Bob Lutz's comment last year about Holden filling the role of providing "stop-gap cars (about the same time Kurt Ritter said he'd prefer a RWD performance sedan for Chevy "sooner, rather than later)?

 

guionM

oh yea..I am a fan of Holden..and follow them very close..as I do the whole 5th gen board..you being one of the people that bring us the info..and I follow your posts..and didnt know what was going on but the last I heard there were Lumina SS sightings..

I just thought the Lumina SS "WAS" the name of the car comming back.. I know Chevy wants there own peice of the pie the GTO will be making..but was just shocked that Lumina is considered..not that its a bad name..

though a 2 door Malibu would be good if its the Holden one..Malibu SS..lol..instead of the Malibu MAXX SS.. ...


though..Bel Air was mentioned latley..any possibility Bel Air might be the stop gap name for this 2 door terror??

Or just for S#!Ts and giggles they should call it Monaro SS for fun..

 

Are you implying that the Camaro is gonna be based off of 1 of these "temorary" chassis for like a year or 2 untl it's completly done here?!

 

I don't suspect the Belair is going to be a stopgap for anything.

Temporary chassis?

Nope. The reason for this Camaro gap in the 1st place is that there wasn't a chassis available for a new Camaro short of FWD.

The 4th gen chassis was 20 years old, Cadillac initially had sole custody of Sigma, a proposal of putting it on the Vette chassis went nowhere, & the V chassis was scheduled to be replaced in 2-3 years. This problem will be solved for the 2007 model year.

 

refresh my memory..is the Bel Air making the same course as the SSR ??

if so the Bel Air I could only see as sucsefull as a counter part to a Nomad.. lol..
why is there no NOMAD?? grrrr talk about something that would sell!!!