Autoblog

Brian from Cheers & Gears, the GM aficionado site, sent us a link to a forum thread that is definitely of interest. Keep in mind that there's no official confirmation of any of this yet, so we're taking it with a grain of salt until we hear it from someone at GM. With that established, let's dig in.

The word from one of C&G's posters who is apparently in the know is that the next-generation, Zeta-based Impala has been delayed and will now launch in June 2010 instead of 2009 as originally planned. According to the insider, no reason has been given for the delay (if it's true), but speculation is rampant. Some think the delay is posturing in the face of new fuel economy proposals moving through Congress, while others believe that funds are possibly being diverted to the Chevy Volt program. One theory we thought sounded viable is that Chevy wants the two-mode hybrid version of the Impala to debut at the launch of the new car and not one year later, so moving the launch date back a year would line them up nicely.

[Source: Cheers & Gears]