Hi everyone! First post here!

I'm wondering if an Impala is a good car to be buying used. Overall, would you have bought your car again?

• 2015 Impala 2LZ
• About 34,400 km (that's about 21,500 miles or so) - so pretty low mileage
• Price is $25,400 CAD (that's about $20,300 USD at current exchange rates)
• No accidents reported according to car history report

Reading through this forum, there seems to be some type of engine vibration issue at around 1500 rpm? Was this resolved by the end of the 2014 year model? Is there a way I could tell if my model has this issue?

First of all welcome to the forum, I would say that is an average price on a 2015 with 22k miles. It would come down to what options are in it to make it a "good" deal. As far as reliability, like all cars it has it's hiccups but is generally sturdy. Lastly, the vibration issue is so spotty that it is hard to diagnose. In my vehicle (2015 2LT) it tends to happen in cold temperatures while sitting at a red light. Other than a long test drive and sitting at a bunch of lights you may not feel it. Others have reported that around 1500 rpm their car gets the shakes even while driving, while I haven't felt that I wouldn't be surprised either. Hope this helps.

 

Thanks!

It seems like there is a huge price jump (at least here in Canada) between the 2LT and 2LZ (apparently sold as Premier nowadays).

Sounds like a good deal. I have a 2015 2LT with the V6 with 41,000 miles on it. No issues besides the usual things cars have. I replaced the wipers once, I changed the tires more because of nails in the tires and the plugs leaked. The car is great for me

Glad to hear your car is working well!

Was the problem ever resolved? NO...And as you said you read earlier comments, some people have been from hell and back with both vibration problems. And Chevy claims both are "normal "!
Mine started at 5,000 miles, shaking at stoplights. And yes it gets worse in colder weather.
There are those don't have these problems and love their car, as they should. But if the car does have either problem, there will be a lot of shaking going on, and don't look for help from Chevy. Lol
As for their 36 month/36,000 miles
Bumper to Bumper Warranty, they probably wrote it using Charmin! lol

Yikes ... this could be an issue then.

That's a problem because in Canada, the winters can get pretty cold. Although southern Ontario isn't as bad, I do need to go further up north.\

Any way I could determine if this problem is happening on a test drive? Rev up the engine?

 

Sounds like a good deal. I have a 2015 2LT with the V6 with 41,000 miles on it. No issues besides the usual things cars have. I replaced the wipers once, I changed the tires more because of nails in the tires and the plugs leaked. The car is great for me

 

Was the problem ever resolved? NO...And as you said you read earlier comments, some people have been from hell and back with both vibration problems. And Chevy claims both are "normal "!
Mine started at 5,000 miles, shaking at stoplights. And yes it gets worse in colder weather.
There are those don't have these problems and love their car, as they should. But if the car does have either problem, there will be a lot of shaking going on, and don't look for help from Chevy. Lol
As for their 36 month/36,000 miles
Bumper to Bumper Warranty, they probably wrote it using Charmin! lol

 

Hopefully during test drive, get caught at a few stoplights...longer the light, the more you will feel the steering wheel shake.
Or even in parking lot, put foot on the brake and put it in drive and sit...may or hopefully not feel the steering wheel vibration..
As been said, the colder, the more vibration. No vibration during summer..
As for 1500 rpm vibration...put it in parking and rev and hold at 1500...
Again may or hopefully not feel a vibration.
Good luck, sounds like a good deal.. Hope there's no shaking going on.

 

Honestly, you're probably better off buying used, simply because if the used one has a shaking issue, it should be apparent already (whereas with a new one, you might not know until 5k or 10k miles). It's my understanding that if the car is going to have the issue, it will be obvious very early in it's life. So just make sure to pay attention for it on the test drive. Also, pay close attention while driving at 1500 rpm. There seem to be two different vibration-related issues - one is at idle and the other is at 1500 rpm. At least that is my understanding of the issue - someone please correct me if I'm wrong.

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We have had our 15 Impala a little over 2 years now and have had no problems. Love the looks, the power of the V6 and the nice ride.
My wife mainly drives ours but if I had the money I would buy another new body style Impala for myself. I'd probably get another black one just because that color looks best on these cars I think, although it is harder maintaining it.

 

Thanks everyone, will go on a test drive soon.

Hopefully no vibration issues. I suppose I should ask the dealer too about why this car is being sold.

 

Do you have Carfax in Canada?
If so, ask the dealer to see it

 

We have something similar called Carproof.

Here is the exact vehicle:
https://reports.carproof.com/main?id=58zmGu94bayTzIfTVunJVOwaWlWKk5X%2b

The only thing that is there is a "glass record". I once asked a dealer and usually that means broken windshield at one point.

Looks like 2 owners in a very short span. Odd that there are no odometer readings.

 

Yeah, trust me, what the dealer (salesman) tells you cannot be trusted. It seems that every car sold was owned by a little old lady if you trust what they say.

