2005 and Earlier Chevrolet Impala

bearmer

Look at post #11943 and about a dozen that follow. It's an exchange about the fees that dealers try to charge you. I post my take on it all and a few people reply. The advertising charge is a sham because the dealer cost didn't go up when they started to put that on the window sticker. Advertising is one of many expenses of being in business but now they make the customer think that he has to pay for it. Look at the bottom line of the contract and don't pay more than a few hundred dollars over the dealer's cost. Edmunds (and my post in the thread) tells you how to calculate it.

tsjay

Thanks, I'll check out those posts. I KNOW the ad fees were on my invoice for the Jeep. They were listed just like any other of the costs, like the options. I think the dealer really had to pay those, since they were listed on the invoice, but I am going to check out the posts you referred me to.

Tom

pluto5

1. GM's advertising charges are not included in the invoice price, and yes they are a cost of doing business like rent.
2. Don't know about DC's advertising.
3. If you get a new Imp for $200 over invoice you are probably paying a doc fee, extended warranty or some other profit to dealer since they cannot pay their expenses inc. a commission to the salesman if they sell for $200 over invoice.
4. Some dealers produce an invoice with whatever the consider legit. charges and pass that off as the factory invoice. A common ripoff today is the widow etch.

b4z

I use a dealer that charges $98 over factory invoice on everything they sell. Including Corvettes.
The factory invoice included a advertising fee of (I think it was $179).
However that adv. fee will not show up on the invoice reported by edmunds or kbb, etc.
I didn't have a problem paying it because of the deal I got.
Which included them searching for the lowest interest rate available without my asking.
The other thing was that there was no document or administrative fee.Seems to be what a lot of places are charging now.
I have seen these fees as high as $300!!!

If you can get the car for $2-300 over factory invoice with the advertising fee thrown in I would go for it.

You might want to check and see if there is dealer cashback.

I was at my dealer last Sunday and they clearly had $4000 rebate written on the windshield.

I also saw an add for free 90 days 0% interst on the TV yesterday.

Finally, I wouldn't even consider a base Impala.
I have leather, Driver Info Center, and heated seats.
I have never had heated seats before and they are great.

Chevrolet is pushing to sell more Impalas than tauruss this year.
So they are dealing.
Check and see if some of the dealers are advertising 4k rebate in your paper.

33chevy

Somewhere in past posts someone mentioned that the trunklight should be brighter. I have always had used Chevy's and the 2000 Impala LS loaded was our first new one. And we are in our 60's. The car has been a very good car. 37 k miles on it now after almost having it 4 years. Since there is not much work to do on it...I checked into the # 912 trunk lamp. It draws about 1 amp..making for a 12 watt light.

On the rack at Wal Mart you can buy a # 921 Lamp that draws about 1.5 Amps making for a brighter lamp. I checked these currents with my meter. I also took a piece of tin can metal and formed it and painted it white and glued it to the lamp assembly. It reflects more of the light to where it is needed vs it going into the deep abiss above it as lost light.

It does make for a brighter trunk.

As I tell others....there are only two kind of people in the world ..those who own Chevys ..and those who are jealous.

etcarroll

Just clicked 70k miles on a 2001 LS, built 10/00. Still love the car. Just got my re-imbursement check, ($600), for the manifold recall that I had fixed at 40k miles. Put new Michelin X rasials on at 42k miles. Took it in for amp swap-out, never had the ISS or many other problems listed. Yes, the moulding on top is peeling a little, I just stopped looking at it. At 6'3", 300 lbs, I find it a comfortable car to drive still, and for 1st six months of this year I was making the CT. - PA. loop which racked up 20k miles in 6 months. Never unhappy with it.

With my $600 GM check I simply brought it into the dealer for new plugs, serpentine belt, brake pads, (1st set), tranny flush, gas filter and PCV valve, and other standard items. Passed on the fuel injector service as I'd read once here that it was a waste of $$$, so threw in a bottle of STP injector cleaner.

Expecting 6" of snow tomorrow, but not worried.

tsjay

Man, I have been stopping by dealers' lots after hours and checking out some Impalas. I think I like that medium grey metallic the best, but the sandstone looks good to me too.

Guess if I get one it will be the LS with the 1SB package and leather seats. I might go with the radio package that includes a cassett player as well as the CD player. My wife will be the main driver for this car, and she has a lot of her music on cassetts.

How are the sounds systems on the Impala? I have yet to test drive one. It says in the brochure that you get a 200 watt amplifier, so I'm expecting a pretty decent sound system.

