Quote:
Originally Posted by Martinjlm
Impala has already run longer than originally intended. The original plan was for Chevrolet to have two sedans in the portfolio. Cruze and Malibu. And that was BEFORE the bottom dropped out on sedans. Notice that Malibu has continued to get larger, to the point that it is almost the same size as Impala. That’s because Impala was s’posed to go away. It’s a fuel economy thing. Malibu is 100% 4-cylinder now and gets better fuel economy than Impala. This was planned in order to address fuel economy regulations.
Exactly.
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Actually I heard two versions of this. The version that I remember was that Malibu was to eventually take the place as the top sedan in sales, and that Chevrolet was to develop a flagship rear wheel drive sedan akin to Chrysler's 300 and Charger. I believe this was the thought process before GM suffered hard times in '04 and in '08. Some other events happened as well. Chevy was trying to figure out what to do with Malibu before '08, and somehow the Impala seemed to be a fairly good volume seller (prior generation). The Malibu had a good re-birth in '08, but Chevy held onto the Impala way too long and essentially wore out its place in the regular car sales market.
Now, it seems that the sedan market has shrunk to only one legitimate sedan in the line-up.