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- THE_LAST_FAOLIU
There she is, my 2008 Impala SS!
Upgrade from a '90 Taurus SHO, I'll miss you!
These cars got a lot of flack in their day, and really it is no wonder why GM had to be bailed out. The entire Impala line even to this day is just... terrible. There wasn't 1 review I've seen that praised the '06-'12 Impalas.
BUT there are at least redeeming qualities about the SS. I can't speak for the LT or LTZ, because even I facepalm when I hear Chevy wants $30,000 for 'em. 👎
Overall Impression
Chevy did good honest things to seperate the SS from the failing Impala line. The first thing that caught my eye was the 18" polished alluminum wheels, which aren't cheap (they cost $800 a piece
). Other than an SS callout here and there, that's about as pronounced this car gets. Even the rear spoiler is downplayed and very subtle.When you look at the car's exterior as a whole, you see that it's just as clean as the '96 b-bodies and the '05 supercharged LS9s.
It's subtly also seperates it from the cars I was looking at. I felt I wanted something more mature than the '06 Cobalt SS and something less sporty than the Mazdaspeed 6. When people look at the SS Impala, some say it lacks general direction and purpose.
But actually it works fairly well! It is a very civil daily commuter, and that's really what it was designed around. Sure, the materials in the interior are seemingly cheap but still very durable. This car is 5 years old now and was a rental car for about a year before being sold to some guy who had it for almost 5 years. When I sat down in it, it felt like it had just rolled off the showroom floor... maybe its that used car dealer magic rubbing off on me, but I swear there wasn't much of an indication that it was a rental car or a 5 year daily driver. So there is something to be said about its cheap but durable interior.
Compared to the '08 Taurus SE, a car I'm sure it competed against, the interior does fall a little bit behind but not by much. Compared to my Taurus SHO (which had every option Ford offered), well... as nice as some of the luxuries of the SHO are there is 23 years of wear and tear behind each one. By the time I was done with it, it had become merely a shell of its former self.
But the SS seems to be a car that suits me well with its more durable interior and I can predict today that this car will have aged much better in the 5 years I'll have it compared to the 5 years I had the SHO.
Performance
Now we get to the meat of the car... of course, those who buy the SS don't buy it for fuel economy (but the Impala's digital HUD is obsessed with it). The 5.3L LS4 V8 deliever a true 303hp and 320 ft-lbs of torque, and if dynoed you might see numbers as high as 250whp. That's more power than the '05 LS9 puts to the crank and amost as much as the LT1 SS puts to the crank as well. It does a very real 5.5 second 0-60 and can run a 1/4 in 14.2. It is the most powerful and the quickest SS Impala so far.
However, it is FWD. Let me repeat... the '08 SS is FWD.
It has TREMENDOUS torque steer and traction problems that kill its acceleration. That LS4 is very potent, very responsive. That was probably something Chevy took into consideration when they released a 300hp 3.6L V6 for the LTZ in 2012, which is slow beyond all belief.
But the FWD factor is actually quite welcome. I live in Colorado, where the winters can be harsh and the last thing I ever want is to be caught up in a blizzard in a high powered RWD car like some asshole. People really do stare at you like you're an idiot when you're stuggling to commute to work in a RWD sportscar. I've been there... and unless I'm moving to Florida or Cali, RWD is dead to me. In fact, it snowed recently in CO and I was able to take the SS out for a ride and it performed well... with the traction control turned on, the big V8 weighing down the front tires, and the tires being brand spank'in new.
Capital One Blank Check
About 6 years ago I wrecked my cedit and around 2011 I was starting to be approved for things like a credit line through Dell (which is an awesome service) and a very limited Capital One credit card. I went about 1 year without missing a payment or even being late!
I never thought I'd be approved for an auto loan for the longest time, and I applied for this Capital One Blank Check online expecting to be turned down immediately. To my suprise, I was actually approved for $15,125.05! But there were a lot restrictions attached to it and a high interest rate... but I can't complain, at least someone approved me for a loan.
For a used car, you have to buy something 2006 or newer with lesss than 70,000 miles. You also have to buy it from an approved dealer that you can find on their website. This Impala SS met ALL the criteria and I was more than ready to sign off on it...
But it does get confusing and this is where I learned what LTV was and ultimately how disappoiting the Cap. 1 Blank Check is...
Yes, I was approved for $15,000 but the check is only valid for 110% of the car's wholesale vaule... 110%! WEAK!
So if you can talk a dealer down to only 10% above wholesale value out the door, only then you don't have to put any money down or use a trade-in. It's not unfair that Cap. 1 asks for a downpayment, but the presentation of the check itself is what was off putting. Some people can make it work, but it was never gonna happen with the kind of cars I was looking at... Cap. 1 Blank Check is good for a car that's like bottom of the barrel that you have better chances negotating to 10% above wholesale or if you have a downpayment ready.
Wells Fargo Auto Finance and Out the Door
Little did I know that this Blank Check would actually fish out a better offer from another bank! When it comes down to signing the dotted line, car dealers will try ANYTHING to get you into a car. In my case, they found someone 5:00 PM on a Saturday night at Wells Fargo that would approve me for a loan that covered the entire cost of the Impala SS while also having the same monthly payment as the Cap 1 loan and a much better interest rate!
It was a long day... we test drove the car around 10:30am Saturday morning and FINALLY finished up around 6:30 PM.
But I couldn't be happier. I've lived so long going from one $2,000 car to another... scavaging money for repairs and whatnot. Finally... some relief.