Money is DEFINITELY a consideration, and if I am able to do this at all, I will have to keep the price down. But, given that I will go for the 1SB package and the leather, are there any other "must have" options that are not prohibitively expensive?

Thanks.

Tom

hvan3

Just saw an add in the paper over the weekend. A dealer is marking off $7K off MSRP on a 2004 Impala SS. I never ever thought any dealer would discount an SS that heavily.

By the way, I just had my recall done on the intake. It's wonderful to know that at 43K miles, I got FREEE coolant replacement!!

Sometime in February 2004, my LS will become 3 years old. Which also means that my car registration will become due. I'm thinking of selling my LS for a pre-owned MB SL convertible. I"ve always wanted an SL convertible. I would be very torn to sell my Impala. Impala is so much fun to drive, yet so practical when it comes to hauling stuff around town.

johnclineii

That dealer with the $7k off MSRP probably includes the phrase: Dealer retains all incentives. It also probably includes several incentives you might not qualify for, such as college grad, AARP, etc.

b4z

There might be a military or grad discount like the previous poster mentioned.
The car at my dealer has a MSRP $31.5K and is on sale for 25.XXXK.
So that is 6K off.
Don't know where that other dealer is getting the rest.
Perhaps a $750 military and a $400 grad.
Or maybe it is a demo.

johnclineii

And in some states where they can get by with it, dealers have been known to include an assumed trade value with the discount.

Watch carefully!

jbenda

tsjay

If you intend to use the impala as a family car as I did, a must have option was a bench seat. When I got my 2k1 you could not get the LS with a bench seat, but I believe you can now.

pluto5

Personal preference but I found the bucket seat much more comforable than the bench and the center position with the bench is not very comfortable.

hvan3

I'll look at the ad again. I don't think there was any strings attached to the $7K off on the SS. It did, however, said "1 at this price". Typically, when I shop for a car that is "1 at this price", I normally get that vehicle every time. I had bought a Nissan truck, Honda Accord, my Dad's Camry, and my Impala LS on sale as "1 at this price".

With my $2k GM points, that would be $9K off!!!! Now, i have to figure out what the MSRP is.

tsjay

the wife has put the kibosh on this car deal. She's right, and I just needed her to keep me from doing what I used to be so famous for, going out and getting us in terrible financial straits over a car deal.

I just couldn't get those rebates out of my head, but we really don't need to take on a new payment.

By the way, when I went through the Edmunds GMbuypower thing to get dealer quotes, I had one dealer respond and offer me a $4000 rebate. Wonder what's up with that? Oh well, that was just salt in my wounds.

Good luck to each of you with your Impalas. One of these days, maybe I can join you. It will be two more years before my Jeep is paid off, so the rebates will undoubtedly be gone by then.

Thanks again, everyone.

Tom

b4z

Just saw a TV ad here in SC.
$4000 rebate is in effect on Impalas.
Plus 90 days 0% interest.

tsjay

Thanks. Just heard on the radio the same thing. Some kind of year end close out thing. $4000 !

MAN! I sure wish I could take advantage of this!

You guys wanna chip in and make my monthly payments for me?

Tom

tsjay

OK, Peeps... the continuing saga.

I have a really nice medium grey metallic 04 Impala LS sitting in the driveway right now. Brought it home for my wife to see, but she isn't home.

This car has the sun roof and the heated leather bucket seats. Guess that's about it for options, and the sticker is $27,750. Dealer is offering to sell it at invoice minus the $4000 rebate. That makes the price $21,784.95 plus tax, license, and the $229 "document fee," which is what that particular dealer calls it (you know, they all have some kind of fee that they charge your for the privilege of buying a car from them, but they call it by different names at the various dealerships).

Since GM has offered to increase my credit card rebate that I earned, $1330.71, to $2000 if I buy before 1/02/04, I can get the car for $19,784.95 plus tax, license and dealer fee.

I will have to refinance the balance on my Jeep and combine that debt into the new loan, so that I won't have a whole new payment on top of my Jeep payment.

Payoff on the Jeep is $11,674, so the new loan should only have a payment of about $100 per month more than my current Jeep loan. (I financed the entire price of the Jeep, the tax and license, and $2000 debt from my trade-in vehicle when I bought the Jeep, so I have a real high payment already.)

Hope the wife goes along with this.

Will keep ya posted. Wish me luck!

