I got out of my little Mustang, leaving it surrounded by Chevrolets and was greeted on my way in the door by a sales person named Heather. In the car business, at least where I worked, this amounts to calling dibs on a customer unless they specifically request somebody. When you are greeted and hand over your driver’s license to a sales person to make a note of for a test drive, you have just been “upped”. That sales person, from there on out that is your sales person, even if you end up with another person closing your deal, that sales person is in for half of the sales take (unless they royally screw up somehow- and believe me, this has happened - perhaps one day soon, I’ll share a story about that with you).
My Chevy sales person, Heather, was out on the lot watching and waiting. This is something that I recall doing when I was in car sales, and it’s something I admire her for doing instead of hanging around shooting the breeze or loitering about looking bored like some of her coworkers were doing. This salesperson was on top of her game, and she got me straight away. It was actually refreshing to arrive at a dealership and find somebody eager and willing to do their job. So often, you have to get the receptionist to track down somebody for you, even though you can clearly see idle sales people just standing around near the coffee maker or the cubicles by the show room. That type of idleness amazes me. Sales is a tough game to play, and if you’re not on your toes and actively pursuing opportunities, then it’s not the right line of work to be in. So, points to Heather -she’s no slouch.
We talked over why I was there, and even though it was clear I wasn’t going to be buying a car, she was great to work with anyway. My test drive options were somewhat limited. For starters, I’ve already covered the Chevy Silverado in the comparison with the Ford F150 from October, so that was off the list. Cruze was yet another model that I couldn’t take out for a spin, owing to the safety recall that is currently underway. The new SS wasn’t in stock, and even if it was, the dealership won’t let people test drive it for fun. The new Stingray wasn’t in stock, but if it was, it would have been the same story as the SS. I wasn’t in the mood for a Camaro, and so, we settled on an Impala. By rights, I should have asked for a Chevy Spark, since I’ve been on a bit of a subcompact kick lately, but to be honest, the new Impala has been catching my eye when I’ve seen people out and about in them, and I was curious to know first hand what they were like to drive. .
I know. Sedans are boring and whatever else, but sedans are also hugely important to family transportation, and so, they’re hugely important to a car manufacturer’s bottom line. I quite like the look of the new Impala. It’s rather dashing, in fact, with its combination of strong lines and its slickly faceted body. This is a good looking car.
Heather offered me a selection of engine options to try out, but noting what I drove up in, correctly decided to recommend one equipped with Chevy’s 3.6L 305HP V6 instead of the weaker 4 cylinder option. Because she knew I was there to showcase the car, she grabbed an LTZ model off the lot, which is the high end of the trim levels for the Impala -smart thinking on her part. I was given plenty of time to poke around at the car and take photos before we set off to the gas station to get some fuel for the test drive. I noted decent trunk space and what looks like a comfy back seat. All the cars on the lot were a bit dirty, because the detail truck wouldn’t be out to clean them until after the snow storm that was coming had passed, but Heather did suggest that I should get some photos of the sparkling clean model in the show room (I didn’t -this is winter/spring in Minnesota and dirty cars are to be expected).
Each sales person tends to have their own preferred test routes, though most dealerships will have some preferred areas they like their people to travel for test drives. Heather had her own route that fetured a balanced blend of some in town driving and some highway. It was a nice, easy drive, and it gave her plenty of opportunity to chat with me about the car and its bells and whistles. The V6 in the Impala imparts a sturdy feel, with smooth, solid performance and power to match the coaxing that your right foot directs to the gas pedal. I never felt the need to really stomp the accelerator, but if I had, I know there would have been plenty of power available to accommodate any need for speed I may have felt.
The Impala LTZ comes with a base price of $35,902, which is pretty well loaded. The one I took out wore a Monroney sticker with a tag of $39,860 (uh, gasp!). Other than destination charges, that figure contains $3,145 in options on top of all the stuff the boosts the LTZ’s price to nearly $36,000 to begin with. The priciest of these options is the comfort and convenience package for $1,035, which includes goodies like memory settings for the seats, mirrors, and tilting/telescoping steering column (power adjusted), a carpeted trunk mat, premium carpeted floor mats (which conflicts a bit with another item on the list of options, the $140 all weather floor mats, but I guess this gets you a set of each), auto dimming rear view mirror and side mirrors that also are heated and feature ground illumination. Ventilated front seats, heated steering wheel, and universal home remote for the garage door. It’s a good chunk of change, but you get a lot for it, I suppose. Say you just wanted the heated seats.. To add an option like that via the after market department is going to cost you in the neighborhood of $600 on up (I know this from experience), so you might as well get that other stuff for an extra few hundred bucks and call it good.. Other options include the $140 all weather floor mats I mentioned earlier, an engine block heater for $75, an upgrade to 20” aluminum wheels for $400, the $795 audio system with Chevy Mylink and navigation (A system extolled by Heather for its simplicity of use and its usefulness), and the 11 speaker premium Bose sound package for another $700. Well, I like all that stuff. I love nice factory sound systems, and I appreciate that this particular Impala seems as though it was built with winters in Minnesota in mind -the heated seats, heated steering wheel, heated mirrors, and engine block heater -perfect for keeping a driver comfy and cozy when it’s blistering cold outside.