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I also noticed that it was a fleet vehicle. I'm not sure if this type of report differentiates between "fleet" and "rental", but just something to consider. Although, I always told myself that I would *never* buy a rental vehicle, but then I did just that when I bought my 2012 Impala. It had 19k miles on it when I bought it and it was (and still is) in remarkable condition. Honestly, it seems fine - and I'm sure I saved a few thousand simply because it was a previous rental (I paid $12k, if I remember correctly). So $12k for a 2'ish year old car with 19k miles - and it had most options (sunroof, xm, garage door opened thing, spoiler, etc). It didn't have leather interior, which was a good thing to me because I actually don't like leather. I have leather in my 2005 LaCrosse and hate it - cold in the winter, hot in the summer, you "stick" to it when hot, you slide all over the place during sharp turns, etc. I honestly dislike everything about leather seats. Cloth seats are so much more comfortable, IMO.

So I would actually consider a rental car again in the future - if you save a significant amount of $$ and you don't spot any signs of heavy abuse. I think you can get a good idea of whether or not it's been heavily abused by just looking at it closely (and during the test drive, obviously) It is still a risk to a point, but at least with the 2012's, they still had a 100k powertrain warranty, so anything major would be covered up to 100k.

Anyway, just my two cents! Make sure to give it a good test drive - preferably on streets that you are familiar with and normally drive in other cars.

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I also noticed that it was a fleet vehicle. I'm not sure if this type of report differentiates between "fleet" and "rental", but just something to consider. Although, I always told myself that I would *never* buy a rental vehicle, but then I did just that when I bought my 2012 Impala.

I asked them and apparently it was a GM corporate vehicle. Used in some sports games.

There is one pro to that - it means that it was probably taken care of (ex: no issues with someone not getting oil changes, etc).

 

Ours was a fleet vehicle as well with about 5,000 miles when we bought it, if I remember right.
Our 2006 Malibu we had was a former rental car, that car was great as well.

 

Just over a year with my 2LT 2014 and it now sits at around 72000 kms. I got it a year ago with 54000 kms for $15000 because of hail damage on the car.... well thanks to a cash payout on a very minor front end collision ( someone backed into the car in a parking lot) most of the hail damage was repaired via paintlesss dent removal and my total out of pocket was $700.


Anyways the only issue to date with the car is I have had glycol show up in the oil.... It happened when I was sampling checking for fuel dilution..... took the car in to GM and they can't find anything but noted the test on file. Took a sample with 4000 kms on the current oil change and the glycol level in the oil remains at zero.. will see what happens with winter temperatures I guess.


Otherwise the car is perfect, no vibration, nothing weird. I even ordered the infotainment.com upgrade for it because I want Android Auto like in my 2017 Sierra lol. Next because of my HID's I might get the Gen5DIY harness and Led's that I keep putting off.... but black tape on the photo eye works for now lol.

 

I bought my 2015 2LT in Sept. 2015. Certified Pre-owned rental car with just over 26,000 miles on it. I really love this car. There are no vibrations, it gets great in town and highway gas mileage, and the ride is very comfortable. I now have just over 39,300 miles on the car and still no issues. My biggest "con" would be the poor visibility out the rear window. My side mirrors have become my best friends.

 

I guess that's my one complaint.. the car is not great on gas. It gets 25 to 26 mpg average highway and that's doing like 75 mph max. I don't really care but I don't consider that anything to talk about... kind of crappy honestly.... thought it would be better than that. Guys in 1/2 tons get pretty close to what I do lol... my 2015 6.2 Silverado could do 23 mpg at the same speeds... Oh well lol.

 

1994Vmax. It all depends on how you drive. I do 95% city driving so I get the same MPG with my 305 HP V6 Impala that I got with my Ecotech 4 cylinder 169 HP Malibu. I average 18 MPG. The start and stops all the time make for horrible Gas mileage. Only an Electric car would help me where I live and work. I'm also heavy footed.

 

Not really in my case..... my driving is primarily open rural type highways on cruise control. The car just sucks gas...... lol. If I could over 20 mpg in an over 400 hp 1/2 ton truck that in itself should speak of my driving style.

We have a 3.5 powered Malibu Maxx circa 2004. It's a heavy car for it's size... it's like 3600 lbs. I can consistently get over 30 mpg driving the same speeds the same way.... the Impala just isn't much of a fuel miser lol. If I cared more about economy I don't think I would keep it.... but I don't and it's a nice car so I ignore it. One of these days I am going to hook up HP to it and tune it... I am sure then I will get low 20s lol.

Something for a prospective buyer to consider when looking at a new vehicle in most cases.

 

The dealer got back to me. The car is in the body shop apparently for a dent. Hmm ....


There's another deal out that I've been looking at.

- 2017 Chevy Impala Premier
- 14,300 km (or about 9,000 miles)
- Price is $30,000 CAD or about $24,000 USD
- They say it is a former rental

Just wondering, how fast do these cars depreciate? New this would be over $36,000, although perhaps less now with the incentives.

This one isn't GM CPO. It's sitting at a Ford dealership.

