Chevy Impala SS With Cadillac CT6 X Camaro ZL1 Cues
 

Hey MC family. Here is another little interesting thread.

https://www.autoevolution.com/news/revived-chevy-impala-ss-embraces-posh-yet-virtual-cadillac-ct6-x-camaro-zl1-lifestyle-189467.html

I'm not feeling it personally. I think the front end is too over the top for the rest of the car (but admittedly I also HATE the trend of enormous front grilles). I think the new base Camaro front end would look OK on it though. I just think the rest of the style looks fairly subdued to put such a bold front bumper on it.

The other downside for me is how far fetched the whole package is. No doubt it would be neat, but very few would be willing to pay what this would cost (ie repeat of the Chevy SS situation - all of the enthusiasts claim to want something like this until its time to break out the checkbook).

The ct6 that this was based on was like $60-100k sticker and I don't think it ever even broke 10k units a year US sales (hence being discontinued). Given the power plant for this Impala, it would very likely be towards the upper end of that for all of the heavy duty parts required to support (unless they REALLY scaled back the tech in other systems from the CT6). No doubt Americans love to overspend on their cars, but IMO this is too far out of reach for the majority of households.

A $90k car with 0 down, 4.5% interest, and 60 month term is like $1650/ mo. You figure the average US household income is $60k ish, so $5k/mo. Taking out this car payment only (not even considering registration/ insurance / gas) leaves a little over $3k/ mo for everything else (which isn't much knowing housing alone would consume well over half of it).

It would be really nice to see these concepts surface with the possiblity of an MC in mind; the most recent iteration of the impala is still great imo.

I'd love to see the MC in production again, I'd definitely consider one for my daily driver.

So would I. What existing vehicle would you use to modernize an MC for 2022? I'm omitting the Camaro because EVERY CAR SHOULD NOT BE INSPIRED BY IT.

I agree, I've about had my fill all of the renditions of Camaros with minor body mods trying to be something else (trans am, gto, etc).

Given GM has switched over so much to SUVs, it doesn't leave many cars to base it off of. I think they'd struggle to make the body lines work for a 2 door with any of the current car lineup - Id think they'd have to do unique sheet metal at least from wheel to wheel to make the proportions and body lines look right.

Personally, I'd love to see it based on the Alpha platform as its RWD and proven to be so versatile in terms of power train options. Its also home to a lot of Cadillac models, so you could raid their lower end parts bin to get a nice mix of affordable luxury and performance - kinda getting back to its roots.

Of course, knowing GM's bean counters, they'd make it FWD again in which case I'd go Epsilon II LWB / P2XX like the Buick Lacross is on (which IMO wouldnt be terribly hard to restyle as a large 2 door). IMO the SWB version like thr Malibu / Regal use is too small for the Monte as its traditionally been a larger car. I also think the extended LWB like the last Impala used is just too big to keep proportions right.

EDIT- just went on Buick's site to see what their LaCross starts at. Just realized they recently dumped ALL of their cars. It doesnt appear they've got a single one left- just a whole bunch of sizes of crossover / SUV. That sure kills the value proposition for that route if the only remaining US car on that platform is the Malibu. Also doesn't look good for any options in that class over the long term.

Just looking at the pics, my first impression was "oh a 4 door Camaro" and no one wants a 4 door Camaro. Change the front nose, give it some Impala heritage and it might be a win. Just my take from the pics.

https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2022/06/01/...d-for-evs.html

Continuing the discussion from my last post about Buick:

It looks like Buick isn't out of cars altogether. Seems like they're still throwing some concepts around.

Downside is that both them and Cadillac supposedly have committed to 100% EV in the near future (especially considering the development cycle of cars meaning they likely won't develop any new gas platforms from scratch today forward).


That's certainly another major wrinkle in the future of something like a redo of the Monte or Impala - not only does GM have very few car platforms left, they're also significantly cutting back on new gas vehicles.

So the question is - if they did bring back the Impala or MC but only as an EV, would you buy it?

I suspect its the same conundrum the older muscle car people felt about the 5th and 6th gens - its no longer a RWD v8, so do you still like the nameplate and what it stands for enough to still buy it. I think this will be our generation's version of that - but with electric motors instead of V6s.

This is a great question. Today I hear comments about the 6th gen Monte that are typically "it looks great, but it shoulda been RWD". Well, it wasn't. I can see a future EV Monte and people saying "it shoulda been a combustion engine"..... No winning.

I have not followed EV close enough to say I would commit to it. I do feel it is an eventual future. But I have heard some locations have problems with the power grids supporting EV. Also for those who like to travel, is there a solution to recharge a battery quickly to not delay a road trip (like a gasoline car, you stop, fuel up and go).
I also here concerns about the shelf life and replacement of the battery system operating an EV. Makes me wonder, if they will ever see a point in time where an EV is a classic (or will they be as disposable and forgotten li8ke the VCR).

Curious what the future may hold for us automotive enthusiasts. I know some people think once the big 3 are hardcore in the EV game they will destroy Tesla. Curious if that will happen. Tesla has a big lead (just not as much manufacturing).

That's one of a handful of reasons I won't consider one today for our family car. We take a good number of road trips within a day's drive and having to deal with the long charge process is a real negative for me. I'm not a huge fan of the driving part itself (but am too cheap to fly unless the drive starts getting over about 10 hours) so the last thing I want to do is add one or two hour long stops along the way.

I've got several friends with 3s and Ss and have heard several negative experiences at these fast charging stations that have caused them significant additional delays (something that only seems possible to remedy by having a much larger qty of station options which will take a long time to develop).

Same here, that's another one of my main reasons for not trying one today. I get they have a relatively long warranty (I think Tesla is 8 yr / 100k), but we tend to keep our cars a long time - generally to 200k. Our NEWEST car right now is 7 years old so we'd certainly end up owning it out of warranty.

A battery pack replacement seems like a disaster- its an enormous cost (a large portion of the value of the vehicle before the covid price craziness set in) that is unavoidable to do when it happens (as otherwise the car is virtually worthless). Its feels like owning a LS4 car with the exploding 4t65 - when it finally happens, you've got no choice but to fork out big money because without it the car is barely worth more than scrap value.

Maybe it'll get better with more of them on the road once the aftermarket starts to jump in with both feet? I'm just not willing to take that gamble today.