By James R. Healey, USA Today - Chevrolet has recrafted its Impala big sedan to be less like the junky rental car you might call to mind, and more like the premium high-end brand statement that Ford Motor executed with the latest Taurus.Along the way, GM's Chevy brand styled its car to resemble a swoop-backed Audi. Let's just say it makes a good first impression.
"Our design team was challenged to create a new classic, but that didn't mean relying on nostalgia," says John Cafaro, director of North America passenger car exterior design.
The Impala hasn't had much of a rep since its heydey in the 1960s and 1970s, when it was a powerful, stylish big Detroit sedan that provided a lot of satisfaction to folks unwilling or unable to spring for premium models. Back then, it was distinguished from the lesser big Chevy, the Bel Air, by sporting six taillights to Bel Air's four.
Just so nobody mistook yours for the down-market model.
The car will be an infotainment-rich environemtn, which is the price of entry nowadays. Likewise, electronic safety features abound, as do the vision aids that are meant to keep you from bumping, smashing or crunching things around you that aren't necessarily apparent.
GM's Detroit-Hamtramck, Mich., and Oshawa, Ontario factories will build the car. Chevy will announce prices later.
Here's one huge difference between the 2014 Impala, on sale next year and starring at the Chevy display at the New York International Auto Show, and the fleet-footed machines of yore: No V-8 engine is listed for the '14. Two fours and a six.
Sign 'o the times, alas. Tauras has no V-8, either, but does offer a honey of a twin-turbo V-6 that makes a V-8 superfluous.
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