Autoblog

It has been rumored for the last few months that Chevrolet would be soldiering on with a front-wheel-drive Impala for at least the next few years. The recent contract agreement between the Canadian Auto Workers union and General Motors appears to cement this rumor as fact. According to the signed pact, GM promised to keep the Oshawa Assembly plant, where the current-generation Impala is made, open until 2012 -- two years longer than first planned. The Impala is a pretty good seller for the General, so we're not too surprised that upper-level management would want to leave it alone, but that doesn't stop us from wanting to see Chevy's bread-and-butter full-size sedan return to its roots by going rear-wheel-drive.

One thing is for certain: by the year 2012, the W-Body platform of the current Impala will be absolutely ancient. On the other hand, we've had nothing but good things to say about the new Zeta platform which underpins such enthusiast-friendly vehicles as the new Pontiac G8. Therefore, we can at least hold out some hope that GM will find a way to offer as many vehicles as possible using the new chassis architecture, whether they are named Impala or not. Anybody want to see a new Nova?

[Source: The GM Source]

Say it ain't so, Bob! Automotive News is reporting that since General Motors' plans for a rear-wheel-drive Impala replacement that's based on the Australian-sourced Zeta platform are up in the air (you can thank the U.S. government and its never ending debate on a CAFE increase for that), a backup plan for a front-wheel-drive is in place. The candidate platform would be the Epsilon II chassis set to underpin the next generation Opel Vectra and Saturn Aura, as well as the next Malibu (OMG, we're already talking about the next Malibu?). Though a higher CAFE standard could torpedo plans for a rear-wheel-drive Impala replacement, the case for another front-wheel-drive Imp isn't necessarily on solid ground either. With the Malibu having grown in size considerably, the current Impala and Malibu cast similarly sized shadows now, and to develop another FWD replacement would only further some confusion between the two models.

The Impala is currently GM's best-selling car across all brands with 270,504 units sold so far this year and 20,791 sold last month alone. The Malibu, meanwhile, only sold 5,975 units in October, but we expect its monthly sales to rise quickly once the new model hits dealer showrooms. There's little to celebrate, however, if the Malibu's new sales come from the Impala's column. Thus, it's imperative that GM find a way to differentiate the two models while maintaining the Impala's appeal. Switching the Impala to RWD and drawing on the car's heritage would be a perfect way to do that, but if the CAFE debate doesn't go the Impala's way, this new plan B appears the way to go.

[Source: Automotive News, sub. req'd]