1981 Chevrolet Impala Station Wagon from North America - Comments

Where should I start?

No reverse lights

turn signal broken

heater broken

horn worked whenever it felt like it

radio broken

loud

hole in muffler

went through 3 starters

needed a new engine

new water pump, it feel off

tie rod broke

anytime it rained you'd get wet

wipers hardly worked

seats stuck

needed a new battery

and it had a

hole in the floor.

I will never ever drive a Chevy again!!horrible

Certainly sounds like your car was a piece of crap when you bought it, so question is, why did you?

The problems you had were due to abuse and/or lack of maintenence, not due to inherent defects.

If the full sized Chevy from that era was not a reliable, durable car, you would not have seen them as taxis and police cars everywhere!

Did you buy the car in this condition? How can you complain, did you look at the car before you drove it? I have a 79 Impala in the summer of 2003 I replaced the engine/transmission and have also replaced just about everything else on the car. I noticed something, everything I was replacing was the original 24 year old parts. The new parts were cheap and the repairs were easy to do myself. These are some of the most reliable cars ever built period. Take a look at any taxi fleet or talk to any Cop, they will say the same thing.

This Impala was a 13 year old USED car when you bought it.

Knowing used cars as I do, I'm surprised that it wasn't

worse!

Maybe the wrong engine is to blame for all the mechanical problems mentioned here. The poster of this review listed the 3.8 as the engine, but it's a V6, not V8. I understand all 1977-1990 GM full-size station wagons from Buick LeSabre Estate to Pontiac Bonneville had the 5.0L V8 as standard. The 3.8L went into the non-wagon models depending on make and year. Strange huh? I'd stick with V8 given the vehicle in question is a station wagon. Prior to 1977 I think the last time any GM full-size wagon could be had with 6-cylinder (not V6) power was 1969 for the Chevy Biscayne or Bel Air series.