Chevy Impala — here’s what’s in store for its final year

Chevrolet will retire the Impala nameplate after the 2020 model year, production is scheduled to end early in the calendar year, and odds are the venerated name is not coming back unless it resurfaces on a crossover. The sedan is going out with a bang, at least from your bank account’s perspective.

It’s not that the price has gone up, exactly, it’s just that ordering information published by Cars Direct confirms the 2020 Impala range will not include a four-cylinder engine. And the entry-level, airport rental-spec LS trim is gone, and the lineup is down to two levels, LT and Premier. Both are exclusively available with the V6 engine.

So the shuffle brings the cost of the entry-level Impala up to $32,495, including $875 destination charge. That figure represents a significant $3,600 increase over the 2019 model, which started at $28,895 after adding the same destination charge when buyers selected the base LS trim equipped with a 2.5-liter four-cylinder engine. The price of the V6-powered Impala LT has only gone up by $5 between the 2019 and 2020 model years, however.

Cars Direct learned from a Chevrolet spokesperson that the LT and Premier trims represent about 90 percent of Impala production, so getting rid of the cheapest trim won’t have a major effect on sales. Pricing aside, the Impala enters its final model year with no significant changes. Its V6 is the ubiquitous 3.6-liter unit tuned to 305 horsepower and 264 pound-feet of torque. It spins the front wheels via a six-speed automatic transmission, and it returns a respectable 28 mpg on the highway.

The 2020 Chevrolet Impala will begin arriving on dealer lots in the coming weeks. Act fast if you want one; there won’t be a 2021 Impala. America’s waning interest in full-size sedans has consigned this heritage nameplate to the automotive attic, and a direct successor isn’t in the pipeline.