Car of the Year Award for the new Impala

[SoCalCTS]

Bobit Publications Associate Publisher Bob Brown (second from left) presents the 2006 Fleet Car of the Year Award for the new Chevrolet Impala to Chevrolet General Manager Ed Peper (left to right), General Motors Vice Chairman Bob Lutz, GM Fleet and Commercial Operations Marketing Director John Gaydash and GM Fleet and Commercial Operations Director, Portfolio Planning and Specialty Vehicles Dave Spence Thursday, November 17, 2005 at the GM Heritage Center in Sterling Heights, Michigan. The award is sponsored by Automotive Fleet and Business Fleet magazines. (General Motors/John F. Martin) Edited December 8, 2005 by SoCalCTS

[Northstar]

Fleet Car of the Year Award? What a slap in the face.

[Matt276]

What a shame. 60% of the Impala sales goes to fleet. The new one is too much vanilla looking.

[Flybrian]

You forgot the picture of the 2006 Taurus all dejected in tears knocking back cases of Johnnie Walker Red into its fuel tank.

[Cadillacfan]

what an honor......by honor.. I mean a complete and utter embarassment.

[pow]

To be honest, every single new Impala that I've seen driving are rental/fleet cars. Most are LTZs, surprisingly, with the machined 17" double-spoke wheels, and some are base LSs.

[Nick]

presents the 2006 Fleet Car of the Year Award for the new Chevrolet Impala

[post="55201"]<{POST_SNAPBACK}>[/post]

:rotflmao:

[SoCalCTS]

:rotflmao:

[post="55599"]<{POST_SNAPBACK}>[/post]

Bob Lutz looks pretty stoked to be receiving that award.

[Nick]

Sad huh?

[VenSeattle]

Well, at least some people like it. They certainly don't post on Cheersandgears.

[C.H.U.D.]

Hilarious!!!!

[Brandon Lutz]

I finally saw an Impy SS the other day at one of our branches. I the interior is super nice. However, the exterior is bland as day is long. Its a great car, but its a great car with bland, exterior styling.

[NeonLX]

The Impala is a great car. Too bad all the lemmings go straight to the Honda & Toyota dealers and throw their money at Accords and Camrys. Nothing wrong with Accords & Camrys, mind you, but the Impala is a much better buy--and vanilla styling or not, the Impala looks better than either one.

[buyacargetacheck]

Camry and Accord don't offer six passenger seating. With the fold down rear seat, this is a great alternative to a guzzling SUV. Quiet and a good value too (especially if you keep cars more than a few years).

[JBsZ06]

Although I would never buy an Impala, I have seen them on the road and quite frankly they look like a nice vehicle. For the money they actually sell for ? Its probably a hell of a car. Winning fleet car of the year is not exactly an honor though.. Holly crap is more like it. Compared to a hemi powered 300C? or Dodge Charger Hemi? its hard to pick the Impala...(even biased towards GM products) Fords got the new Fusion and I like that better than the impala too...(although the sizing might be different) Camry/Accords don't enter into my preferences as I prefer american brands as do most fleet buyers here in the states...(thank goodness)

[The O.C.]

Sad.....truly sad...... I just saw my FIRST SS on the road the other day. ALL the others have been LS and LT models. In fact, when next to them, EVERY SINGLE ONE I've seen has a "rental barcode" in the rear side window. It pisses me off because I REALLY like the Impala.....even if the exterior is bland, it's attractively-bland....not ugly-bland like a Taurus, etc. I have issues with the rear-seat room and comfort, and some of the hard plastics are of inferior quality inside the vehicle, but for the most part, it's got one of the most uncluttered and up-to-date interiors in a GM vehicle. Even the base LS interiors look good (except the bench seat/column shifter configuration.) This car deserves WAY much more than "Fleet Car of the Year."

[Flybrian]

Even the base LS interiors look good (except the bench seat/column shifter configuration.)

[post="55750"]<{POST_SNAPBACK}>[/post]

Again, this is necessary for certain markets and I doubt it will represent a large portion of Impala sales.

[regfootball]

F-COTY LOL but the imp is a good car. as long as they keep it new every 42-48 months........it'll be fine

[ponchoman49]

I have shown the new Impala to my folks and 3 different friends. They all agreed that it looked more refined than the outgoing 05 version and it's interior was nicer looking and that the SS V8 model was awesome if a bit expensive. Not one of them said it looked bland. Refined and upscale was the word. They all gave the Camry and Accord the bland label which I found interesting. 06 Impalas have been selling like hotcakes in Upstate, NY and few of them have been rentals. In fact I have been hounding Enterprise to reserve me an LT to rent but they only have 2 in the whole area that are always being snapped up by corprate guys, but have 6 Chargers. Most Impalas I have seen are LT's with alloys and LT2 package. My neighbor just bought one like that in sport red paint with tan split bench seats and alloys and said she loves it and is getting very good mileage with it. I live in a more traditional area that still likes cars that look somewhat normal and don't go for the Japanese fad cars as much as the bigger cities.

[Guest YellowJacket894]

I think this is true: The new Impala will go down in GM history books as the most underrated generation ever produced. Then again, I don't think people thought much of the original '60s models until well after they were very much well on their way to junkyard and Detroit were laying awake at night because of a major oil crisis and the Japanese were putting nasty dents in Detroit's reputation. And all because the old way of thinking was that, even though there may not be much of a difference between a '65 and '66 Impala, the '66 is better because the company who produced it is one year older and smarter. Foolish, huh? Those cars are worth small fortunes today. Bet some of you "old timers" wish you had grandma's or mom's '66 Wagon now, huh?

