With the odometer now reading 16,528 km, our built-in-Canada cruiser has just piled on the klicks with little drama. The Chevy just eats up the mileage without ever once complaining or putting up a fuss.

Proving that General Motors can screw a car together with the best of ‘em, one staffer noted, “It’s just as tight today as the day we picked it up.” And it’s true. The cabin remains a spacious and tasteful place to spend time, while the generously padded seats help keep drivers fresh behind the wheel.

Praise has come to the optional XM Satellite Radio, providing clear and crisp reception through most situations, and the upgraded speakers are plenty loud for a variety of music tastes.

With the onset of winter, we’re happy that our Impala isn’t equipped with the optional leather seating surfaces, although seat heaters would still be a valuable choice with the cloth buckets.

Road noise is well isolated for the big Chev, however, the Impala is the only member of our long-term fleet not on winter rubber yet, so we’re keeping our fingers crossed that it remains that way. However, even the stock Goodyears aren’t bad in the slushy stuff, helped immensely by the standard ABS and StabiliTrak.

While the Impala certainly isn’t the most enthusiastic performer in the Carguide garage, we’re still enamoured with it simply because it’s designed and built exactly to its design brief. As another staffer noted, “It’s a smooth, comfortable, efficient cruiser.” Nuff said.

In the last 5,165 km, we’ve burned through a tad over 532 litres of regular fuel, giving us an average of 10.3 L/100 km, higher than our last report, but still well within the ballpark. Total fuel cost for the same period was $584.36, confirming that gas will remain above $1/L in the future. However, we’re convinced that the cylinder-deactivation technology on the 239-hp 3.9-litre V6 is proving its worth on the highway, the changeover between three and six cylinders proving virtually undetectable. However, we’re pretty sure that updating the robust but aged four-speed automatic to a more modern five- or six-speed version would help both fuel efficiency and in-gear passing power.

One thing we have yet to do is run our Impala on a tank of E85, a blend of 85 percent gasoline and 15 percent ethanol, mainly because the fuelling stations are just so bloody hard to find. There are virtually none within a reasonable distance of our Oakville, Ontario offices, meaning a big road trip is planned in the next little while to get at least a tank or three of corn-juice through its system.

This will have to be sooner than we think as General Motors Canada has been calling, wondering when we’ll be giving the car back, so chances are next issue will be our final update with our true-blue pavement-pounder.