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Price is$300$250 ea (shipped within CONUS). If you live outside the US, I will contact you after your order for extra shipping charges.
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Chev SS
- Thread starter Tim-Gabz
- Start date
- Joined
- Sep 14, 2002
- Messages
- 4,135
I just drove a new Chevy Impala SS and I loved it. Good but not great power reasonable gas mileage and very comfortable. I don't know about reliability but the rental car agent said they were holding up very well with no common problems.
The Chevy Impala SS is NOT the only American car available with a V-8. The Ford Crown Victoria and its sister Mercury are made only with V-8s. Of course, being among the last full-sized American sedans, they need every bit of that V-8. Please see the factory specs:
LX Sport
Driveline Rear-wheel drive Rear-wheel drive Rear-wheel drive
Engine 4.6L SEFI V8 4.6L SEFI V8 4.6L SEFI V8
Horsepower
@rpm 224@4,800 224@4,800 239@4,900
Torque
@rpm 275@4,000 275@4,000 287@4,100
The Crown Vic is the basis for almost all current police cars.
LX Sport
Driveline Rear-wheel drive Rear-wheel drive Rear-wheel drive
Engine 4.6L SEFI V8 4.6L SEFI V8 4.6L SEFI V8
Horsepower
@rpm 224@4,800 224@4,800 239@4,900
Torque
@rpm 275@4,000 275@4,000 287@4,100
The Crown Vic is the basis for almost all current police cars.
- Joined
- Nov 24, 2003
- Messages
- 5,337
Unfortunately, other than the Chev we are limited to V-8s in landrovers and non american vehicles such as Mercs and Beamers. Since I am not into off road and the purpose of driving is the experience. The German sedans are silent point and shoot vehicles out of my price range.
I need something that gives feel, good pull, and reliability for the 1st 60'000 miles. Consumption has to be reasonable but not brilliant or I would be shopping for a jap car.
Thanks for you comments
I need something that gives feel, good pull, and reliability for the 1st 60'000 miles. Consumption has to be reasonable but not brilliant or I would be shopping for a jap car.
Thanks for you comments
- Joined
- Nov 24, 2003
- Messages
- 5,337
Unfortunately, other than the Chev we are limited to V-8s in multipurpose vehicles, V-8s in landrovers and V-8s in non american vehicles such as Mercs and Beamers. Since I am not into off road and the purpose of driving is the experience. The German sedans are silent point and shoot vehicles out of my price range.
I need something that gives feel, good pull, and reliability for the 1st 60'000 miles. Consumption has to be reasonable but not brilliant or I would be shopping for a jap car.
Thanks for you comments
I need something that gives feel, good pull, and reliability for the 1st 60'000 miles. Consumption has to be reasonable but not brilliant or I would be shopping for a jap car.
Thanks for you comments
- Joined
- Dec 2, 2005
- Messages
- 1,909
That's weird does Botswana have some deal running with Chevy? If not go with chrysler 300, it's under the daimler chysler umbrella so maybe a technicality?
- Joined
- Nov 24, 2003
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Botswana is a population of @1.4m people and @ 100'000 cars.
The big players include Toyota, GM (Isuzu, Chev and Opel), VW has some good share and lastly Daimler Chrysler (Merc, Jeep and Chrysler in the form of the crossfire + neon). There is a BMW, Kia, a bit of french representation, and Landrover following but much in the background.
The heat, roads and dust knock the heck out of cars, include for one of the highest accident rate and one gets a high turnover of cars and little in the way of oldies. The smaller cars need to be tough, I have a New style Corsa Pick up that has been doing well. Jap cars tend to become flexible after two years.
Without a critical mass there is not alot of technical skills and when our company Range Rover went wrong it took a long time and a trip on a flat bed truck to get it attended to.
This is why I evaluate a car's life at 60'000miles 3-5years and really don't want to pay for more or have a vehicle much out of warrantee.
The big players include Toyota, GM (Isuzu, Chev and Opel), VW has some good share and lastly Daimler Chrysler (Merc, Jeep and Chrysler in the form of the crossfire + neon). There is a BMW, Kia, a bit of french representation, and Landrover following but much in the background.
The heat, roads and dust knock the heck out of cars, include for one of the highest accident rate and one gets a high turnover of cars and little in the way of oldies. The smaller cars need to be tough, I have a New style Corsa Pick up that has been doing well. Jap cars tend to become flexible after two years.
Without a critical mass there is not alot of technical skills and when our company Range Rover went wrong it took a long time and a trip on a flat bed truck to get it attended to.
This is why I evaluate a car's life at 60'000miles 3-5years and really don't want to pay for more or have a vehicle much out of warrantee.