Tom

tsjay

It just got even better! I called to see if I could keep the car overnight, since my wife is not home yet (as evidenced by the fact that I am still alive and in one piece). The sales lady told me that I could keep the car overnight, and she went on to say that it would be a little cheaper than she had originally figured... the rebate just went up from $4000 to $4500!!!!!!

WOW! What a deal! I can get this car for almost $8500 off of sticker price! (see above post)
Tom

tsjay

So, tomorrow I close the deal!

Count me in as a new Impala owner!

Tom

P.S. Maybe the rebate will be up to $5000 tomorrow?

b4z

There is also free 90 days 0% interest on right now.

I refinanced my Impala at the credit union for 5.25% for 6 years. owed 12.9K. payment is 218.00 month.

You may not want to read my next post.

b4z

Was driving to work today and felt a slight surge in in 3rd and 4th gear.
Tachometer was moving up and down.

Checked the trans fluid and it was brown.

52K miles.

Took it to the dealer and the trans solenoid is sticking.
$1170.

Any encouraging words from you guys out there?

tsjay

Bummer, Man! Sorry about your tranny.

Naw, although I am sorry about your problems and wish you didn't have them, I have heard too many good things about these Impalas to be afraid of trouble with mine. Hopefully, your type of trouble is just an isolated incident, but that's not much consolation to you, is it?

Sorry, b4z. Wonder is there's any hope of some help from GM on that?

Tom

t_tookalook

byz,is the warranty going to cover that? I bought
an extended warranty but of course they're things they do not cover.
Sorry about that trouble. Keep us posted.

Rodger
t-tookalook.com

larryfl

That sounds like a lot of $$. I also own a 1st Gen Aurora and post on that board here at Edmunds. Some guys have had the solenoids go out in theirs. I don't remember it costing them anything like that at the dealership for the solenoids to be replace. Of course, we're talking about a different trans (4T80e vs. 4T60e), but if anything, I'd think the Aurora's would be more expensive.

tsjay

Signed the paperwork and took delivery of that Impala today.

I'm in a state of shock at the great deal that I got! Almost $8500 off sticker.

As a matter of fact, I got such high discount on the new Imapala, I was able to come out of this with my Jeep free and clear... no more lien on it.

By making a $2278 downpayment, the amount to be financed was low enough so that the new car would serve as sufficient collateral.

And my monthly payment for 60 months??? THIRTY-NINE dollars more than I was already paying on the Jeep!!!!

Yeeeeeeeeeeehawwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!!!!!!!!!!!

Tom

b4z

Congratulations on your car!

tsjay

Thanks!

Tom



You guys like the spoiler, or do most of you get Impalas that don't have one? I THINK I like it OK, but I would probably like the car just as well without it.

b4z

I think I like your neighbor's tractor more.

I have the spoiler but don't like it that much.

it does help when backing out to let you know where the back of the car is.

Do you have the Drivr Info center, side airbag, etc?

sda

That's a pretty one. Your enthusiasm is contagious! Enjoy.

tsjay

The only options I got were the heated leather bucket seats with six way adjustments and the sunroof. Whatever is standard on the LS is what I got, except the items I just mentioned.

I'm still trying to learn exactly what I DO have. There's a lot of standard stuff that you get with the LS, and I am still not sure what all those features are. Will put some time in the owners manual over the next few days.

Tom

EDIT: Should have mentioned that I got the 1SB package. Only things that were over and above the 1SB package were the seats and sunroof.

tsjay

Thanks a bunch!

Tom

tsjay

Ok, we had some discussion about ad fees and the "true" invoice cost a few posts back. I have in front of me a copy of the invoice for the Impala I just bought.

The dealer told me that they would sell me this car at invoice, minus all rebates, plus tax and license, plus their document fee ($199.00).

The invoice total showed the MSRP as being $27,750 and the Invoice Price as $25,874.95.

Here's the breakdown on the invoice cost:

Total Model and Options $24565.90
Hold Back 812.70
ADV 270.90
EXP 134.45

TOTAL $25784.95

So, they charged me the $25,784.95, just like they said they would.

Now, did I pay invoice or not? The $270.90 and the $134.45 listed above are ad fees, and they were part of the total. I guess the destination charge was already included in the $24565.90.

Whatever it was, it was almost $2000 off sticker, so I considered it a good deal.

Tom

pluto5

Looks to me like you paid about $600 above invoice if you got the maximum rebates, still a good deal IMO.

b4z

300,292 actually.
I think they have been planning this all year.
45,000 more Impalas than last year.

6,000 more than Taurus.

