It took General Motors nearly 50 years to build its first 50 million vehicles, and right around 12 to build its second 50 million. Therein lies irrefutable evidence of GM’s stronghold on the average consumer in mid 20th-century America. It probably was no coincidence that vehicles 50 and 100 million were ostensibly Chevrolets, but the choice for 100 million was a bit surprising, or was it?
GM’s 50 millionth car seemed like the perfect (and obvious) choice–the now iconic 1955 Chevrolet Bel Air Sport Coupe, resplendent in an appropriate gold hue. This one rolled from the Flint, MI, assembly line in November, 1954, which is also appropriate because GM incorporated in Flint under the larger than life auspices of Billy Durant (if you haven’t read Lawrence R. Gustin’s biography of him, you should). If ever a vehicle showcased GM’s styling, engineering, and marketing might, it was the wildly popular shoebox Chevy with its new for ’55 V8.
On the other hand, the choice for the 100 millionth GM car seemed like an afterthought. In 1967, Chevrolet produced vehicles like the Camaro, Corvette, and Chevelle SS. Oldsmobile had their innovative Toronado. Buick produced the sinuous Riviera, Cadillac the tailored Eldorado. Pontiac was in its own universe under the GM umbrella. So why did they choose a Caprice hardtop?
I guess if I’m going to be questioning the choice of a vehicle for a celebration, I should at least use the preferred nomenclature: this is a Caprice Custom Coupe. I am an unabashed fan of ’65-’70 full-sized Chevrolets, but the ’67 is probably my least favorite, for reasons I don’t understand and can’t really explain. In my little world, the original ’65 is full-sized heaven, the boxier ’69 is runner-up, and the ’68 is probably third. I’m not in love with the ’66 restyle, and it seemed like they went the wrong way again in ’67. Obviously, that’s just my opinion, and it’s dubious, since I own a ’65 Dart wagon and a Corvair.
I do, however, like the one-year only round instrumentation, and saying the ’67 is my least favorite is like saying Rocky Road is my least favorite ice cream. It’s still ice cream. The styling is deft, like it is on almost all 1960s GM products, but the Caprice just doesn’t scream “100 million” to me. There’s no special color here, no special engine (I believe this Caprice is propelled by the 275-horsepower 327); it’s just a basic top-of-the-line B-body. This one was even built at the Janesville, Wisconsin, plant, which was not exactly located in GM’s epicenter.
It does appear that “100 million” is optioned up to rock and roll. It seems to have an 8-track tape player and air conditioning, along with a really awesome upholstery pattern. The three-spoke steering wheel in the ’67s was also a nice, sporty, perhaps unexpected touch. The ’67 Chevy’s interior practically invites a person to embark on a road trip, and I absolutely want to do Kingman, Barstow, and San Bernardino in this anniversary Chevy.
Strangely enough, the 100 millionth car had a bench seat rather than the sportier buckets shown in the ’67 brochure. Personally, I’d rather have the bench, and it’s probably more appropriate for a Caprice, but with all of the other options on this car, any omission is strange.
I photographed this special Caprice at the Sloan Museum in Flint in 2011, during Chevrolet’s 100th anniversary display. I believe Sloan Museum owns the car, and it’s apparently a very low mileage example, but this is the only time I’ve seen the car displayed, even though I’ve been visiting the Sloan for years.
Maybe Sloan Museum even wonders why such an important automotive milestone seems like such a letdown. I can’t imagine trying to wade through GM’s accounting labyrinth to determine what car was the 100 millionth anyway, but if you’re going to commemorate such a car at all, why this one? (I feel like I must reiterate the fact that I have nothing against 1967 Chevrolets here).
Is it possible that GM screwed up? Is their accounting department a deadly sin? I happened across the above photo online, and it clearly proclaims that the innovative ’66 Toronado is indeed the 100-millionth GM car, built over a year before the Caprice that is the focal point of this discussion. So which one is correct? I can find precious little in my own materials or on the internet to solve this (admittedly rather unimportant in the scheme of things) mystery. The gorgeous and iconoclastic Toronado is a more obvious choice for a milestone machine, but there is some fairly convincing evidence (such as the big sign on the side of it) pointing to the Caprice. The internet stories I’ve found are split about evenly between the two.