 

Pretty quickly unfortunately... It's one of the biggest complaints posted to this forum and a quick check of used pricing backs that up. Why not just price out a new one? Gm is discounting pretty heavily and you likely can get 0% financing if you want it on their cross Canada thing...I bought my 2017 2500HD recently on it and decided to finance and let me make money on the tricks purchase price as opposed to paying cash for once. Went 3 years at 0%... and we settled the deal under the pretence I would pay cash... then they still honored the same price financing so why not. It's an option anyway.

 

They sold the 2015 Impala. I am not to sorry to see it go as that vehicle was in the body shop for a while. Dealer claimed that it was a "backlog", but I'm suspicious.

The Ford one is still up and is a former rental.






I am planning to pay cash right now (if it is under 30k CAD) ... .if over I'd have to pay 30k cash and finance the rest.

The big issue is that if they depreciate, then maybe a 2015 (3 years old now that the 2018s are beginning to come in) is best because the previous owner has taken the worst of the depreciation hit.

going to a 2017 from a 2015 you also lose the ability to change cluster/display themes. AND the 100k powertrain warranty

Ive got 80k on my 3.6, with a lifetime fuel economy of about 25mpg. mostly 50mph rural, semi suburban roads. on highway trips i routinely get over32mpg. My round trip from my house to the NY regional training center is 270 miles, about 85% 65mph highway, and have NEVER seen less than 30mpg on that trip.

Did they shorten the warranty or do you just mean I get a shorter part of the warranty?

It's 160,00 km here (100,000 miles).

http://www.chevrolet.ca/warranty.html

 

With the 2017 you would gain Apple Car Play/Android Auto but lose the ability to pause/rw/ffw live radio and lose the sd card slot from the 2015.

 

going to a 2017 from a 2015 you also lose the ability to change cluster/display themes. AND the 100k powertrain warranty

Ive got 80k on my 3.6, with a lifetime fuel economy of about 25mpg. mostly 50mph rural, semi suburban roads. on highway trips i routinely get over32mpg. My round trip from my house to the NY regional training center is 270 miles, about 85% 65mph highway, and have NEVER seen less than 30mpg on that trip.

 

The 2015 did not have the themes, only the 2014 Impala had those.

 

Did they shorten the warranty or do you just mean I get a shorter part of the warranty?

It's 160,00 km here (100,000 miles).

Cool, learn something new everyday. Disregard my comment then, in the USA they lowered the powertrain warranty to 60,000 miles

 

That's interesting how that warranty is so much better in Canada! I was rather disappointed when I heard that it was lowered from 100k miles to 60k miles here in the USA. Not exactly sending the right message when you reduce the warranty so significantly...

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The message was "nobody else we care about has a warranty this long so why are we wasting money with one?"

 

Yes, but the *customer* cares, regardless of what GM thinks (I remember that one of the "reasons" they gave when they reduced that warranty was the people didn't place much value on the warranty when shopping for a car! HUH?!?!). Even on these forums, I've seen people recommend buying a used Impala over new - and one of the reasons why was because the warranty was better on the used car! Reducing the warranty so much does not exactly make the customer feel very confident in the brand - "hmm, they reduced the warranty by 40k miles (!) - maybe that says something about the quality of their products".

GM should be reassuring their customers of the quality of their products and reducing the warranty significantly is definitely not going to help...

I don't know about others, but the 100k mile warranty was certainly a factor for me when I purchased my Impala...

And those car companies that GM isnt't "worried about" (with much better warranties) may just get the sale *because* of the better warranty. A warranty isn't everything, but it's definitely a factor.

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Yes, but the *customer* cares, regardless of what GM thinks (I remember that one of the "reasons" they gave when they reduced that warranty was the people didn't place much value on the warranty when shopping for a car! HUH?!?!). Even on these forums, I've seen people recommend buying a used Impala over new - and one of the reasons why was because the warranty was better on the used car! Reducing the warranty so much does not exactly make the customer feel very confident in the brand - "hmm, they reduced the warranty by 40k miles (!) - maybe that says something about the quality of their products".

GM should be reassuring their customers of the quality of their products and reducing the warranty significantly is definitely not going to help...

I don't know about others, but the 100k mile warranty was certainly a factor for me when I purchased my Impala...

And those car companies that GM isnt't "worried about" (with much better warranties) may just get the sale *because* of the better warranty. A warranty isn't everything, but it's definitely a factor.

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I totally agree with you, Ive told numerous acquaintances of mine to purchase Korean cars/suvs(specifically smaller ones). Sonic/cruze dont really have much to offer compared to the Forte. As a consumer without a brand allegiance itll come down to style, price and warranty for most educated consumers. the K cars get 2/3 (style is subjective)

I honestly dont think many people shopping for their first GM product realized the drop in warranty coverage, let alone made any NEW assumptions regarding GMs quality because of it. I think GM found the warranty DIDNT improve peoples opinion of their quality, so they dropped it due to the cost involved.