Tim,
As someone who owns a Mercury Grand Marquis (Ford Crown Vic) with about 70K miles of recent experience on it, I have experience with American V-8 Sedans. I do not have a lot of recent experience with the Chevy brand because I have had too much go wrong with them in the past. I can't imagine owning a Chevy product in your part of the world. Southern Arizona (USA) vaguely resembles what I think you see on a routine basis and my Ford and Nissan products held up well. In two car rentals of Chey products, I ripped the front Air Dam off a brand new Chevy 1/2 ton pickup after about 1 week. There was no impact damage. Rough ASPHALT roads had vibrated the vehicle enough to cause a stress fracture in the mounting hardware and the air pressure ripped it off while I was doing 50MPH on a relatively smooth road at the time. The GMC Envoy (mid-sized SUV) had about 27K miles on it and had so many body rattles in it, I was glad I didn't own it. The wiring harness had a rub in it that caused some problems with accessory lights in the cabin and the fog lights on the front of the vehicle. I also have had a lot of bad experiences with older GM products but, they are not applicable to what they build today. In a truly urban or city environment, I suspect they do much better.
Since Toyota is a supported brand in your country, why aren't you considering a V-6 Camry or Avalon (or the African equivalent)? The V-6 Toyota Avalon I test drove had more motor in it then my 4.6L V-8 Grand Marquis which has the USA market uprated engine for "handling".
To get my car to have the same acceleration as the V-6 Toyota Avalon, I would need to do some aftermarket engine upgrades. Not a lot but, probably around $1,000 USD and I would loose some gas mileage.
If the Toyota can't match the
FWIW, I would suggest you test drive the Toyota Avalon with the Touring Package option or whatever the call the African equivalent. It is a larger car then the Camry so, you have the benefits of an American Land Yacht with better handling and interior fittings. Also, it responds well to a heavy right foot ....
As someone who owns a Mercury Grand Marquis (Ford Crown Vic) with about 70K miles of recent experience on it, I have experience with American V-8 Sedans. I do not have a lot of recent experience with the Chevy brand because I have had too much go wrong with them in the past. I can't imagine owning a Chevy product in your part of the world. Southern Arizona (USA) vaguely resembles what I think you see on a routine basis and my Ford and Nissan products held up well. In two car rentals of Chey products, I ripped the front Air Dam off a brand new Chevy 1/2 ton pickup after about 1 week. There was no impact damage. Rough ASPHALT roads had vibrated the vehicle enough to cause a stress fracture in the mounting hardware and the air pressure ripped it off while I was doing 50MPH on a relatively smooth road at the time. The GMC Envoy (mid-sized SUV) had about 27K miles on it and had so many body rattles in it, I was glad I didn't own it. The wiring harness had a rub in it that caused some problems with accessory lights in the cabin and the fog lights on the front of the vehicle. I also have had a lot of bad experiences with older GM products but, they are not applicable to what they build today. In a truly urban or city environment, I suspect they do much better.
Since Toyota is a supported brand in your country, why aren't you considering a V-6 Camry or Avalon (or the African equivalent)? The V-6 Toyota Avalon I test drove had more motor in it then my 4.6L V-8 Grand Marquis which has the USA market uprated engine for "handling".
To get my car to have the same acceleration as the V-6 Toyota Avalon, I would need to do some aftermarket engine upgrades. Not a lot but, probably around $1,000 USD and I would loose some gas mileage.If the Toyota can't match the
in its stock form with the V-6, I would spend a little extra money for some aftermarket engine upgrades to get the power where I wanted it. Light mods to bump the power should not affect reliability and those things are so easy on gasoline that I don't see that becoming a problem for you. Keep in mind though, if you go with the Jap Rice Burner type mods, all bets are off on cost and reliability.
FWIW, I would suggest you test drive the Toyota Avalon with the Touring Package option or whatever the call the African equivalent. It is a larger car then the Camry so, you have the benefits of an American Land Yacht with better handling and interior fittings. Also, it responds well to a heavy right foot ....
- Joined
- Nov 24, 2003
- Messages
- 5,337
Thanks Sid,
It is that type of failure that I am very wary of. It won't be the first model that I have considered that has had a such a visual failure.
We do have the Camry. I was considering it but it only comes out in the 2.2. Very nice but sedate. I will bug them on the V6 this week and see what I can get out of them. They have a Lexus range that I have not looked at yet, but again probably out of my range.
The limited market means limited options avaible and one needs to watch the hidden costs and services.
It is that type of failure that I am very wary of. It won't be the first model that I have considered that has had a such a visual failure.
We do have the Camry. I was considering it but it only comes out in the 2.2. Very nice but sedate. I will bug them on the V6 this week and see what I can get out of them. They have a Lexus range that I have not looked at yet, but again probably out of my range.
The limited market means limited options avaible and one needs to watch the hidden costs and services.
Tim-Gabz said:
I would think that importing a V-6 Camry would be a good option even if they aren't the normal thing in your country. The Lexus range ES cars are essentially the up-market Toyota Camry and only come in V-6 (at least where I live) so, worst case you would just need to have your Camry serviced at the Lexus dealership and you would go there for engine parts. If you trade at ~60K miles that won't be problem though as long as you stock up on a few oil filters or other consumable bits for routine maintanence, if they are a problem (shouldn't be with Lexus support).