Can anybody in CC land shed some light on a possible interdivisionary rivalry in the making? Until then, I feel I’ve raised more questions than answers.
All of these honoraries are semi-bogus and used primarily as a marketing opportunity. Do you think GM really kept track, minute by minute, of the cars that rolled off their lines in order? So they figured out roughly the time when car 100,000,000 would be rolling off a line somewhere, picked a car they wanted to showcase, and said “This is it!!!”
And then they did it twice because the left hand didn’t know what the right hand was doing.
That’s kind of how I think of these commemorations…how many cars come from all GM lines per minute, and with slowdowns, etc., who knows? However, maybe they can keep track of each vehicle as it’s scheduled for production, but how accurate were early records in that regard? Like you said, it’s probably staged.
Do US cars have separate chassis and / or body serial numbers, not just VIN numbers ? Did they keep records of these numbers from the earliest days of production ? I mean – if so, that would’ve been a (relatively) simple task…
E.g., AFAIK the 1, 2, 3 and 4-millionth Moskvitches, exhibited at the plant’s museum, were, indeed, the 1, 2, 3 and 4-millionth cars that rolled off the assembly line of that plant – they’ve kept records of each car’s chassis serial number from 1946 on.
But in this particular case, you’re most likely right – at least one of the two 1 000 000 000th cars is obviously fake, and that makes the entire story questionable, at best.
Easier for them – Moskvitch was a one-model/one-factory operation for most of its’ existence (depending on whether Izh was counted as a separate marque).
GM at its’ peak was probably more analogous to the entire Warsaw Pact auto industry in terms of number of cars produced, number of factories and product lines.
I wonder how many survive.
When I saw the title, I wondered the same thing. How many of GM’s 300+ million cars are still left?
It’d be interesting to know.
My formative years were crammed with full-sized Chevrolets. Early on we were toted around in a white 1960 Parkwood wagon. My aunt had a metallic blue ’63 four-door hardtop. My uncle had a light green 1965 Impala (I can still picture the huge under dash aftermarket air conditioning unit). We sold the Parkwood for a white ’66 Impala four-door hardtop with black interior powered by a 283 2bbl coupled with the old standby Powerglide. My cousin (my uncle’s son who was the cool guy, kind of the Arthur Fonzerelli of the family) and now an airline pilot had a two-door “fastback” ’67 with bucket seats, a four bbl 327 and a floor shift Turbo Hydra-matic in metallic purple and a black vinyl top. My aunt traded her 1963 for a 1968 Caprice with the same roofline and color combination pictured in the car featured here. They really were our family’s car for the entire decade of the sixties.
If the 100 millionth was to be a Chevy, the choice (compared with 1955) seems to sum up the evolution of Chevrolet. In 1955, Chevy was flexing its muscles and not following anyone at anything. But Chevrolet seems to have spent most of the 1960s reacting to Ford’s bold (and lucrative) moves. The 67 Caprice (to me) screams “Hey, Look, we can build an LTD that is nicer than theirs!”
That said, this is a sharp car. Look at the paint finish on that hood. GM’s lacquer paints did not wear that well out in the world (they lacked the hardness of the enamels used by everyone else), but they could not be beat for a beautiful finish in the showroom.
As for the 1 year discrepancy between the two 100 million cars? No idea whatsoever.
“Hey, Look, we can build an LTD that is nicer than theirs!”
Because it was! 🙂
If you kept the GM “Magic Mirror” finishes washed and waxed regularly, they do hold up well. GM went acrylic because it was easier to match and touch up better than enamel.
Nice car, that pale blue colour used to be everywhere. Now it’s been swept away in a sea of greige. I was actually startled to see a new Passat sporting that shade last week.
Given Chevy’s sales importance to GM, and the full size models dominance of the sales chart I guess this choice makes sense. I would have chosen a heavily optioned Impala SS as the commemorative car instead but the Caprice predicts the way the market was going.
Collectible Automobile, Dec 2005; from a list referencing ‘Automobile History Day by Day’ by Doug Wick.
