Junkyard Gem: 2014 Chevrolet Impala Restricted
What does a automobile firm do when it introduces a totally revised new era of a car even whereas fleet gross sales of its predecessor stay sturdy? Within the case of Twenty first-century Common Motors, you retain making each variations. That is what GM did when the tenth-generation Chevrolet Impala had its debut as a 2014 mannequin, persevering with to construct the ninth-generation Impala for fleet-only gross sales by means of 2016 and calling it the Impala Restricted. This is a kind of not-so-rare-but-still-interesting machines, present in a Colorado automobile graveyard just lately.
This 2016 Chevrolet police-vehicle brochure {photograph} reveals the Impala Restricted on the left and the common Impala on the precise. The metal wheels on the Restricted look higher than alloys on a cop automobile, for my part.
The tenth-generation Impala had moved from the growing old W Platform to the worldwide Epsilon II platform, making it a sibling to such machines because the Opel Insignia and Saab 9-5. It was constructed for the 2016 by means of 2020 mannequin years, making it the ultimate Impala. That was fairly a run for a mannequin relationship again to 1958.
This automobile is an effective previous W-Physique, a chassis design relationship again to the 1988 Buick Regal, Pontiac Grand Prix and Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme.
That meant that the 2014-2016 Impala Restricted was a bit shorter and a lot much less roomy inside than the Epsilon-based 2014-2020 Impalas, however so what? Fleet mechanics had been engaged on W-Our bodies for a few years and knew them nicely, plus there was loads of manufacturing capability out there.
GM had taken the same route with the Chevrolet Traditional a decade earlier; the Malibu moved over to the Epsilon platform for 2004 (making it sibling to the Saab 9-3 and Saturn Aura), whereas the N-Physique model remained in manufacturing for fleet-only gross sales by means of 2006.
The engine on this automobile is a 3.6-liter Excessive Function DOHC V6 with variable valve timing, rated at a formidable 302 horsepower and 262 pound-feet. These vehicles have been fast because of their curb weight of simply over 3,600 kilos.
The one transmission out there was a six-speed computerized. The truth is, the ultimate mannequin 12 months for a guide transmission in a U.S.-market manufacturing Impala was 1973 (when a three-speed column-shift guide was base tools on six-cylinder vehicles).
I used to be touring and renting vehicles everywhere in the nation through the Impala Restricted’s heyday, in my position as clever and revered Chief Justice of the 24 Hours of Lemons Supreme Court docket, and each Lemons staffer most well-liked the ninth-generation Impala to all different rental choices through the 2006-2016 interval. Even when poorly maintained, these vehicles all the time run fairly nicely, plus they got here with first rate audio techniques and loads of engine energy. The truth is, we regularly held drag races between numerous rental vehicles on the lengthy straights at road-race tracks; right here I’m officiating at a race between a rental Maxima and a rental Impala Restricted at GingerMan Raceway in Michigan (the Restricted gained, because it almost all the time did).
I all the time appreciated the AUX enter jack within the Impala Restricted’s radio once I rented these vehicles; this very helpful function was nonetheless pretty tough to seek out in rental-spec vehicles through the center 2010s.
The tenth-generation Impala was larger inside than the Restricted and rode extra quietly, however I used to be upset when the ninth-gen vehicles departed rental fleets.
I have never documented any first-generation Impalas in junkyards, however I have photographed used-up examples of the second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh generations (together with Bel Airs, Biscaynes, Caprices and different members of the Impala household).
Clinkscales Chevrolet in South Carolina had offers on ninth-gen Impalas for you!
It was a complete new animal.
