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Road Test: 2014 Chevrolet Impala
Car Reviews

Road Test: 2014 Chevrolet Impala

·
June 17,2013
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11 min read

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I first laid eyes on the 2014 Chevrolet Impala a few weeks ago – in a shade of silvery golden and I was shocked that a 3 box saloon could look that sensational. And ever since, I was more than a little curious to learn everything I could about it.


From the outside…

Let's cut to the chase here, this is one handsome car. In a market dominated by the Nissan Maxima (over-styled), Toyota Avalon (dull and dour, just a Camry with more leather) and the Ford Taurus (a bit bulbous), the Impala cuts a stunning silhouette and adds a dash of good looks to the segment. From the chiselled bonnet, the Camaro-esque head-lamps all the way to the trapezoidal tail-pipes, the sheer size of the car is very prominent but doesn’t feel overbearing. It all feels well contoured and very delicious.

On our top spec LTZ model, we had the optional 20inch alloy wheels which seem a bit large and fussy, even on such a sizeable car, but do well to fill up the arches and give the car great proportions. The car has a lot of character lines running across its body and in our test car’s dark blue exterior, these did get a bit camouflaged. Lighter metallic shades would arguably work better in helping every crease stand out.

We did find the rear section around the trunk feeling a bit large as compared to the rest of the car. It did not sit quite right. However, it did allow for cavernous back seats and a boot that could easily fit 4 dead bodies across or possibly 16 piled on top of each other. Members of the Mafioso – this could prove very useful to you.


On the inside…

Upon entering the car, the first thing that hits you is the space you have inside. This is not limited to just the physical size of the interior but also the number of useful cubby holes all around the car.

Ever so often, large cars disappoint on the inside by having almost non-existent storage spaces for the various paraphernalia that one tends to gather in their set of wheels. The Impala could teach them a thing or two. The door pockets are of a large and useful size and incorporate a bottle holder each. There is the centre console which is quite deep and once a shallow tray on top is removed, further extends to a deep space between the front seats. Two cup holders between driver and passenger are further supplemented by a storage space below the climate control settings. And if that’s not enough, Chevrolet have even added an excellent little storage space behind the 8 inch touch screen (Chevrolet’s take on the Infotainment system called ‘MyLink’ runs through this screen) which can be accessed by raising the screen at the press of a button. There is a valet function to lock this storage space by entering a 4 digit code. Neat for storing valuables.

The rest of the interior is very visually appealing. Most surfaces are covered in leather, including parts of the dash board and the blend of black and caramel surfaces lend a rich touch. And if the interiors weren’t already spacious enough, a massive sunroof provides a healthy dose of light to the interiors which augments the feeling of space. This is an excellent touch and I think more cars need to incorporate such sunroofs into their option lists. The seats are comfy enough and incorporate a cooling function. All this leads to a perceived sense of opulence that will attract a lot of buyers.

Having said that, the more you spend time in the car, the more the materials start feeling cheap. The dark grain wood finish is actually plastic and feels it. This is outlined by a chrome trimming which looks a little too garish and is made of plastic as well. The chrome also tests your driving skills by decidedly blinding you every now and then when the sunlight falls on it. This chrome strips also incorporates a mood lighting that leaves the cabin bathed in an icy blue hue at night. It may be a nice touch to some but felt a bit chintzy to me. The cooled seats along with the climate control still struggle to bring the car to a more amiable temperature, especially during our hot summer months. The speedometer and rev gauges look like they’ve been lifted off a 90s Chevy Tahoe – outdated is putting it mildly. There is a storage space on the left on the steering wheel and, once opened, took atleast 6 attempts to shut. The indicators, when switched on, sound like a grandfather clock ticking away. It makes one wonder whether you’ll find pieces of interior trim falling off 5 to 10 years from now.

There were a few more quirks which really diminished the integrity of the car. Each time the car is switched off, the drivers seat moves back and the steering wheel up and away to allow ease of egress for the driver. However, upon restarting the car, the settings do not come back to their place. So unless you’ve got them saved on the memory seat settings, you will have to manually adjust everything from the seats, to the lumbar support, to the steering wheel and right down to the side mirrors. This becomes increasingly aggravating as every small adjustment I make over time as I get myself comfortable needs to be saved on the memory setting or it faces the risk of being lost forever.

The MyLink system is a little slow and takes a second or two to respond to every touch of the screen. The 3D Navigation works easily enough but the infotainment system as a whole is not exactly easy to use. Despite Chevrolet’s claim of it being easily operable, particularly by people of the I-pad generation, it could not be further from the truth with icons and buttons being hidden away or placed in obscured corners of the screen. Something as simple as finding the right radio station actually takes a good 5 minutes till you figure out the right buttons to hit. The system is well-enough organised but not exactly intuitive.

This definitely puts a damper on the ownership experience.


To drive…

Once on the move, the car redeems itself to some extent.