‘100 millionth General Motors vehicle worldwide (an Oldsmobile Toronado) March 16, 1966
‘100 millionth U.S.-built General Motors car (a Chevrolet Caprice two-door hardtop) April 21, 1967’
These two listings appear in a sidebar, the text does not discuss them.
Hey, hey! It looks like we have our answer! Thanks, Don.
My pleasure, but a 68 or 69 before a 67? I thought we were friends.
🙂
This time line lists the 100 millionth worldwide as happening in 1964, not 1966. Don’s info is more detailed though.
http://www.freep.com/article/20080914/BUSINESS01/809140304/Highlights-GM-s-100-year-history
You made one person’s day with this car – mine! What a beauty!
I have a bias, my grandfather bought new a ’67 Marina Blue with back vinyl top coupe very much like the one in the picture. The 100 million car appears to have nearly every option in the book – I’ve never seen the lamp monitors on the hood and the rally wheels (factory equipped) on a ’67 before. But, he had air (not Comfortron), tilt, and the under dash 8-track as shown.
Those 8-tracks were theft prone. His disappeared twice, and he gave up. There are speakers that you can see in the kick panels – those got pulled as well.
I’m a bit surprised that the 100 million car does not wear the newly optional fender skirts. But, my grandfather’s car also did not have the skirts, they were pretty rare in ’67 and while I like them, I think this is the proper look.
My first ever e-bay purchase was a copy of the ad posted with the couple traveling to Europe. I’ve always wondered what ad or TV spot might have caused him to go to a Chevy dealer. He was a solid mid-price guy all his life, going backward from the Caprice, there were several Buicks, a ’58 Edsel, bathtub Hudson and a lower end Packard.
The Caprice was a logical pick for the 100 million car from the perspective of 1967. The full size Chevy was the #1 seller in America, the Caprice launch a few years before was very successful, and it represented the top of the line – quite beautifully in my mind.
Oh, what could have been. My grandfather traded off the ’67 coupe for his final car, a ’78 Caprice sedan. My father had wanted to get the ’67 to move us to two-car status and give himself a proper ride to work, instead of the combination of rides, buses, carpools, coordinating with my mom that were his lot for too many years (partially because he had a bit of a cheap streak). But, I think my mom objected.
The ’67 would have been ripe for the picking as my first car in 1980. Dang!
I did not know that a Marina Blue 1967 Caprice Custom Coupe was awarded this honor. Thanks for making my day!
Regards to all you Chevrolet addicts. I’ve just recently had my interests in the 1967 Caprice stirred. In 1972 I purchased my step-brother’s ’67 Caprice. It was over all in really fine shape. The reason he wanted to sell was a spun rod bearing. Fast forward- Christmas 2019 I was photo reminiscing and found two photos of my ’67 Caprice. I began to recall all the car’s features/ specs. I will ask you to brace yourself shortly. After reading about the 100 millionth Chevy produced, If Chevrolet picked that Caprice built in 1967 at the Janesville WI plant, I don’t know why they passed up mine.Turns out the chosen car rolled off the assemble line on April 21. Mine rolled off the Janesville line on March 21,1967. Now for the juice- both cars were Caprice custom coupes, in Nantucket blue exterior finish & black vinyl tops, Mine was built with the SS trim package (rally sport wheels, fast back, factory pin striping in the off white color, black vinyl interior w/ bucket seats & adjustable headrests, chrome package w/ SS emblems, floor shifter, tach, console clock, am/fm stereo radio, etc.) ( W/O air, cruise control, power windows, tilt steering wheel) The 100M car came with blue interior bench seats with fold down armrest, the 275hp 327 engine, trans. & other special options unknown and was not a SS package. Mine was optioned with the 375hp 396 engine, THM400 trans. Mine had power disc brakes, power steering, 15″ factory wheels, I’ve attached 2 photos- one from 1979 of my children in front of the car, and 2020 one of the engine stamping code. LOL after rebuilding the engine, midwest winter salt ate the car up. I couldn’t stand to part with the engine- so it sits in my garage today
I forgot to tell you when to brace yourself. Rather anti-climactic now, but here is the 2nd photo of the engine stamping.
Shoulda’ used a ’67 Corvair.
