Which Company Car to pick....

[nucleuscracker]

Well the great company that I work for has decided to give us company cars - our choices are the 4 above....

Currently I drive a 97 Mercury mountaineer....going into a car could be tough....but i like the impala...

what ya all think.....

[drlowz]

Heres my vote right here.....

[Firefish]

The new job I just started gave me a 2001 Jeep!! Man, I love state jobs!!

[petpoor]

I'd have to go Impala.

[Reefland]

Camry's sure are nice.

[nucleuscracker]

camry's are nice - I have yet to test drive one of the new ones. My brother did own a 9? Camry and the couple of times I drove it - I hated it. Yes its been awhile so I may like driving it now...guess I'll find out next week.

I did test drive the impala and the escape .........of course I liked the impala over the escape in terms of size and handling. My question is why do I not see a lot of Impala's on the ride?

Does anyone own an impala or has owned one and can tell me why...?(or anyone else for that matter)

thanks!

[ccull]

and i hate it - the interior ergonomics look pretty, but their shortcoming became glaringly obvious when we took it on a road trip. and despite the fact she only has like 6000 miles on it, it already has squeaks and rattles. i would personally go with the camry, i've been in camry's with >100k miles that didn't squeak and rattle like my sister's impala.

[icemark]

What do you do for a living? what are you gonna use the car for?

Of those I would pick the Escape, if I did sales, or anything where I actually needed a trunk (like carrying bags of salt or that new fish tank home).

I have not been impressed by the GM N-car based Impalla. I really feel it is no different than a two door streched Malibu or a Grand am, that it is infact based on. At best mediocre gas milage, handling and build quality. Yes it is the sportest of the bunch, and if you are only keeping it for a year or two it might be a good choice, but I feel its failings will become much more apparent over the next couple of years. And IMO it is by far the uglyest of the bunch you have listed. GM needs to fire that Art Center graduate, that did that car and the Azteck.

While the Camry is a perfectly fine car with great build quality and reliability it suffers the same fate as the Taurus, in that it is just a boring car. But again what will you be using the car for. If I was spending a lot of time on the interstate, both the Camry and Taurus would be great choices. The Taurus has a bit more room though, but the Camry will have better reliability and gas milage.

[Biomanjcs72]

I've never owned an IMPALA, but here's what I think: They now put V6's in impalas, where formerly they used V8's. I think this pissed off the "purists" and hurt sales a bit. In terms of Sheer value, I think the camry is probably your best bet economically. But if it's a company car, and they are reimbursing you for gas, maintenance, etc., then I'd get the Impala, more sporty, and when it starts creaking, you can give it back and say "I want a new one, please"

[Biomanjcs72]

Icemark: I'm with you on the designer thing. I think the Aztek was a school design project, they said "hey, we found all of these old LeMans (remember those POS's) rearends in the warehouse and don't know what to do with them". I think they then took the rearend to an art school and said "Design a car using this rearend" Result= Aztek.
Ugliest GM car (aside from the new Montecarlo) since the Cadillac Seville) JMHO,

[asmith]

My vote is for the Camry. They are very reliable and economical. I personally will not buy a GM car. I just don't have much faith in them.

JMO,
Andrew

[nucleuscracker]

well for the last 15 years I vowed to not buy a GM car (but i own stock in GM ) having owned Ford cars and been around them since I was old enough to see over the dashboard.

I am in sales so I need trunk space - Can the Escape handle this? One of the reps I work with bought one last december - she likes it but....

I guess I would have to measure the trunk space side to side to see how big it is... I went from a Ranger SuperCab 4x4 to my Mountaineer and man do I miss my truck sometimes...

We will be reimbursed for gas and a maintance plan will come with the car (other then the factory plan) so if it gets 10 mpg or 40 mpg it does not bother me - only costs my company money (which could be a bad thing)

As for the Camry I heard that they are changing the body style for 2002 - is this true?

As for the Azteck - WTF happened? The poor kid that designed that thing is flipping burgers now... .


It will all come down to what options we can get w/o $$ out of pocket from me....

[icemark]

Toyota and Honda, typically run on a 4 year body run for their passenger cars.

For example a Toyota or Honda chassis (the basic underpinnings/ suspension/ motor) of a car is re-done every eight years, a major body (new sheet metal/ glass/ interior) style every four years, and a minor (new grille/lights/trim) body style every two years.

I thought the last Camry came out as a 97 model, which would make it overdue in 2002 for a major body re-style (should have been done this year), but I imagine that coming out with the Camry based 2001 Highlander Sport Ute delayed the change.

Here is one of the kits available to make the Camry more sporty looking:

I understand about the GM thing, after working for a vendor that supplied parts to GM a couple of years past I would almost never own one. You would think that with all the quality and hoops we had to do to get the GM contract that GM would build the best, most reliable, perfect cars in the world, but GM is just too big to understand what is happening in its cars. The "so what if 1000 of them explode, we still sold 500000, we'll just pay off the families that died" mentality runs way too deep there.

[MEC]

If this was the old Impala SS it would definately get my vote. But the new one is plain ugly. Have to say same thing about Aztec , and have you seen the Z71 vresion ? Since they wont go for a Dodge Intreped, the next best thing would have to be the Taurs. Cant see voting for a foreign car. ( yea I now all american cars are at least half foreign, but have to keep up appearances ) ...mike

[icemark]

MEC

Actually, the 200HP Camry V6 has more US domestic built parts than the Chevy C/K pickups or the Taurus.

GM, Ford and Dailmer/Chrysler love NAFTA.

[ravenmore]

Yep, and my Nissan altima was built in Tennessee

[MEC]

Yep unfortunatly Honda is more American than most American cars. I wonder who REALLY won WW11 ? >>Mike

[nucleuscracker]

now after riding in another reps escape - I may like the escapes better.....aaaaHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH..what to do what to do.....