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If you take the evidence coming out of the offices of General Motors, the most popular car in the Chevrolet stable is the Chevy Malibu.
The car has won a ton of car awards including the 2008 North American Car of the Year. GM spent close to $250 million on advertising to promote the car.
Meanwhile, like a stepsister being ignored by the family, the Chevrolet Impala has gotten no publicity, no large national ad campaign to tout it, and it is hardly mentioned in press releases. Yet the Impala has been the Fleet Car of the Year for the last three year. And, believe it or not, it is actually outselling the Malibu. Three Impalas are sold for every two Malibus. Quietly, very quietly, Chevrolet has sold 265,840 Impalas, making it the best selling sedan in the U.S. Moreover, it is ranked eighth by volume sales in the country, leaving such vehicles as the Dodge Ram pickup in the dust.
Still, there is some talk that General Motors may have to cut one of these models to assure survival. So it appears that there could be a battle between the siblings.
A little background may be in order to help you determine which of these models stand the best chance for survival. The Malibu is said to represent the “new” General Motors. It is sharply styled to compete against the Toyota Camry and the Honda Accord.
On the other hand, the stepsister Impala is built over a 20-year old platform. The latest version which was introduced in 2005 was meant to come up against the Toyota Avalon. Pundits call it conservative, cheap, and bland. And they point to a boring interior and so-so design as the reasons for their choice of words. Yet the car achieves 29 miles per gallon on the highway. It is called “user-friendly” because buyers can select such options as bench or bucket seats. Police, car-rental companies, and other commercial customers like this feature in the Impala. We guess that’s why about half of all Impalas sold were in fleet sales in 2008. The Malibu ratio of sales to fleets was 20 percent.
The Impala offers more trunk space and headroom and thus is bigger than the Malibu. And that attracts a certain part of the market. Dealers say that they probably would have sold many more Malibus if it wasn’t for the Impala.
The Impala price is $3,000 more than the Malibu but after incentives the two sell for nearly an identical price. It is said that General Motors doesn’t intend to refresh the Impala until it introduces a new Malibu. That could mean that the current Impala could be around for another 10 years or so before it is redesigned. That can’t be good for GM’s or Chevrolet’s image. The company may want to do the refreshing earlier, but it is just too darn expensive.
Our take? So what is in the cards for these two models in the mid-term? It should probably be expected that for a while at least GM and Chevrolet will continue to offer both. But as costs pressures rise and as there is more pressure on GM to be viable and profitable as Uncle Sam looks over its shoulder, who knows for sure what the future holds.
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