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Comments
The radio antena is built into the rear window. Sometimes the antena is defective - it have micro-crack(s). With defroster on, the crack widens due to thermal expansion, and the electrical connection in the antena becames unstable. The "rattling" contact makes the noise.
The rear window was replaced under warranty, and the problem gone away.
However, it was with built-in antena. If you have a "diversity" one with On-Star, you have a different problem.
It rides nice and smooth, has great acceleration, has a very nice interior, and looks beautiful too.
Things I really like about the Impala:
Exterior:
This car looks great!
The smoke headlight covers, the retro tail-lights, the aggressive looking nose. I don't even mind the black side molding (nobody thought black molding looked bad on the sides of the 2000 5 series BMW--but they hate it on a Chevy. Go figure). The wheels look great and even alittle sporty. I even think the tail-light cover looks cool--at least it's not boring.
Interior:
I love the instument display. It's very neat and well thought-out and everything is lighted at night. The fake wood is at least "good fake wood" and is not overdone. The leather seats are very comfortable and easy to adjust. Center console is nice and deep with removable rubber-mat. Plenty of room in the car for 4 passengers and the trunk is huge.
Performance:
The 3800 engine is well suited for this car and it has plenty of power--passing on the highway is nothing to sweat about at all.
The transmission shifts nice and smooth with no herky-jerky.
Things I don't like so much:
Exterior:
The spoiler--but I was too cheap to get it removed.
Interior:
It could have alittle better quality plastic, but they had to cut cost somewhere.
The glove-compartment is way too small.
I would rather have a hand operated parking brake.
The radio: I'm still learning so I'll reserve judgement for now, but it has weak reception.
The brakes: they feel alittle weak at times. but the car is used and I don't know how the previous owner treated it.
Overall I think this car is terrific and Chevy is on the right track.
Bring your car into you Chevy service dept. They should be able to do something.
But it certainly is'nt ugly by any means and I hardly notice it now.
Perhaps it is an ugly trim piece but hey since BMW and Volvo use it on their premium sedans it must be tasteful and therefore acceptable in terms of looks.
The Impala uses the same black moulding as the cars mentioned above....perhaps the black material is not as easy to clean or friendly when waxing the vehicle but the idea and principle are the same.
Have you seen how fully painted bumpers and/or door moulding trim pieces look after a few years?
I have and it looks terrible. Those painted mouldings look nice when the car is new but after they receive a few hits from adjacent doors from parked cars, these leave scuff marks or chip/peel off the paint. Ditto with fully painted bumpers.
By the way who was the DUMMY that came with the idea that bumpers and door mouldings have to be 'color coordinated' in a car???
Paint is not meant to provide full protection in these subject to high impact and wear areas in the exterior of the car.
After a few years of use, guess which bumpers and trim mouldings are going to look better??
By the way I REALLY LIKE the rear decklid spoiler. It adds character to the car and it also serves as an excellent aid when backing up the vehicle.
The Impala without the spoiler looks kinda lame, but thats entirely my opinion.
Extremely informative by the way.
Also if you happen to feel steering clunks in the car, you might also need to have your Intermediate Steering Shaft replaced as well.
The Engine cradle and Intermediate Steering Shaft are the two most common maladies on first production year (2000) Impalas and Montecarlos.
I have been following the 2002 Altima tread here in Edmunds and I have read about a host of complaints regarding the cheap interior and poor assembly quality of the interior in general...is this true or an exaggeration???
The 2002 Camry looks much, much better than the last generation sleeping pill, but I would never pay $30K for a decently equipped Camry with a V6 engine. Passatville? Not only that but also Toyota has again outpriced themselves over their very own Avalon 'Flagship' and even crossing into Acuraville, Lexusville, BMWVille and Audiville territory as well.
The Altima appears to be the best compromise in moderately priced Japanese performance sedans but I have also read that a fully loaded 3.5L V6 Altima is dangerously approaching the $30K threshold as well.....No way I would pay that much money for a Nissan Altima..
Aside from the Message Center light, have you had any other engine related problems or is it just the dashboard warning light lit on???
Has the dealer checked your emissions equipment?
Was is the mileage and sticker build date of your car (Located inside the driver's door jamb)?