Here are what I believe is the final production numbers for North America for 2004.

http://www.autonews.com/files/prod.pdf

tsjay

Have only had that Impala for a couple days now, but so far, I LOVE it!

I wasn't thrilled with the looks of Impalas to start with, but the wife likes bigger cars, and I had to stick with a GM product to take advantage of my credit card rebate. The Buick Le Sabre would have been out of our price range, I guess (didn't really check prices on them). I would rather have the Impala anyway.

I have come around to actually liking the looks of the Impala quite a bit, ours in paricular.

There sure isn't anything wrong with the ride, handling, or acceleration! That is a sweet car!

The interior and accessories are really nice too. I think we will really like those heated leather seats. Will have to wait for warmer weather to see if the sun roof is something we will use very much. Never had a car with a sun roof before.

I am very favorably impressed with the Impala so far. I think we made a good decision in getting one. It's the wife's daily driver, and she is extremely pleased with it.

Merry Christmas to my fellow Impala owners.

Tom

tsjay

Guys and Gals, I am in the process of reading some old posts to get caught up with what the issues might be pertaining to the Impala, but if someone would please tell me what the heck the "ISS" is, I would sure appreciate it.

I have seen this mentioned several times as being a source of problems, but everyone just says "ISS" without giving enough details that I can get a clue as to what the thing is. I suppose if I read ALL the posts in this discussion, I might find out what the ISS is, but maybe someone will be kind enough to tell me.

Also, if you are so inclined, I would appreciate just a quick listing of the most common problems the 04 Impalas are having. You don't have to go into a lot of detail, if you don't have time. I can just search on one of the key words for a given problem, but without knowing what those problems are, I wouldn't know how to search.

Thanks.

Tom

tommy42

Merry Chirstmas & Happy New Year to all. Very pleased with my 01 base Impala.

b4z

ISS= Intermediate Steering Shaft

tsjay

Thanks.

An Internet buddy of mine gave me a link to check out after I posted my question here, and I THINK that the ISS thing was corrected after the 02 models, right?

Tom

tsjay

I went back to the dealer where I bought the Impala for my clean-up. It was raining Tuesday, when I took delivery of the car, so they gave me a raincheck for a clean up. They allowed me to leave the car in their clean up shop and wax it after they were done with the wash job.

They even bought my lunch! Great folks there at that place. Guess that's why I have bought five new cars in the last eight years there. (one for my daughter, two for my son, and two for me)

I used Meguiars wax for the first time. Any of you guys use that? Does it last a good while?

Tom

t_tookalook

Happy New Year,tsjay
I've bought Meguiars wax for my '03 Imp. My son
uses it on his Toyota and recommended it and
he's 'picky'.
I don't like the rear seat ride but that's
common in almost all of the vehicles. Otherwise
it's great. I'll buy an '05.
Rodger

b4z

I don't think the ISS probelm has been corrected but I could be wrong.

I use Mother's was but meguiars is very good also.

tsjay

Do any of you know of a good product for preserving the leather on the seats? Obviously, I don't need any kind of cleaner yet, since the car is brand new, but I was wondering if there is something that a guy can put on the seats to keep the leather from cracking later on?

Thanks.

Tom

b4z

lexol.

tsjay

What dat? And, where do ya get it?

Tom

johnclineii

A leather care system. Available from auto parts stores, agricultural places, etc. See also the company's website, which is exactly what you think it would be...

tsjay

Checked out Lexol's website.

Tom

hvan3

Congratulations on your new 04 Impala LS!! That dark silver metallic color is sooo sweeeet!! I personally like the Impala with the spoiler. Without it, it looks so bare. My 00 Impala LS has been the best sedan I have ever owned.

I recently came back from my vacation trip to San Francisco. My Impala was able to go 390 miles without having to fuel up on the way to SF. The vehicle is so comfortable and smooooth.

The only major problem I had with the Impala is the ISS (which I already knew about before I started hearing the clicking noise). Anyway, with about 45K miles on the odom, my LS is one fantastic car!!! I will be adding another 525 miles this coming New Years (round trip driving to Las Vegas).

tsjay

Thanks for the post!

It's nice hearing from someone who is so enthusiastic about his Impala after 45K miles.

I'm with ya on smooth and quiet! I had heard that Impalas were known for those qualities, but I have now experienced them for myself.

We're off to a real good start with that car. My wife is even crazy about it, and she never has been one to get excited over cars.

I still have trouble believing the deal we got on that car! Almost $8500 off of the sticker price with the dealer discount, GM rebate, and GM credit card rebate!

Thanks, again, hvan3.

Tom