I personally fell in love with the engine and transmission combo. Working with a 3.6 V6 putting out 306bhp and 356Nm of torque through the front wheels, the car pulls away from traffic lights with ease. Typical driving will not see the rev counter cross 2,000rpm as the car cruises along relatively effortlessly, always picking a higher gear to minimize fuel consumption. However, putting your foot down calls on the entire cavalry and you’re pushed back into your seat as the car surges forward. There is always adequate power and torque to perform overtaking manoeuvres. A mix of highway and city driving leads to an average fuel consumption of 12L/100kms. Extended highway cruising does see this drop to 10L/100kms, which for a car of this size is pretty good.

The car is softly sprung and this allows for a smooth ride and yet the car does not fall over when it sees a corner. Considering the car is so softly sprung, it actually takes corners sufficiently well, though it admittedly has no sporting intentions and nor does it claim to. Having said that, the car does have a manual mode to change gears. So you stick the gear level in ‘M’ and you hold on to the steering wheel and flick the “paddle” to shift up and all you get is an increase in the stereo volume. Wha…??? There are buttons on either side of the back of the steering wheel for volume and changing tracks. The shift for gears is a button on top of the gear lever. It’s a ridiculous place to put it and with the gear lever tugged back into ‘M’, your hand is stretched back with your elbow resting on the back seat to shift manually. An absolute ergonomic nightmare.

The steering wheel is extremely light and devoid of feel and does not allow you to pilot the car with confidence. There is also a lack of consistency in the steering wheel while turning from lock to lock and the brakes feel adequate, but not particularly strong when bringing such a heavy car to a halt. This further adds to a feeling of disconcertment.

The big 20 inch rims mentioned earlier do lead to a couple of downfalls. The first is that every large undulation in the road is met with a bit of thump as the heavy wheels come crashing down. This is particularly evident on rumble strips (the yellow stripes along the road indicating you need to slow down) where the car noticeably bounces and crashes over each undulation. The second is a high degree of tyre roar that comes from the 20inch Bridgestone tyres. This may be down to tyre choice as I personally feel that Bridgestones are a noisy tyre; regardless, it takes away a sense of calm while going down the highway. The noise is intrusive to the extent that it can even be heard with the Bose sound system cranked up a bit. Considering there is an impressive lack of wind noise, this stands out quite sorely.

The car also has a host of safety features – some are a nice touch and some are redundant.

The car, like some others today, has a magnified side mirror on the driver’s side. I don’t understand the reason behind putting these as they actually limit your vision. However, the Impala does have blind spot indicators helping you identify objects you can’t see. I realised its importance when an entire public transport bus was hidden in my blind spot on one occasion. Scary.

The car has lane departure warning which gives you an audible indication that you are crossing over into another lane without indicating. However, the system is quite sensitive and I found it to be beeping every few minutes. Perhaps it will encourage more people to use their indicators though I reckon most people will just switch it off.

The car has also has a rear cross traffic alert. When you shift the car into reverse, the reverse parking sensors and the reverse camera (highly pixellated - terrible quality for the modern age; felt almost like a picture taken from a camera of an early 2000s mobile phone) are activated. In addition to showing you the road behind, they all give you audible and visual warnings of cars that may be crossing behind you. It can be quite helpful when reversing out in a crowded parking lot, especially considering the length of the car. What are grossly missing here are sensors for the front. I do not understand why Chevrolet refuses to put sensors on the fronts of their cars. It makes manoeuvring the Impala through tight spots a little tricky. With a car of such substantial length, you do want all the help you can get.

And last, but not least, was the most infuriating feature I have ever seen on a car, or perhaps just the worst execution. Forward collision alert. Sounds like a feature that can save your life. Well, let me tell you it is more likely to get you into trouble than to save you from it in the Chevy. In theory, the Impala is supposed to give you an audible warning with 4 or 5 red LEDs flashing to indicate that there is a significant possibility of you having a forward collision. If only it were that simple and helpful.

In reality, you can be driving back from work on one of U.A.E.’s ever populated highways and as the car in front of you begins to slow down, the Impala detects impending doom, puts your car stereo on mute, flashes the 5 LED lights bang in your line of sight and gives you an audible warning that sounds like the earth is coming to an end. When this first happens, it is most likely that you will first wonder why your music has gone off (shifting your eyes away from the road), then make you jump out of your seat at the loud audible warning while you are blinded by the red LEDs. This happened on average about 6 times a day, without any threat of collision in any instance. The system also works only if the threat is from dead straight ahead. Any car coming into your lane from an adjacent one and potentially posing an actual threat drifts across undetected while every time a car slows down in front of you on the highway has the system bonging away.

 

Conclusion

Your mother would have taught you never to judge a book by its cover. For the most part, it holds true when talking about the Impala. The car is fantastic to look at and causes more heads to turn than a saloon has any right to. But it is let down by some below-par materials used on the interiors and some redundant features that seem to have been added just to list on a brochure. At AED 129,000, the Impala is a decent choice for a large saloon but it is not the best in class (despite looking like an absolute winner) and your money could potentially be better spent elsewhere.

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