It sounds like your problem is not hardware concentric, in other words, you don't have a PCM problem. The controlling software seems to be suspect, therefore causing the constant triggering of the dashboard light.
Please keep us posted.
Best wishes - enjoy that Impala!
Ken
That Altima has been reported to have dismal gas mileage. What did the window sticker suggest it gets? It's a continual wonder to me that cars like the Impala and Bonneville can demonstrate consistent upper 20s and even low 30s on the highway while the supposedly 'efficient' Asian sedans burn more fuel.
Ken
However, the smaller Japanese engines usually get better city numbers, so I guess it depends on where one does most of one's driving.
The Japanese engines arguably last a wee bit longer than their US conterparts, as well. However, that gap has narrowed considerably in the last few years, also arguably.
I also don't understand peoples passionate hatred of the black molding. While I agree with them that body color molding does indeed look better, I find that the black molding still looks OK.
I'm not too crazy about the way it turns into this huge black piece around the license plate frame, or the way the whole bumper sticks out in the back. But, I don't mind them so much either.
It's strange, except for the taillight treatment, I don't see anything in the car's styling to get so passionate about. It's got simple, smooth lines and most of the colors are nice.
Last year's Impala SS prototype pictures suggested the use of a more 'Flush' looking rear decklid spoiler, possibly borrowed from the current Montecarlo SS coupe. It looks very nice, but like you say, the current spoiler is quite nice and adds a lot of character to the car.
If the V8 Impala SS ever becomes a reality in the current platform it will give the Nissan Altima and almost any sedan in its price range a hard run for the money plus it would be able to compete head to head with the dinosaur Marauder when it comes out next year, provided that Ford doesn't screw it up with 10 recalls by launch time..
One thing that GM needs to give the Impala is folding exterior side rear view mirrors.
I also like better the steering wheel design in the Montecarlo coupe (3 spoke design) as it also includes a steering mounted on/off button for the cruise control as oppossed to the turn signal stalk mounted one in the Impala. The Monte's steering wheel looks a bit nicer than the Impala's altough I find both wheels to be very comfortable and easy to grip.
At least they were able to quickly troubleshoot the problem. You should be OK once you get the new glass replacement.
If that is the only problem in 8 months (And probably the last for a long time to come), hey you still got a GREAT quality car.
Enjoy!
I will make a note to check my reception out while the def. is on ASAP.
I know how much it sucks to have your car in the shop (especially after 8 months), but it goes with the territory and believe me, 8 mos. and that is the only thing wrong - could be MUCH worse... aka FORD! HA! Sorry you FORD lovers!
later!
RR
If you are having steering wheel vibrations at highway speeds, then also take advantage of the rotation and have the dealer check the balancing on each tire. Do this ONLY if you are having abnormal vibrations felt in the car, otherwise skip it.
Have them check all fluids levels and your tire's air pressures (Including trunk spare tire).
Quick visual inspection of suspension components and underside the car.
If needed, they should put some lubricating grease on all door hinges
Oil/Filter change.
You should be good for another 3K to 5K after this.
Car doesn't look bad at all but really dislike the tacky 'Impala SS' markings on the front chin spoiler.
It appears that the owner is trying too hard to make believe others this is an 'SS' model by plastering some ugly 'Impala SS' markings on the car (Why not use the Impala LS's door marking instead?)
Anyway I am more interested in seeing the interior and engine bay pics showing the modifications.
An Impala SS without tachometer and bench seats??
I am just being sarcastic
She would get it with the comfort and con. package that is about 1700.00 which gets you 8 way power seats, sport wheels with 16" tires cruise, and a host of other things too numerous to mention but a good deal I think. The MSRP would be 21,305.00 and they say they are not discounting at all. I won't pay msrp for any car so unless they want to deal I'm not budging, too many other dealerships to go to if they want to play that game. I think you're right about the camry though, the new one may have put themselves out of the running at 30k, we'd go with Passat before I spent 30k on Toyota. Overall I'd say the Altima is pretty nice at 21.3k
I'll give you a holler...
Man, how times change!
I will never pay MSRP for any mass produced car and don't care how 'hot' it may be and much less so for a Nissan.
Looks very nice but I think it will be better to let the dealer do their price gouging until demand for the car softens and they begin to deal on them.
