A Brief History of the Chevy Impala – Cincinnati, OH

Suppose you are at a local bar trivia contest. The question comes up: “What car holds the record for the highest single-year sales in the United States, with 1,046,514 units sold?” Your team huddles up and throws out a few guesses. The Camry? The Accord? The Beetle? Someone on your team mentions SUVs and trucks, saying it could be one of them. You ask the trivia host for clarification, and the emcee confirms it is indeed a car. He even hints that it was a full-sized car at the time the record was set. Your team offers up an educated guess, and the emcee tells the house that, believe it or not, it was the 1965 Chevy Impala.

Unless you are a car enthusiast (or trivia host), you may very well not know that little factoid. But, if you think about it, it makes sense. Musicians from The Beach Boys to Lil Troy have had a love affair with the Chevy Impala. It has appeared in countless movies and television shows. It was even the chassis for the Batmobile in the 1989 Michael Keaton/Jack Nicholson classic. Not many cars can boast that claim to fame. If there is a level above “iconic” in American car lore, the Impala is surely there.

It has seen multiple iterations over the years, and even took a hiatus in the late 1980s and early 1990s. It has been everything from a concept car to a muscle car, a family wagon to a police interceptor, and more. Read on to find out a little more about this classic Chevy, its storied past and its uncertain future.

In The Beginning…

The Chevy Impala started out in 1958 as a concept car. These types of cars are usually shown at car shows and trade expos to gauge public interest. They frequently employ the latest in an automakers designs and technologies. If the automaker has deemed sufficient interest from the people in attendance, they will then do further studies, such as cost-effectiveness and vehicle safety, among others. That is why, if a concept car does enter mass production after positive reviews, it usually takes at least two years to hit the public.

That is exactly what happened with the Chevrolet Impala. The initial response was very positive, and the Impala premiered as a trim level on the Chevy Bel-Air in 1958. It had a different look than other General Motors cars, which included Buick, Oldsmobile, Cadillac and Pontiac at the time, as well as Chevy. Over 180,000 Bel-Air Impalas were produced in the first year, which is an astounding number for a first-year automobile, even in the 1950s, when automakers only had slimmed down numbers of vehicles being produced.

It didn’t take long for General Motors to realize they had a hit on their hands. The Impala became its very own nameplate the following year, in 1959. They also added hardtop and sedan options to the previous coupe and convertible options that year. Production of this generation Impala, which spanned 1959 and 1960, skyrocketed to nearly half a million.

As the 1960s went on, Chevy entered into a war with its competitors over the muscle car. The Corvette and Mustang started a battle that has never really ended. Those two iconic muscle cars have been battling it out for more than 50 years, and there is no end in sight. The Impala briefly entered into the muscle car arena during this period, as General Motors was still trying to flesh its long term plans out. It was around this time that they set the sales record and solidified their place in American history. When the Corvette, and later Camaro, started to pull away from all other GM cars, the Impala took yet another turn in its evolution.

The 1971 Chevrolet Impala was the largest car ever built by Chevy. However, due to federal regulations and the energy crisis, this would be a short-lived look. Newly required energy absorbing bumpers reduced the sizeable back end of the Impala, and unleaded gas forced major design changes. The sleeker, slimmed down Impala would limp through to 1985, when it was retired for 6 years, until 1991.

The Resurrection

When the Impala was resurrected in 1991, it bore little resemblance to the car it once was. And, because passenger sedans slimming down was all the rage in the 1990s and 2000s, that design trend carried on well into the 21st  century. Generations eight and nine, which both debuted in the 2000s, much more closely resembled the cookie cutter models of cars produced all over the world.

General Motors gave one last breath into the Impala in 2014, with its tenth generation going on sale in 2013 for the 2014 model year. This generation bulked up a little bit from the last two generations, trying in vain to reproduce some of the heftier look of the 60s and 70s. However, this was not enough, as annual sales of the Impala have been steadily, and drastically, declining in the last decade. 2018 sold 56,566 vehicles, less than a third of what was sold in 2010.

These numbers are not unique to the Impala, unfortunately. Passenger cars are in steady decline all across the market; it is not just Chevy or GM. As such, passenger cars are being phased out all over the world in favor of SUVs and pickup trucks. SUVs passed cars in the mid-2000s as the most popular passenger vehicles, and gained more than 50% of the vehicle market as a whole by the mid 2010s. Due to the incredible versatility of SUVs, and their proliferation across all automakers’ lines, this trend is only going to continue to grow.

End of an Era

Unfortunately for lovers of classic cars, the history book on the Chevrolet Impala is about to close. General Motors announced that they are stopping production on several of their cars, the Impala included. The only cars that Chevy is keeping in production past 2020 are the Corvette, the Camaro, the Malibu and the Bolt. The Camaro and Corvette are going nowhere. They have proven far too popular for far too long. The Malibu is the last remaining passenger/family car for Chevy, but its future is very iffy. The Bolt is the electric offering from Chevy. While it is only three years old, current trends in buying tend to point towards electrics and hybrids in favor over gasoline engines, depending on the vehicle. Buick and Cadillac are also seeing cars cut from their lineups, as well. GMC has never manufactured a car, so they are safe, for now.

There are still a few hopes for fans of the Impala. The first is classic car shows. These shows are held all over the country year round. If you see a parking lot full of well-kept vehicles from decades gone by, most of them with their hoods up and spectators admiring the antiquated engineering, you are sure to find an Impala or two in the mix. The second is hip-hop and rap videos from the 1990s. Impalas were quite popular in those videos. Any child of the 1990s that got MTV could attest to that. So, failing a classic car show in your area, there is always YouTube.

What’s Next For Chevy?

Never underestimate is the resurrective power of the American people. Whether it be nostalgia or the economy, automakers love to bring certain cars back to life. It has happened twice for the Impala. Even though it is going off the assembly line very soon, does not mean that General Motors and Chevrolet will never bring it back. If you want to see the Impala before it’s taken off the lots, stop in to McCluskey Chevrolet in Cincinnati, OH and you can have your own piece of American history.