All I can say is my experiences are what they are... having grown up
in PA (and even now my driveway has a steep slope) I set the parking
brake every time I leave the car, and it's been adjusted at least
twice already and it's not working again - feels like there is a
spring or something in the linkage somewhere, doesn't feel directly
connected to the cable. I can push the pedal all the way to the floor
and it doesn't keep the car from rolling back onto the park pawl.
I'll ask the garage to tighten it up whenever I think of it and it'll
work for a while and then within a month it'll stop working again.

Still not as annoying as the driver's door that actively tries to kill
me every time I get out of the car. there's a nice boot print on the
map pocket where I kick it every time I open the door to keep it from
swinging shut on me before I can get out of the car. (learned that
trick right quick after spilling about half a cup of coffee into my
hard hat and all over a roll of drawings.) Problem is that it tends
to shut itself even on level ground, and the first "catch" in the
hinges isn't strong enough to hold the door open, but a normal
person's arms aren't long enough to fully open the door until you are
already out of the seat.

I forgot to mention the keyless entry that requires about 5 button
presses to unlock the door... can't count the number of times I've
nearly peeled off one of my fingernails on those #$%^ door pulls
thinking the door was unlocked when it wasn't... speaking of which,
why did it take GM so long to move away from those horrible flapper
style door handles to a proper loop style like everyone else? (I
believe those are actually required in ECE countries) the old chrome
loop-and-button things were perfectly fine too, why mess with a
perfectly functional design?

What's the deal with providing a rear window defogger but no heated
outside mirrors? It's way easier to scrape ice off the rear window
than it is those little mirrors...

I swear, my 50 year old Studebaker doesn't have nearly as many
ergonomic utter and complete failures as Vlad the Impala and is more
fun to drive to boot. (of course, it would be nice to *have* outside
mirrors, rear window defogger, windhshield washers, air conditioning,
etc...)

I suspect that more uplevel versions of my car might have some of the
things I'm missing, although I think GM might have shot themselves in
the foot by selling such El Strippo vehicles as fleet vehicles...
people who drive fleet cars do occasionally buy personal use vehicles
as well, you know, and my impression of GM based on this car isn't
particularly good. And, of course, higher trim levels can't fix
fundamental problems like the design of the doors and handles,
although I did see that they provided proper door handles for the '06
facelift.\

I'm just bumming that the supposed Zeta-platform RWD Impala keeps
getting pushed back/maybe cancelled... I can't imagine how that
couldn't be a VAST improvement over the current platform.

nate

On Feb 12, 9:12*pm, "ROY BRAGG" > wrote:
> I don't know about the 2007, but my 2000 Impala will turn off the radio
> regardless which door is opened after turning off the ignition. *Also, I can
> press the odometer/trip button to display mileage with the key off--a trick
> a learned from my service rep at the dealership. *The '05 is basically the
> same car as mine, and I've had no problem whatever with the parking brake
> going out of adjustment.
> Roy"Nate Nagel" > wrote in message
>
> ...
>
>
>
> > Ad absurdum per aspera wrote:
> >> I think I found a bug^undocumented feature of wildcard utility...
>
> >> Current-ish model 4-door Impala (2007, I think, though conceivably an
> >> '08) in our motor pool. *When you turn the ignition switch off and
> >> close the door, the radio goes off. *So far so good.
>
> >> Then you realize you need to log the mileage. *You go back into the
> >> car through the *passenger* side (since it's easier to get at in this
> >> parking space), turn the key to activate the electronic odometer, turn
> >> off the switch, withdraw the key, lock the locks, leave.
>
> >> Some minutes later you go back to the car and discover that the radio
> >> is still on! * *Yep, the computer is only smart enough to offer a
> >> radio auto-offer via the dome light switch in the driver's side
> >> door. * Go in through the passenger side and you could end up
> >> serenading the spiders under the trunk lid all night, or until the
> >> battery went dead, whichever came first...
>
> >> This is repeatable. *Shifter's in Park, key is off and out, radio's
> >> playing. *(Also determined that any transition of the driver's-side
> >> door when the key is out will shut down the radio.)
>
> >> Not sure whether this is a design oversight or just part of the
> >> groundwork for the upcoming robot insurrection,
> >> --Joe
>
> > GM just doesn't sweat the details. *There's lots of niggling little things
> > to hate about the Impala, not the least of which are the doors that you
> > can't push fully open from a seated position but love to swing shut on you
> > while you're halfway out of the car, and the parking brake that goes out
> > of adjustment between oil changes.
>
> > NB: my experiences are with an '05, maybe the reskin changed some of these
> > issues. *But I'm still hoping for a different car next time around (only
> > 8500 more miles! *I can't wait!)
>
> > nate
>
> > --
> > replace "roosters" with "cox" to reply.
> >http://members.cox.net/njnagel- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -