Death of the Impala...

Jive-Bomber submitted a new blog post:

Death of the Impala...

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The futures so bright you gotta wear shades...in this automotive world nothing is sacred and nothing lasts forever...

But here we stretch out what was proudly...

All the best to those affected...it all sucks...been there done that.

 

For me, the Impala died back in the late '60s.

 

Yes, it was only a name recently. Give them a few years and they will bring it back as some electric powered self-driver.

 

Sadly, the market demands scrubbing bubble commodity shuttles and pickups and not much else. I'm keeping my Caddy ATS-V coupe when the lease is up since Cadillac is getting out of the 2-door, 3-pedal, fast mover market. Can't blame them since they only built 310 of my coupes in '17. The Marques and models we grew up with are almost all gone. Oldsmobile, Pontiac, Mercury, Plymouth, Studebaker, AMC and all the other orphans. It's easier to name the ones left than it is to name the ones gone.

 

I'd say 58 to about 72 were the good years for the Impala. Once the sporty full sized Chevy, they drifted into being the full sized car to just being a nameplate on an appliance. The Impala was second only to the Corvette in getting the goodies that performance guys love, big engines, 4 speeds, multiple carbs. They also grew in size from large to tanks, then shrank back down again. I'd split them into groups, 58 alone, 59-61, 62-64, 65-68, 69-72. Anything after 72 was a luxury boat or a nameplate on another model.
But, times change, even if our likes don't. The folks buying new now have different tastes than I do. I'll keep my memories, they can have the payments!

 

Working at a Chevy dealer I get to see the new cars all the time. The new Impalas are so boring...as is pretty much any new car IMO. I can see why they've decided to let them go.

 

I think it pretty much kicked the bucket after the 1964 models. Anything else is just backwash.

 

Great old time video with corny 50s music. Notice the dark oil strip down the middle of the road from the engine's open draft pipes that dropped oil right on the highway.

 

The Impala was a great car from its inception through the 1960s. Then it caught a bad case of the ‘70s and died. The front-wheel-drive zombie resurrection that came later isn’t worth lamenting.

 

That's from horses and it isn't oil. Notice its only in the right(slow) lane. Living near the Amish we have it all over the back roads.

 

How many of the newer Cruze and Impalas do I see on a daily basis? Very few. The Volt failed to get the consumers charged up. I have one of the newer Malibus and they are good cars, I see lots of them around. Although the 2013 to 2015 models were fugly.

 

Don’t get me started on NEW American cars and GM.
I will say we should never have bailed out those greedy bastards.
Sorry. Couldn’t hold back.
Electric cars aren’t ready yet. The cutback is just a knee jerk reaction to their poor sales and poor quality.
And we didn’t hear them shutting down Mexican and China factories did we??

 

I loved my 59, 60 and 61 2 door hardtops. "Godspeed, you awesome antelope." The perfect eulogy.

 

Nice to see the kids petting the lamb and mom not running for the hand sanitizer.

 

I wish we could buy a "new" 1961 Impala SS -body /car....we can buy a new motorcycle with essentially no safety equipment, why can't they make an original bodied HAMB friendly car? Maybe it gets tagged only as a collectible. So, original body, maybe new driveline LS7 (stroked out to the magic 409 CID), 6 speed, but no cupholders, airbags, ABS, tire pressure sensors, or rear view cameras....they could offer a 1932 Ford, a 1957 Chevy the same way.

 

Yes sir , '59, '60 and '61 are the only years that I have always had a fondness for since I was a young whipper snapper.

 

'63 was the last great one for me. '64 was ok. Long time ago.

 

I have new 62 SS for sale

 

It's a shame that GM fell asleep after the bailout.
Even the Camaro and Corvette are of dubious design with little appeal as a muscle car and a sports car.
Chrysler got it right with the Charger, Challenger and Hellcat.

 

Sitting in a grocery store parking lot yesterday I noticed that at least 50% of the cars were SUV style. Other newer vehicles all looked the same. If it weren't for the badges on the front I would have no idea what I was looking at. Boring; as flatheadpete stated. So I would think that if you are building boring sedans for an SUV dominated market you are likely destined for failure.

 

Oilguy: You're 100% correct.

 

To quote Bob Dylan, "The times they are a changin'".

 

ah da memories, my first new car

 

In late '57, when the new 58s came out, I was 12 and had a morning paper route. One morning, one of my customers had a brand new '58 Impala parked on the side of the street. I can still remember how awed I was by the radical change in style.
A bit of trivia: I noticed in the video that Impala had no outside rearview mirror. Got me to thinking, what would've been the first year Detroit made an outside mirror standard? I don't know. Nor can I imagine driving without one (or 2) today.

 

Granted, both of my Imps were seventies barges but by God you could at least tell what they were from a half mile away. And they'd both roast weenies of tire smoke even if they were 2bbl smog motors.

 

Well see how many of these “closing” plants don’t get revised...UAW contract is up in 2019...could be some posturing at this point. Also they receive Govermant money for Volt production..that will be gone. So my thoughts...the future is eclectic cars???? are they killing their’s?????...Tesla sell’s cars and imho are still a niche vehicle, what’s their market share?? I think most consumers want to pull off , fill up, and get on the highway..not plan there trip around re charges..also gas can be had for under $2.00 a gallon at some shops here in Detroit.
The thing that should upset many is WE...the American taxpayers bailed that company out..now
they are going to shutter North American plants..did Mexico and China throw any money in to keep them afloat?????

 

Maybe where you live, but around here it used to be oil. One of the first things you learned riding motorcycles was to stay out of the middle of lanes (particularly turn lanes) if it showed that dark streak as it was very likely oil/grease. No Amish around here. Failing to do so was an easy way to go down. With the advent of pollution controls that has mostly vanished, but you still need to pay attention in turn lanes with long traffic light cycles.

Exterior mirrors didn't become a DOT standard until the mid '60s, although some states required them prior to that. The factories didn't install them even if ordered to prevent theft/damage, so most dealers installed aftermarket mirrors as the profit margin was higher.

There's lots of reasons GM has been in trouble, but for me it was when Bill Mitchell retired. The last of the TRUE 'car guys' to run GM, after he left it was pretty much bean counters running it...

 

I have fond memories of my dad's '61 Impala convertible with the 348, tri-power, and 4 speed. I can remember being six or seven years old and sitting in the front passenger seat while my dad was whaling on the car, whipping shitties out in our hay field. The sound was incredible and I can remember being both scared to death and incredibly excited all at the same time as I was hanging on for dear life. I honestly believe that the fuse was lit on my love for hot rods during that ride...good memories.

It is sad to see what the Impala has become, and it is sad that the model will only live on in memory...

 

To be honest, I think the American automakers took a wrong path in the 70s...Cadillac used to be the standard of the world in the 60s. Sometime in the late 70s the manufacturers decided to build "cheap" instead of "good". The Caddy looked like a dressed up Caprice, like a Bonneville, LeSabre.... what the f***?
The Euro automakers started going the same route, just a little later. Like in 2005 or so...
But there are a few execptions in the pool of American cars, I even know BMW employees here in Germany that drive a new Camaro, Mustang or Charger. And love the cars for their quality and simplicity. GM should try to build a simple but high quality retro design Impala with a Corvette drivetrain that scares the crap out of you and sell it at a price oriented at an M5 BMW or AMG Benz. I would buy one, if they left all the hitech stuff out that the Beamers and Benzes have.

I´ll go out in the garage now an tell my 62 Impala the bad news