2000 Chevrolet Impala LS review from North America

The car was 1 year old when I bought it from Hertz fleet sales in 2001. The car was in very good condition, with only 30,000 miles on it, and had been maintained very well.

I kept up maintenance on the vehicle, and it seemed to perform very well.

The braking system on this car has had troubles with overheating causing the brakes in the front to become pulsing and not smooth when stopping. I have yet to be able to fix this problem without replacing the stock brakes with a more expensive upgrade. Chevy denies that the brake system is inefficient. I disagree.

When it was around 76k miles and about 5 years old, it developed a whining sound from the transmission and would no longer fully shift into 4th gear. After taking it to the dealer for evaluation, they weren't sure why and could only speculate that one of the gear shafts in the transmission had developed a burr on it preventing it from shifting properly. Chevy attempted to fix the problem but never quite could, short of telling me I would have to have the transmission replaced!$$$$ This has mostly only effected my gas mileage, along with my patience.

More recently, 1 Year ago, 92k miles, I had to have the intake manifold replaced because the plastic that it is made of started crumbling and falling apart resulting in a major coolant leak into the engine.

WARNING: DEX-COOL DOES NOT LAST FOR 5 YEARS AS IT SAYS IN THE MANUAL. IT BREAKS DOWN AND IS VERY CORROSIVE TO THE COOLING SYSTEM, INTAKE MANIFOLD, AND THE ENGINE BLOCK. DO NOT USE 5 YR DEX-COOL WHEN REPLACING COOLANT. REPLACE COOLANT ANNUALLY.

On another note, I have experienced 3 intermittent occasions on where the car would completely die requiring towing on one occasion. The cause was only speculated to be a quirky computer not sensing fuel level properly.

2008: 110k miles, The radiator has developed a separation at the top of the plastic end tank from the metal core (on the driver side) and now requires to be replaced. (very hard to see. on front top corner of radiator) (slow leak)

Every (all 4) power window regulators has failed and required repair. (Nearly $400.00 each)

The vehicle handles well, but again, leave extra room for braking.

Trim problems around the driver's side-impact airbag. Several attempts to have Chevy fix this under its warranty period, were less than successful.

I no longer trust Chevy to do any of my repairs.