Chevy Impala LT

Impala on 8th Ave. in Brooklyn

      When my mom rented a Chevy Impala I was both excited and dismayed. I was dismayed because in my opinion, it is a horribly designed vehicle, but I was excited because I had never been in one, and I couldn't wait to get to experience its terribleness. Here's my review on one of the most bland and boring vehicles of the last decade.
       The Impala competes against the division of full-size cars that include the Ford Taurus, Hyundai Azera, Kia Cadenza, Toyota Avalon, and Nissan Maxima. All of these cars, while not opulent, are more luxurious and offer more upscale features than the other cars made by their respective companies. The Impala though, does not look fancy inside or outside, and doesn't seem more advanced then the other Chevys.
        Let's begin with the front fascia. The two piece plastic grill is uninspiring, and the closest thing it has to being luxurious is the small chrome trim outlining it. The fat headlights are composed of three circular compartments, which use the basic reflector optics technology instead of a more advanced and better projector lamps. The lower front fascia features uninteresting air intakes, split down the middle by a thin chrome strip. The hood and side panels have absolutely no creases or other interesting bodywork. The hubcaps are a basic five-spoke design, painted in a dull silver. Moving around back, we find basic triangular taillights and that's about it. The license plate is housed in the bumper, which I believe was an immensely bad decision by GM's designers. A better place to put the plate would have been underneath a chrome bar that would stretch from taillight to taillight and have either Chevrolet or Impala etched into it. The one halfway decent thing about the exterior of the car is the spoiler, but even this element has a problem, as it feels out of place because the rest of the car is not sporty.

Impala on 8th Ave. in Brooklyn

         The interior is no better. Since the Impala we rented was a LT (the second most expensive trim), I was expecting a somewhat nice interior, but alas, my dreams were squandered by the drab dash, doors, and seats that awaited me. The black dashboard was trimmed with cheap looking fake wood. On the center console there were an abnormally small amount of controls, making it look empty, as if the designers forgot something. The gear shifter, while one of the better looking interior parts, had a major design flaw-- there were no labels. This made it a bit more confusing while driving. The gauge cluster was unimaginative, just three simple gauges on an flat black surface. The steering wheel in front of it was equally lackluster. The entire wheel was clad in a cheap black plastic-like surface, and sculpted in a fat, inelegant shape. The inside door panels of the Impala LT, were also almost entirely black, with small, shallow compartments sticking out about halfway down. There was one major design element that confused me about the door. Since the faux wood trim was continued around the corner up to the door handle indent, why wasn't more included either along the top of the door or around the rectangular compartments. While the majority of the Chevy's interior looked as if the designers had thought it up while asleep, there was one hint that they were aware it was supposed to be a premium sedan. In the wood trim on the right side of the dash was a small silver Impala logo, with skinny chrome lines extending from it on either side. While this attempt at luxury actually works, it is not enough to set off the rest of the dreary car.

Grade
Front: F
Back: F
Overall: F