Now that would have been a good choice! 🙂
A well written and informative remembrance. I didn’t appreciate the beauty of this car in its day, but everything about it just looks so right, even from today’s perspective. That C-pillar treatment is perfection itself, as is the blue-brocade interior; the under-dash eight track, well, not so much.
My grandfather’s ’67 Caprice coupe had the standard bench front seat. I sat in the midde a few times (as a small child) behind that 8-track, and it was a bit of a crunch.
To me this car is one of the poster chidren for the perfect ’60’s car, and there are a lot of great contenders among the ’65-’67 offerings from just about every manufacturer. Few people hate on any cars from these years, except for maybe the AMC Marlin. And, I’m okay with the Marlin. AMC had much worse to come!
The ’67 Marlin actually looked “right” on the longer Ambassador wheelbase.
+1
It seemed like (to me, anyway) that “Chevy” was at least one generation ahead of Ford & Plymouth, in A/C, power steering and ride comfort, from ’67 forward.
GM was miles ahead in AC in particular. They had settled on their basic layout in most cars by about ’58 (possibly pioneered in the ’56 Olds) and that layout stuck through most cars through ’68. Easily the best integrated until about ’65 when both Ford and Chrysler introduced heavily redesigned models.
GM’s Harrison Division pioneered fully integrated “in the dash” A/C with the ’54 Pontiac, which featured all components under the hood. By all accounts a powerful and reliable system, it spread to all GM cars by ’57, replacing the awkward trunk mounted units with plastic tubes running from the package shelf to vents in the roof. (Nash’s integrated “weather-eye” A/C also debuted around this time, but was no doubt far rarer).
Ford especially seemed to lag in this area. I recall a friend whose parents had a ’62 Galaxie with factory air that was basically a hang-on unit below the dash. They didn’t integrate it into the dash until 1965. Even more surprising was Mercedes-Benz, which until into the ’70’s featured A/C that was esentially a weak hang-on unit, poorly integrated into the overall dash design. You would have thought all that German engineering could have come up with something better.
I believe that the 1954 Nash also introduced an a/c system that was all under the hood. I was unaware of the Pontiac unit of the same year. I do, however, remember the Ford underdash units, certainly up through the 64 models.
Ugh! Chevy always knew how to make a handsome face, but I hate the C-pillar on this. It seems the designer couldn’t decide if it should be formal or sporty, so he decided to have some of each. The result looks like a committee decision. The vertical rear edge of the rear window looks self-consciously formal when mated with the sportier sloped roofline. As a result, the pillar is too skinny at the top.
As to why they used a Caprice coupe? I guess they earned it, as Chevrolet had been the most profitable division for GM for a long time.
I can assure you that even if GM’s record keeping had been such that they could actually identify the 100 millionth car, and it had been an Olds stripper F-85 coupe, it would never have been used for this PR event.
This might be a dumb question, but I’m not well versed in the technicalities, but wouldn’t the VIN settle the debate?
There are literally hundreds of variables. Don’t forget that GM was created by the acquisition of a slew of existing manufacturers. Do you count the cars Oldsmobile made before it became part of GM? Cadillac? Are the records going back to 1901 really accurate? How does one define “vehicle”? Locomotives? Tanks?
And in terms of GM’s world-wide production, it becomes even that much more complex.
These milestones are the equivalent of the Census Bureau projecting certain population milestones: a calculated guess.
Surely to choose which factory pumped out ‘the’ 100 millionth car would be an arbitrary choice in itself?
That was a very enjoyable article. As always, I marvel at the amount of money that was spent on the annual model change- how did they ever amortize tooling? take a look at the “Custom Coupe” roofline for 1967. Now, look at the completely revised roofline of the 1968. It involved new trunklids, quarter panels, quarter glass, etc.
Completely different, yet completely the same!
I have decided that the 4 doors look very nice with fender skirts. The two doors, not so much.
I spent my early youth knee-deep in full size Chevy’s. My grandfather had the ’67 and we had a ’68.
If you look closely, they did a good job of redecorating the ’67 body for ’68. All the of the primary panels are the same, including the roof lines.
