capttris Posted March 28, 2017 Share Posted March 28, 2017 Last week, while driving 150 miles from home, my brake master cylinder failed in heavy bumper to bumper traffic on the interstate near Hartford, CT. See post: http://legacygt.com/forums/showthread.php/brake-pedal-sink-stop-lights-210292p2.html The dealer was out of loaners but I negotiated for them to pay for a rental. I got a 2017 Chevy Impala for 3 days and over 200+ miles of driving. Other than gobs and gobs of raw, American V6 power under the hood, I was not impressed. Driving the Impala on the highway & even parking lots, there is too much power steering. The car floats all over the road. Even with the monster beefy tires and wheels it had. Under heavy acceleration (even in a straight line), there is so much torque steer that the car was pulling all over the place. It was actually a bit scary as I wasn't expecting this! Even after expecting it, it was unnerving! And when the trans downshifted and the RPM's dropped (under heavy acceleration), the entire front right of the car dipped under the torque of the engine! Not very civilized at all. Other than the raw horsepower and big engine sitting on top of beefy front wheel drive tires, I really didn't like the car. My legacy feels much more planted on the road, more civilized, more sporty handling and steering, etc. One cool feature: When connected via Bluetooth, when you make/receive a phone call, the cabin air fan drops to lowest speed, to cut down the noise for the phone call. Very cool. That's about the only cool thing I can think of. Also, the rear window is TINY and you cannot see much behind you out the rear window... Please read my post on the brake master cylinder failure and let me know your thoughts. Also, the dealer tech forgot to plug in the harness into the brake fluid reservoir. I emailed the photo to the dealer and no response... I'm really pissed about that. Especially being a safety issue.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MilesA Posted March 28, 2017 Share Posted March 28, 2017 Interesting. I always preferred smaller, foreign cars to American iron when I started driving. I got a job working in the auto industry in the Detroit suburbs. Then, I finally understood. The roads don't have very many curves and the road surface is extremely rough and bumpy with lots of frost heaves and potholes. You actually want a big, comfortable boat and handling doesn't matter too much when you always drive in straight lines! Cruising Woodward Avenue with a big V-8 under the hood is the way life was meant to be... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NVAKeith Posted March 28, 2017 Share Posted March 28, 2017 A friend of mine has a 2016 Impala with the 4cyl. He easily gets in the 30s on the highway but acceleration is horrid. I've spend some time riding shotgun and it's comfy with loads of legroom. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dgoodhue Posted March 28, 2017 Share Posted March 28, 2017 The only good thing about the Impala rental that I drove a few years ago was the engine. I used to travel quite a bit for work and for a few years I averaged ~20 rental cars per year. Some of the cars had bland interiors, others had overly complex interiors, most had poor visibility, many of them had disconnected feeling to road as described above. Most of them were faster than my 2.5i, but on the ride home from the airport I often appreciated the visibility, handling, and interior of my Subaru. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
capttris Posted March 28, 2017 Author Share Posted March 28, 2017 Burning Monkey - that is basically the same conclusion I came to. I reset the MPG for the 150 mile trip back to Hartford to retrieve my Subaru, and I actually got about 28.5. I was also going only about 8-10mph over the limit as I didn't have my radar detector... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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