2006 Chevrolet Impala

The passenger compartment is surrounded by a high-strength steel "safety cage," both side-curtain and dual-stage front air bags are standard, and structural tubes under the seats work with a center-tunnel crush box to deflect and absorb side-impact loads. A lot of attention has been paid to interior quietness—laminated steel in the front-of-dash, thick 5-mm side glass, stylishly flat windshield wipers, a very sound absorbent steering column boot and exhaust hangers mounted at the system's noise "nodes"—and it works wonderfully well.


These much-improved '06 Impalas complete Chevy's recently-renewed car stable and, given that lots of folks prefer front-wheel drive, especially in bad-weather states, and eschew look-at-me styling, we don't see why they shouldn't sell even better than their popular predecessors. Prices (reduced from '05 despite added standard equipment) start at $21,990 and extend through $27,790 for the SS. (www.chevrolet.com)