CR published their annual reliability summaries today. The V-6 Impala has average reliability and the I-4 is much worse than average. Based on this, the car is now a "Recommended" model. They had a lot of praise for the car they tested last year but they withheld a recommendation because they had insufficient reliability statistics.

 

Can't say I've seen anything about the 4 bangers being an issue .. maybe they don't complain online because they didn't spend as much.??

 

If their subscribers told them which engine they have it seems like they could have reported on the 2.5-liter and 2.4-liter engines separately but they didn't. I suppose it could be that only the 2.4-liter light hybrid cars are troublesome.