The 20” rims are something I don’t particularly care about. Even the 19” rims that are standard would sport Z rated tires, so no matter what, buying new tires isn’t going to be cheap. There’s also the matter of ride quality to take into consideration. There’s only so much room between the rim of the wheel and the edges of the wheel well. The bigger the rim, the less rubber and air can fit to cushion around it before your tire is rubbing and scraping against your wheel well. That also means, the less cushioning between the rim and the road, which makes for a bumpy ride. I’ve driven cars outfitted with monstrous aftermarket rims before, and the bigger the rims, the more it feels like you’re sitting in a plastic sled that’s being dragged over rocks and boulders. It is, after all, spring in Minnesota, which is also known as pothole season, so that lack of cushion also means jarring bumps and bent rims if you’re not careful.
Without all those extra options, the LTZ comes with leather seating and most everything you’d need to feel like you’re sitting in a well appointed car. It also features a host of safety stuff to keep you protected in accidents and to keep you from having accidents in the first place, including 10 airbags by my count, forward collision warning, rear cross traffic alert, blind spot warning system, a rear vision camera and parking assist.
The one thing I didn’t like was the sun roof, which wasn’t just a sunroof, but also featured a rear skylight. So, it’s a big sheet of glass in the roof. Lots of people love a sunroof, but I’m not one of them. I look at a sunroof, and I see a source of annoyance with sun glaring down at me and the extra irritation of having to see the bottom side of the bird poop that will inevitably land on the car once the spring and summer migration brings our little feathered friends North once more to guano-bomb automobiles and do whatever other crap it is that birds enjoy doing. Forget a bunch of sunroofs and sunshine, this is Minnesota and we’ve got major vitamin D deficiencies to maintain!
One nice thing that the Impala featured was something that is common among GM products: OnStar. OnStar is a fantastic vehicle monitoring system that can alert police if you’re ever involved in an accident. For that matter, if you’re just driving along in your car and you see somebody in distress, all you need to do is push the OnStar button and let them know what’s going on. They can patch you through to the local police dispatch or pass the information along and get help to where it needs to be. The system can also help get you where you’re trying to go by providing directions. You might be thinking, hey, doesn’t this car have a navigation system for that? Well, yes, it does. But, if you’re anything like my parents, who have a car equipped with a navigation system AND have a smart phone to boot, you’ll still want to call and pester somebody when you can’t figure out how to get to where you’re going and the thought of using an app or learning how to deal with your car’s nav system seems like too much of a hassle. If you ask me, it’s a blessing to know that your parents could hit up the folks at OnStar for directions instead of you… Hell, OnStar might even be able to walk the folks through how to switch their HDTV input over to their Blue Ray player next time they want to watch a movie at home.. Just a quick trip out to the car for instructions and all is well! Actually, I don’t know if OnStar can really help with that particular technological deficiency, but they are cool for other stuff.
Did you know that if you spring for the premium package ($299 per year), you can use OnStar to essentially turn your car into a bait vehicle? It’s true. If your car is stolen and you call OnStar, they will contact the local police department. Using the vehicle’s GPS, they will then tell 911 where the vehicle is. If the vehicle is moving, they can wait until police have it in their sight (all the while providing location and direction of travel) and when given the go ahead by the 911 operator, can slow or stop the vehicle. If the car thief thinks they’re clever and tries to hide the stolen OnStar equipped vehicle in a garage, OnStar can wait until police are in the area and trigger the vehicle’s horn to honk and its lights to flash until officers locate it. In short, it’s a dumb idea to steal a car equipped with OnStar, unless of course, you know for a fact that the vehicle’s owner didn’t spring for the premium package.
My conclusion about the Impala: It’s a nice looking, solid sedan. The price tag on this one in particular sent me reeling a bit, but there are a lot of options that I could easily do without that would set an Impala built to my specifications at a lower price point. If you’re in the market for an Impala, or any other Chevy product for that matter, I would encourage you to stop by Miller Chevrolet and ask specifically for Heather. She was friendly, fun, and knowledgeable about her inventory. She knows her stuff, knows the business, and treats customers well. Even though I didn’t buy a car, I appreciated her professionalism and friendly nature, and I enjoyed learning about the new Impala from her. I can say that if I was in the market for a Chevy, I wouldn’t have any reservations about taking my business to her.
With that said, here’s her business card for anybody looking to buy a new or used car. I blurred out her cell phone number because I know I was always a little wary of having mine on my business cards when I was in car sales, but otherwise, it’s good to go for anybody in the market for a GM product, so give her a call. I suggest trying out an Impala.
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