Chevy Sweeps the 2014 Car and Truck of the Year Award

Ingenuity has its rewards. Announced on January 13, 2014, at the North American International Auto Show (NAIAS) in Detroit, the all-new Chevrolet Corvette Stingray and Chevrolet Silverado have earned the titles of 2014 North American Car and Truck of the Year, respectively. This marks only the third time in the awards’ 21-year history that one automaker has swept both awards, which is a feat that Parkway Chevrolet could not be more proud of.

“It is a distinct honor for the entire Chevrolet team to have both Corvette and Silverado recognized with these prestigious awards,” said Alan Batey, General Motors senior vice president, Global Chevrolet. “Chevrolet is in the midst of the most aggressive product transformation in the brand’s more than 100-year history. Corvette and Silverado truly embody the passion, commitment and focus that is driving us to deliver the most expressive designs, innovative technologies and engaging performance in every vehicle that wears the bowtie.”

North American Car and Truck of the Year are awarded annually at the start of media week at the NAIAS. Forty-nine automotive journalists from the United States and Canada vote to recognize the most outstanding vehicles of the year based on factors including innovation, design, safety, handling, driver satisfaction and value for the dollar.

North American Car of the Year is just the latest of more than 20 awards and recommendations the 2014 Corvette Stingray has received since its introduction last fall, making it the industry’s most awarded car of the year. Stingray is the most powerful standard Corvette model ever with 455 horsepower and 460 lb.-ft. of torque from a 6.2L V8 engine. And it packs an even more impressive 460 horsepower and 465 lb.-ft. of torque with the available performance exhaust system, enabling models with the available Z51 Performance Package to sprint from 0 to 60 in 3.8 seconds. The Stingray engine features advanced technologies including Direct Injection, Variable Valve Timing and Active Fuel Management to balance performance with the greatest efficiency of any sports car on the market — an EPA-estimated 29 MPG highway when equipped with the 7-speed manual transmission. Learn more about the all-new 2014 Corvette Stingray.
The all-new 2014 Silverado completed the sweep, winning the award for North American Truck of the Year. Silverado was recognized for features such as its available 5.3L EcoTec3 V8 engine, which generates 355 horsepower for confident towing and hauling, yet seamlessly switches to four cylinders to save fuel during light-load driving. With an EPA-estimated 23 MPG highway, Silverado offers the best fuel economy of any V8 pickup. Silverado 1500 also recently received the highest possible 5-Star Overall Vehicle Score for Safety† as part of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s New Car Assessment Program. To learn more about any of these vehicles and what options that are available and are in the Houston area, please visit Parkway Chevrolet, or message us on Facebook here.

2015 Chevrolet SS getting manual transmission, Magnetic Ride suspension

We're big fans of the Chevrolet SS here at Parkway Chevrolet, west coast editor Michael Harley recently saying the Aussie import "comes across as a polished, and very well-rounded, sport sedan package that is more focused on performance than the others." Those others, of course, being competitors like the larger Dodge Charger SRT8 or even the Chevy's more luxurious cousin, the Cadillac CTS Vsport. Now, if reports swirling 'round the internet are true, the SS will be getting another performance-focused addition for the 2015 model year, and it's one we're seriously stoked about: a manual transmission.

This information comes courtesy of Motor Trend editor Jonny Lieberman, who broke the news on Twitter. In addition to the do-it-yourself gearbox, the 2015 SS will also reportedly use General Motors' excellent Magnetic Ride suspension – what's found on the Corvette, among other cars. That setup, combined with a proper row-your-own transmission, should make for one absolutely lovely SS.

When reached for comment, GM spokesperson Afaf Farah told Autoblog, "We have not made any new announcements about the Chevrolet SS." According to Lieberman's tweet, the updated SS will make its debut at the annual Woodward Dream Cruise in August.

The 2015 Chevy Impala Bi-Fuel Burns Combustible Natural Gas

Parkway Chevrolet is a huge advocate to the environment, which is evident in their Natural Gas Vehicle focus of the past few years. There is a huge buzz around the direction that the vehicle line is going in. Currently, the only natural-gas-powered passenger car offered for sale by an OEM in the US is the Honda Civic Natural Gas. Starting this fall, that long-running CNG car will be joined by a CNG-burning 2015 Chevy Impala for both fleet and retail customers. General Motors announced today that the car will start at $37,385, plus an $825 destination charge. That comes to $38,210 before taxes and options.

Those options include two trim lines, the base LS and the upper-level LT. Chevy doesn't break out the details in the press release announcing the price, but you can see the trim details for the standard gas-powered 2014 Impala here. Exact information on the 2015 models is not available just yet, but GM spokesman Chad Lyons told AutoblogGreen that the equipment that you see listed on the site for 2014 is "almost exactly the same" as what will be available for 2015.

The 2015 Impala gets around 19 city mpg on CNG, but official EPA numbers are not yet available.

That means the LS will come with 18-inch aluminum wheels, electric variable-assist power steering, projector-beam headlamps, and 10 air bags. The LT adds an eight-inch touch screen with MyLink, premium Cloth interior and dual-zone automatic climate controls. The cost for this upgrade is unspecified. For CNG purposes, we can ignore the numerical prefix used for the gas-powered LT trims, since that denominates the engine type, and all the CNG models use a 3.6-liter engine with hardened valves and valve seats that can better handle natural gas. The trunk capacity also drops from 18.8 cubic feet to 10 cu .ft. in order to fit in the CNG tank that holds the equivalent of 7.8 gallons of gas. That amount of CNG should move you 150 city miles, which is around 19 mpg, but official EPA numbers are not yet available. With the addition of the gasoline on board, the overall range is 500 city miles. The car burns CNG when available and switches to gas with "no interruption" either when the tank is empty or when the driver selects the gas tank. Find more details in the press release below.

GM says the CNG Impala will will be available nationwide this fall. CNG is a growing fuel in the US, thanks in part to fracking. The Civic Natural Gas, which starts at $26,640, is growing towards a nationwide availability. Next year, for example, the Shell Eco-marathon Americas in Detroit will allow CNG for the first time. Parkway Chevrolet is really excited for this new move in this direction. We look forward to seeing if the other Chevy lines will follow suit. This is also a huge benefit for the Parkway family who has their hands in the NGV business, and is a huge advocate for a greener earth.