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Man, what a mediocre car

I took the 2003 Impala with 3.4 that I bought a few weeks ago for a ride on the highway today. Car has 49k miles on it and is cosmetically perfect. Silver. Cam broke on my rusting '97 3.1 Lumina with 180k miles, so I had to replace it and this Impala was at a local Chevy dealer for a fair price waiting for me. Wife and son are the only ones driving it, and they said it wasn't right at speed. I figured tires needed balancing or alignment was off. I'm taking a road trip soon, so want that right. This morning I took it to the Just Tires my son used to work at, and they found the alignment off, and fixed it. Nothing with the tires. Then I went on the tollway to check it at 70-80 mph. It was fine. First the good. Car looks sharp, and clean. Runs smooth and quiet at start-up. None of lifter noise that the 3.1 had until it warmed up. Can't tell it's running when stopped in drive at a light. Shifts well. Does better on gas than the Lumina according to my wife. That's all "city" and she gets a couple more days before filling up with her usual 12 mile commute. I'll do a good highway MPG check soon driving 2200 miles round trip. Better radio, clock and ashtray than the Lumina. Dual heater controls. Bigger trunk. Better on-the-wheel cruise control. Quieter ride on rough streets. Now the bad. At highway speed, more wind noise, more road/tire noise. It just doesn't have the sound-proofing of the Lumina. Doesn't corner as well as the Lumina. Too much dip. Might be the Goodyear Integritys on it. I did an 80 mph sharp lane change and didn't like it. Lumina was better. Might be the tires. The rubber is good, but I'll probably replace them soon. I don't like the drivers seat. Soon I'll know if that's just temporary, when I drive it all day. Now the worst. It's the most boring f****ng car I've ever had. Even my wife, who really wanted it and is the main driver, has absolutely no attachment to it. The "new car" glow evaporated fast. No matter that the Lumina had holed rocker panels and peeling paint. It was a higher quality car than the Impala. As soon as you got inside the Lumina you forgot how bad it looked. As soon as you get inside the Impala you forget how good it looks. I'm actually seriously thinking of trading this thing in. But I'm pretty tight with a buck when it comes to cars, so I might get over it. I really don't know.

Reply to
Vic Smith
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I love boring cars that won't draw a lot of attention. I think most of America does too. My last three cars were a Taurus, Camry, and a Sonata. The Hyundai had a 240 HP all-alloy V6 DOHC engine that was smooth as silk. It looked boring but we thought it was over-powered. That car was totaled by my daughter so I'm driving a 90's Dodge Dakota beater. I love it! :-)

Reply to
dsi1

Yeah. I've noticed that cars start looking pretty when you realize they are dependable, and do what you ask of them. Doing some maintenance on them might help too. I didn't like the Lumina much when I bought it, but finding I could easily address its issues, we grew closer. Now it's sitting there rusted and broken, but looks better to me than the perfect looking Impala. My main thing is utter blah factor of this low-miles Impala. And it just doesn't seem to have the "body quality" of the Lumina. Tinnier feeling. I forgot to mention I hear more engine drone on the highway than the Lumina had. Maybe I'll feel better when things start breaking and I fix them. Maybe I should make a project of looking into sound deadening for it. I do like my cars quiet at speed. I asked my wife is she wanted to trade it in. She said give it a chance.

Reply to
Vic Smith

I had a Lumina too. I liked the roominess and the comfortable ride, and the clean, curvy, styling. The huge trunk was nice. It was a quiet ride. My dad had a Dodge Caliber and it was shocking how much the body panels vibrated. That was one cheap sounding car. Good luck with your new car.

Reply to
dsi1

You got it. She's pretty much happy with it, but she'll always complain, which actually is good sometimes. She notices any little difference, so I can fix it before it gets worse. Not like my daughters, who let stuff go for weeks, like ignoring a SEL light for a couple weeks before mentioning it. So far, I got her calmed down on "bad transmission" and "funny starting noise." The trans deal is just her driving style hitting a shift point at low speed while slowing, then accelerating right at the shift point. She may learn to avoid that. It happened to me a few times in stop and go traffic. Slight shudder. The starting noise was because she held the key too long. Happened to me too. You can't hear the engine start unless you depress the gas pedal a bit. That's the fix for that. Only outstanding issue is "hot radio." And it is pretty warm, but I think that just how it is. You pull a CD out and it feels like it's about 120-130 degrees F. Anyway, I can't really complain about her complaining. She usually has a reason.

Reply to
Vic Smith

When I got a Camry, I thought it was gonna be all good. The undercarriage scraped the speed bump in our condo parking lot. There was nothing wrong with suspension - the car was designed like that. This freaked her out a little and I got that terrible sinking feeling that I would be hearing about this for years to come. I was right all right. Now we have an old beater Dodge Dakota that will never scrape bottom. I'm as happy as a clam.

Reply to
dsi1

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