[Cananopie]

This is what happens when you strip all individuality from a car

[Guest gmrebirth]

I highly suggest the title on the frontpage be changed ... The Impala won fleet car of the year award, NOT car of the year award. There's a big difference here.

Winning fleet car of the year is not something to be proud of.

[SoCalCTS]

I highly suggest the title on the frontpage be changed ... The Impala won fleet car of the year award, NOT car of the year award. There's a big difference here.

Winning fleet car of the year is not something to be proud of.

[post="58155"]<{POST_SNAPBACK}>[/post]

Just think of all the other cars that did not win Fleet car of the year. Including, Toyota Corolla, Kia Amati, Chrysler Sebring, Mazda 3 and Ford Taurus.

It's not easy being a fleet car but I would imagine that a car needs to be very durable.

[I hope GMRULES again]

Get over it people, the Impala is a fleet car and a darn good one too, the Taurus was the fleet car of the 90's and over the last 3-4 years the Impala has replaced it. Somebody has to sell to fleets so it may as well be Chevy,not Buick or Pontiac. I see nothing wrong with Chevy building 250k Impala's a year and selling 60% to fleets. Not all fleet sales are to rentals, a large share go to company fleets that workers/salesman take home and use as their personal car so if the car is a well built car like the Impala I think its positive for GM. The Impala is not and will never be crossed shopped by Camry/Accord owners, that job should be for G6,Malibu and Aura but they have to become more competitive to be taken seriously. On a side note back in the Spring I was talking to a guy at work who works in procurement and he was telling me about how they were working on choosing what company would get the contract for the company cars for the next 3 years. I went to see him with all my GM artlicles and tried to put in a good word for GM by talking about their improved quality ratings and showing him the new stuff that was coming. I like to think my preaching paid off cause its turns out GM got the contract to supply our company cars for the next 3 years. Chrysler had the contract the past 6 years. It even made it onto GM news last week when they mentioned Merck (that's me) and Eli Lilly will switch to GM cars for their fleets. :) Edited December 14, 2005 by I hope GMRULES again

[76ChevyTrucker]

Fleet COTY isn't exactly the top of the mountain when it comes to awards, but you have to think of all the crap that fleet vehicles go through. Especially if the new Impalas are turned into 9C1 spec police vehicles....long hours of idling with a few throttle hard and balls to the wall take offs and brakings....not exactly grandma driving to the church house on sunday morning. so I wouldn't say that the new Impala getting Fleet COTY is a bad thing, I mean I have a '01 that is a 9C1 car and it drives every day, matter of fact, its lived through 110,000 miles of me driving the piss out of it, so bad-mouthing the car isn't a good idea, especially given that the Impala has always been a reliable, good car, hands down.

[Guest YellowJacket894]

This is what happens when you strip all individuality from a car

[post="57967"]<{POST_SNAPBACK}>[/post]

The old (2000-2005) Impala had a certain type of individuality that was nothing to be proud of. I know. I've set in the previous Impala, since I have a close relative who owns one, and have also driven it on occasion.

Now, I will admit the steering and chassis are a few strong points, this view comes from me both being a driver and passenger, but everything else just fell short of that fine white line. The styling was slightly flaccid and had a Camry-esque vibe to it, and the interior is boring and vanilla. The wheel covers are one damn ugly design that is more fitting to a '98 Hyundai. The interior design is rough in some spots, espically where the openings for the HVAC vents in the front panel are moulded.

Also, that particular model is an '04 and has a cassette player. What the hell? I thought we phased those out!?

[usa1]

Welcome to last week!

http://www.gminsidenews.com/forums/showthread.php?t=23800

Mark

[Guest Josh]

Welcome to last week!

http://www.gminsidenews.com/forums/showthread.php?t=23800

Mark

[post="58479"]<{POST_SNAPBACK}>[/post]

Well yea, but GMInsideSnooze is as valuable as a Miata next to a Solstice. :rolleyes:

[samy1691]

What in hell do they expect!!!! Look at the crap GM is putting out,(not including the vette).....styling is AWOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[VenSeattle]

Finally found a full article:

New Chevy Impala and Ford F-150 Win Fleet Segment Awards

The Impala was selected from among 53 domestic- and import-brand vehicles, and chosen number one because of "passenger comfort, fuel economy, cargo room, safety, performance, and price."

BTW... Guess who won "Fleet Car of the Year" for 2005:

2005 Chrysler 300 :P

[Flybrian]

That's awesome, Ven!

[I hope GMRULES again]

Finally found a full article:

New Chevy Impala and Ford F-150 Win Fleet Segment Awards
BTW... Guess who won "Fleet Car of the Year" for 2005:

2005 Chrysler 300   :P

[post="58763"]<{POST_SNAPBACK}>[/post]

The Impala is probably a better fleet vehicle than the 300. More interior room, better fuel economy,E85 option, and I'm betting better durability too.

[V6powerr]

So, We got an award, not the award!

[2005 EquinoxLS]

The Impala is probably a better fleet vehicle than the 300. More interior room, better fuel economy,E85 option, and I'm betting better durability too.






That shouldnt be too hard.

[post="58799"]<{POST_SNAPBACK}>[/post]

[american_driver]

So did they bring back the LTZ to pay homage to LuTZ??? :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

[2005 EquinoxLS]

It does create more choice in the market.