175HP for a four banger is pretty decent power but I would still have my reservations about paying $21K for a four banger car when you can get an Impala or other GM equivalent with V6 power for the same money.
If you go for the Altima, enjoy, but I would personally wait and see how the car turns out to be (First year 1.0 model) and the price gouging ends.
Best Regards,
FatherTyricius
Remember WE bought a first year model car too so it's not a very good argument against, and you ended up getting yours bought back. I've already tried 3 times to talk her into a 2002 Impala. I'm pretty good at talking her into things but it's not working, so my guess is she doesn't like my car as much as she says she does! My deal is I'd rather not pay about 6k more for the Passat if I can get something that is pretty decent and has a good track record. First year car or not, Nissan builds a pretty good product so I'm not really worried about that. She's not thrilled with the seats (cloth in the Passat) so she has to go with leather (1500.00 more) and the 1.8T seems sluggish to her (another 1500.0 to go up to a v6) those and about 3k more in base price for the Passat, plus the service issues we have around here (only one Service center that is halfway convienient to get to plus high parts costs for the VW) There is still a bunch of crap to consider as you can see...cripes if she'd just go for the Sport Edition Impala...
;-)
(I mean that in the good sense.)
I had them on "low" and no problem, and then switched them to "hi" and no problem for about 20 minutes. Then the driver's wiper went totally off the windshield and wedged itself between the driver's side-mirror and the door!
To make matters worse I was about 2 hours from my dealer.
Once I got to the dealer I noticed the wiper had scratched the paint on the side-mirror and that really got my blood pressure up!
They're working on it right now and I'm sure they will repair everything (it's still under warranty).
Has this happened to anyone else?
It's probably just a fluke but I advise everyone to thoroughly test your wipers on "hi". I tested them before I bought the car but not for an extended amount of time.
I had been riding with them on "low" for about 1 hour before switching them to "hi".
I'm thankful that I was not on I-85 doing 75mph around Atlanta!
The emmission equipment has not been checked, only other problem has been 1 engine shut down at an excess speed that I have chosen not to duplicate again. Chucked it up to a possible governor, any idea on that notion?
fuel cap is on and clicked into place. The light has illuminated twice since the initial module replacements, but when the car was restarted after turning engine off, the light went out. However, at this point it will not go away.
I'm taking it in to the dealer tommorrow morning. Will keep you posted on the findings.
Otherwise the car has been great and still rides well despite the nuisance light. Could use better gas mileage, but I still like it.
Of course, they can't fix it from there, but it's nice to know what's up.
I man had a problem with his car. On star remotely 'reprogramed' his computer and solved his problem.
This was a new one on me.
Nick
I still have trouble convincing my wife the whole thing wasnt staged in the desert somewhere on earth. My wifes crazy.....but she loves my Impala
Nick
Also, did you get it checked because sometimes the transmitter wasn't working? This is happening to me more and more. My batteries in BOTH fob's are fine. There is a TSB stating a problem about this, and they will fix it under warrenty.
Hope this helps.
I stated before that my Impala LS did not come with the coin holder. I took the car in for an oil change and told them that my car did not come with a coinholder at the time I took delivery of the vehicle. No problem, they place an order for a new coinholder. Guess what? They charged GM $28 for labor to place the coin holder in the compartment. LOL What's up with that?
As for someone who recently had the rear glass replace because of static in their stereo, I really question their motive to replace the entire rear glass. In my opinion, it's probably a faulty wire connection. Instead, the dealer will bill GM for a new rear glass and get to keep the new rear glass for themselves!!
15 years ago, my father bought a brand new Oldsmobile Ninety-Eight Regency. It was a top of the line showroom model. This car was a nightware from hell. Everything went wrong. To make the long story short, my father once took his car in to have the A/C condenser (?) replaced. Before he took the car in for service, he initialed his name onto to the part. When the dealer called to have him pick up his car, he noticed the dealer did NOT do anything to his A/C. The dealer claimed they ordered new parts and yadda yadda. My father proved to them otherwise. My father made a BIG scene. He was furious. They lied and cheated him on his new parts.
Anyway, the moral of the story is when having a dealer service your vehicle, put your initials on the part. I'm not saying all dealers are crooked, but some will twist the truth to get free parts from GM. IMO.