Chevy (GM for that matter) was using a 2 year cycle for major sheetmetal on the full size cars beginning with ’65. That may also have been the first year for “fender caps”, an invention to let them essentially pull all the gingerbread off the front and rear of the car, along with the sides. From there, the reshaping of the caps, bumpers, grills, lights (and in the Chevy case, slightly modified trunk lid), along with a new dash, seat sew patterns, and door panels created a significant new look.
The watering down of annual changes for GM full size cars that effectively began with ’66 was a reflection of the growning number of platforms and a shrinking share of the market. ’69-’70 was the last two year cycle. The ’71-’76 full size cars saw compartively few changes.
I should amend this to say that the two year cycle began with the ’59-’60 cars, but there was a tendency to be more adventuresome with some of the core sheet metal between years. Contrast the ’63 and ’64 Impala for example.
The ’65-’66 Pontiacs can be hard to keep straight from a side view. The benefit was the ’65 body was one of the best ever, no one was offended by the ’66 repeat.
I have come across this discrepancy in the 100 millionth car too. The 1967 Caprice seems to be the more well known example. It’s also the one that survives in the Sloan museum, so I suspect it may be the more accurate 100 millionth car. Perhaps the Toronado was just to help boost the cars hype for 1966, but was done a little prematurely?
I always thought the Caprice was a logical choice for 1967. Chevrolet was the bread winter and a top line 2-door hardtop was pick for 1955. So it seems they did the same for 1967. I
I have a slim gold coloured book titled GMs first 50 million that was distributed aroung GM dealerships back in 55 it features that 55 Chevy Ive no idea when the 100,000,000 happened and by then Chevrolet assembly had ground to a halt in NZ though my Dad said they still had customers asking for them and going through the no remittance import system to get one.
Looking at this car (and I’m a big fan of the ’67 especially over the 1968), with the 327, I’m pretty sure it’s got Powerglide as I don’t believe THM 350’s in Chevies were available with small blocks until 1968. If I’m wrong, please correct me. I do love this vehicle – budget Cadillac in every way.
You could get a TH400 behind a 327 in ’67 if it was a wagon or a Caprice. Not common, but it was available. Worth upgrading from an Impala for that fact alone if you had the $$.
Did they not have the THM 350 in ’67? Maybe not . . . I’d never seen a THM behind a Chevy small block until ’68 as a buddy of mine in high school drove his parents’ ’68 Chevelle hardtop sedan that was a 327/THM . . .
I believe that the THM came only with the 396 in 1967. It may have been more widely available in 68.
That interior shot brings back some memories. A friend had a ’67 Bel air sedan that somehow acquired that exact same seat in the exact same color. With a 6 cylinder, powerglide and no power steering or brakes it was an awful thing to drive, but it just wouldn’t die. We used it as the “bar car” and took turns staying sober so everyone else got home in one piece !
I wonder if some exec got to drive that around for a while before they stored it, maybe Pete Estes? Its loaded up like something that an Chevy exec would have driven as a brass hat car. That baby’s loaded, lamp monitors, comfortron, strato-bucket, very nice. Did they do a 200 millionth? 300 millionth? I know that did this on a divisional level too, I’ve seen pictures of Cadillacs “millionth” models too.
For a while too, some companies celebrated “millionth” cars built since the re-start of post WWII auto production too.
Looks as loaded as the ’68 Caprice an ex-boss of mine drove that had in addition to all power including locks and trunk release had: 396, Comfortron, Speed Control and Speed Reminder, Tilt, Tach, AM/FM Multiplex Radio with 8 track, hide-a-way lights, Strato buckets, vinyl roof, rally wheels, and the fiber optic lamp monitoring system, side mouldings, bumper guards and bumper trim strips. Specially ordered by a local family that owned the Coca-Cola Bottling Company, it was gorgeous in gold with the gold brocade seating and a black vinyl top.
Mr. BIll
Hamlet, NC
I own a 1968 Impala custom sedan, 327, 4bbl, THM400, with a/c. I looked and looked and looked for a 1967, it is my halo car, but could only find within my reach a 1968. Don’t get me wrong, I love the ’68, but I personally feel the 1967 to be Chevrolet’s best ever.
