20 Years of Chevy Impala

Chevrolet introduced the Impala on their new 1958 line. The Impala line included the lower priced Bel Air and Biscayne models, and from 1965, the upmarket Caprice. And what a year 1965 was, with the Impala topping one million sales. Chevrolet repeated the incredible one million sales mark again in 1966. Over half a century later, no other model has repeated the feat of a million-plus sales in the US market.

It’s not hard to see why the Impala was so popular. General Motors were at the top of their game, and so was Chevrolet. Offering beautiful, glamorous styling in the low-priced field meant buyers didn’t feel they had to compromise even if they couldn’t afford a Buick, Oldsmobile, Chrysler or Mercury.

Not only that, with Chevrolet’s dizzying array of options, buyers were able to tailor their Impala to suit. With the best small block V8s in production, buyers could choose from standard fuel workhorses, to all-out performance versions. And if that didn’t float their boat, they could go the big block route where Chevy again spoiled them for choice. Up to ‘65 buyers could opt for the brutal, drag champion SS409 and from ‘66 - the mighty 396, and later 427 and 454 big blocks. For those not interested in performance, Chevy also offered a range of more economical six cylinder engines.

Body styles? Pillared sedan and coupe, hardtop sedan and coupe, convertible, wagon, Caprice coupe, and an Impala inspired pickup line - the El Camino, allowed Chevy to cover an awful lot of sales ground. In short - it wasn’t a hard sell for Chevy dealers to flog Impalas - until the fuel crisis of 1973. From the mid-1970s Impala wouldn’t have it all its own way as buyer tastes changed and smaller imports began to sell in large volume. Chevrolet responded with the new downsized line for 1977 and sales remained buoyant.

Here we focus on the first twenty years of the Impala - take a look back and see how the Impala morphed and progressed over time. My favorite? It has to be the 1965 but each to their own.