Chevy Impala LTZ ~Surprisingly Impressive!

A couple of weeks ago, Chevrolet and OnStar provided my family with the opportunity to test out the Impala LTZ.  I was amazingly pleased with driving this red beauty!  Believe me, I do not usually favor red cars, but this Impala exterior color was stunning!  As we drove around town, heads turned and people would ask “what kind of car is this”.

Our family’s overall review of the car is that it’s great family car with just enough muscle to make you feel like you’re not driving a plain old sedan.  Great trim package, beautiful leather interior and the My Link “infotainment” system worked intuitively.

Below are a few pros and cons my family would like to share with you:

Exterior:

• Pros
  Again, the car looks great, and the red color really made heads turn as folks craned their necks with that “what is that” expression on their faces.  The big 18 inch wheels really made the car look solid and the running lights were a nice addition.

• Cons
  There were no cons with the exterior.  It is really well done and worthy of a Chevy badge.

Interior:

• Pros
  Leather seats with piping was visually pleasing.  The display and infotainment area were easy to read and access while driving.  Plenty of room in front and back, and some passengers really got a kick out of the heated and cooled seats. To make it plain, that passenger was me! I especially LOVED the cooled seats!  OnStar is seamless and very handy. WiFi, a great no-brainer feature for modern families, performed well when stationary but spotty when moving.  However, that could be attributed to our location (and speed?).

Maxwell’s take on his favorite features of the car!

Cons

• As with most things, the voice control took some getting accustomed to, but seemed to be more work than it should.  Also, when using the paddles behind the steering wheel to access features while reading the drivers display, wasn’t always clear how to shift options or what was available. My husband and I eventually just used the touchpad.  I’m sure we would have adjusted if we had the car longer.

 Performance: Here’s where my hubby really chimed in!

• The Engine
  Our loaner was equipped with the 2.5L ECOTEC.  It was certainly not enough engine for this car as it was a bit sluggish from the start and slow to reach high speeds.  Recommend spending a few extra pennies for the 3.6L if a little more umph off the line and on the highway is important to you.  However, we could definitely appreciate the gas savings from the ECOTEC.  It just takes a bit of getting use to the engine stopping at red lights.

• The Ride
  Also, despite the wide stance and big tires, the ride was less than I expected. We could feel most of the bumps on the road much like with our current ’06 vehicle.  There does not appear to be any options to help make up for this, so it should simply be noted that if ride quality is a big deal, one might be disappointed.

Safety:
The LTZ comes with all of the safety trimmings including safe distance monitoring, lane departure and blind side alert.  These features are nice, but could use a bit more of an alert for the driver maybe like a vibrating seat or steering wheel.  The backup camera color view was a bit off in our model, and did not immediately turn off after shifting into drive.  In fact, it sometimes came on when shifting from park to drive.

Creature Comforts:
As noted, the LTZ trim line is fully loaded, so we enjoyed all of the bells and whistles.  Most performed as advertised except for the WiFi as noted above.  Bluetooth operated as expected.  The big screen for the infotainment system was very responsive to touch and the screen was easy to navigate.  There were also enough connections to juice all of the personal electronics, including behind the nav screen – a very cool feature.

Finally…
Again, great car that we would consider purchasing with an upgraded engine and adding aftermarket shocks to improve the ride.  A very well American made car. What matters most is my family enjoyed it, and so did I.

Disclosure:  The vehicle was provided by Chevrolet for review purposes.  All opinions in this review are mine, my husband’s and our son’s.