I’ve always preferred the ’67s to the ’68s. My father had one of these for a while that he’d picked up used, same color interior but the deeper Marina Blue exterior, with black vinyl top. He drove it until he decided he needed a pickup.
I remember reading in 1967 in either Motor Trend or Car and Driver about the 100 millionth car Chevy Caprice. I think there was even a photo of the car. Maybe someone else can confirm this. Might have been July or August 1967 Motor Trend?
If they were going to randomly pick a Chevy for the 100 millionth car, it should have been an Impala. After all in 1965 the Impala accounted for 1 million cars sold alone.
The Caprice received emphasis because this kind of car was where the biggest growth and largest margins were to be found in the US Auto industry in 1967. Ford’s successful LTD began the trend away from solid comfort and sporty excitement and towards brougham-style luxury on the cheap. Plymouth’s Fury III VIP joined Caprice and the Ford LTD to complete the competitive frame and the “low-priced three’s” growing influence near luxury cars. These were the cars responsible for bringing into style more formal grilles, vinyl padded roofs, softer carpets and tufted cloth and crushed velour seating surfaces. Highly embellished with hidden headlamps, “coach” lamps and “opera” windows, this is what the majority of American car buyers wanted to drive in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s.
The market for these cars was very large, very hot and the profits very, very fat. It’s no wonder GM chose the Caprice to be the model to mark a milestone event guaranteed to grab a good amount of media attention. The Caprice was probably the single-most important car in the entire GM line-up that year: it occupied the sweetest intersection of them all: VOLUME ST. and PROFIT MARGIN BLVD.
Here, it had no equal in all of GM.
I well remember these new , they were hotter than hot at the time , good cars IMO .
-Nate
I guess that’s the probable answer. Today, many think of the Impala hardtop/convertible as being the desirable full-sized model, and obviously the Chevelle and Camaro are extremely collectible. At the time, however, this was the top of the line.
I have to admit that I, too, liked and still like the looks of the 1967 Chevrolets. Actually like the 1969-70 styling a little bit better, but the 1967 still looks good, especially in the fastback roofline.
I attended the ceremony as a 12 year old kid at the GM plant in Janesville the evening that car rolled off the line. It was a very big deal in town. I knew for a certainty that was the 100 million GM car because they gave me a souvenir wooden yardstick that said so.
The plant is now closed and I recently misplaced the yardstick but have great memories
I was two years old when this car rolled off the assembly line in Janesville. I got to sit in the front seat like I was driving while a photographer from the Janesville Gazette took my picture while two policemen looked on. I still have a copy of the picture. The smile on my face is huge. I know they did not let many people in the car. I am sure the photographer had to do a lot of convincing to let them do that. I would love to visit the car at the Sloan museum someday and have my picture taken with it again.
this car is at the Rock County Historical Society in Janesville , WI permanently
I have read that the ’66 Toronado was the 100 millionth GM vehicle built in North America (which would include the US and Canada) whereas the ’67 Caprice was the 100 millionth GM vehicle built in the US. Either way, as some others have pointed out, I think those things were largely symbolic for publicity purposes. With all of those assembly lines going in all of those factories across the US (and Canada), speedups, slowdowns, etc., especially in the mega-GM of that era, I don’t see how they would know when and where the exact 100 millionth of anything would come off a line somewhere, especially to be able to predict it in advance for publicity purposes (the highly choreographed Nov. of ’54 parade with the 1955 Bel Air in Flint, for example). It was obviously an approximation and a vehicle was picked ahead of time.
For the people who think the ’67 Caprice was a bit bland and a comedown from the gold ’55 Bel Air of 50 millionth celebration fame, check out the recent 500 millionth vehicle – a nondescript 2016 Chevy Malibu typical of an airport rental fleet:
http://media.gm.com/media/us/en/gm/home.detail.html/content/Pages/news/us/en/2015/may/500m-milestone/0504-500m.html
esse idiota que não é fã do CHEVROLET IMPALA 1967 vai falar da história dele e ainda crítica e fala mal dele. Como é que pode ele não gostar do CHEVROLET IMPALA 1967?A vai tomar no cú porra!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
https://www.facebook.com/janesvillegmendofanera
this car is at the Rock County Historical Society in Janesville , WI permanently