As summer draws to a close, I’m saddened to see the days become shorter, but I’m also thankful to see the temperatures begin dropping. This has certainly been one of the hottest summers on record for most of the Northern Hemisphere, with Boston in particular experiencing its warmest average July on record. The nights have been especially warm as well, something helped by what’s known as urban heat island effect, whereby the abundance of concrete, steel, and other building materials radiate the heat they absorb during the daytime at night, thus keeping the city pretty sweltering even under the cover of darkness.
One of those such hot August nights recently led to this unexpected sighting. Especially as it is a 1971, I couldn’t help but think of Neil Diamond’s 1972 live album Hot August Night. Featuring many of his greatest hits, including 1969’s Brother Love’s Travelling Salvation Show, of which “It was a hot August night” happens to be the opening lyrics to.
Now I may be the last person one would expect to be a Neil Diamond fan, but his music I hold near and dear to my heart. When I was a young child, prior to entering elementary school, my weekdays were spent in the care of my loving grandparents, with a lot of time riding around in the backseat of his Oldsmobile. If he wasn’t listening to the Howie Carr Show or her the Irish Hit Parade, they were playing one of their Neil Diamond cassette tapes.
While this 1971 Chevrolet Impala convertible is no 1990s fullsize Oldsmobile, big old American cars in general are very rare in Boston. As one gets out into more rural areas, sure, they’re here and there in small numbers. Yet as for “interesting” cars I see in the city, they’re usually ’80s or ’90s imports, or one of the growing number of modern ultra-luxury or supercars owned by Boston’s large number of wealthy professionals or international college students.
Rare is also how one should describe the 1971 Impala convertible, as for after all, Chevrolet produced only 4,576 examples among some 427,000 total Impalas. Convertibles, while always somewhat of an exclusive bodystyle, faced a sharp downturn in sales by the 1970s, spurred by the onset of ever-stringent crash-safety and rollover concerns, the growing prevalence of vehicle air conditioning, and general changes in consumer tastes.
The fifth generation Impala convertible lasted just two years, elevated to the premier Caprice line in 1973 through 1975, the final year of fullsize convertibles from GM excluding the Cadillac Eldorado. In the words of Neil, “Pack up the babies, And grab the old ladies, And everyone goes…”
Photographed on Gloucester Street in Back Bay, Boston, Massachusetts – August 2019
The lead in photo… the musical tie-in… At first Brendan, I thought this was a post from Joseph Dennis!
Well done!
Hunter S. Thompson endorses this message.
The 71 Chevy really was an attractive car. I don’t like them much, but it certainly is not because of their looks. I recall at the time the magazines noting how the big Chevrolet was more like a Cadillac than ever.
I am still scratching my head over the black steering wheel/instrument area on every 71-72 Chevy (I can’t recall when they went back to color coordination). I could see it on a Nova, but the Impala/Caprice was not a cheap car.
One nit, it is my understanding that there were never any rollover regs enacted. There was, however, a fear that they were coming – and given the way demand cratered on these it is no wonder they did not remain in the lineup.
Man, does the feature car look like a Cadillac. John Delorean was running Chevrolet at the time so he undoubtedly had a hand in that styling direction. Good for Chevrolet, but bad for Cadillac. And, yet, there’s that black instrument cluster and steering wheel. You might have a Cadillac lookalike on the outside, but you’re damn sure not going to have one on the inside. GM was well and truly on their way to letting the bean-counters call the shots.
I think having a convertible in a model lineup was more a function of what is now known as a ‘halo’ car, before the term was coined. IOW, it was a car that wasn’t designed to sell, but more to sit in the middle of a showroom to draw customers in to sell them something else.
The front end does indeed have a 1969-70 Cadillac vibe. It’s interesting that for 1971 Chevrolet chose a more formal look than either Oldsmobile or Buick.
The Impala’s side styling copies Cadillac’s swept-back character line, but it looks a whole lot better than the “clown pants” sculpting around the wheel openings of the 1969-70 Chevy models. I particularly like the 1971 model’s tapered rear deck, which is much more graceful than that of the blocky Ford or Plymouth.
The “cheaper Cadillac knockoff” styling is what Chevrolet did for many years with their large cars. Buick and Oldsmobile did more of their own thing, while the big Chevys typically emulated the Cadillac look, with less frills on the inside. The late-1980s Caprice Classic LS Broughams especially.
Of course, Chevy and Cadillac built the only B/C-body sedans after 1985 for the rest of the box-body generation.
I’ve always wondered why that model wasn’t just called “Caprice Brougham”, though, and the one below it “Caprice LS”. They finally united all the B-body Chevys under one nameplate, but the trim level designations stacked.
Good article about the demise of the convertible. Sales had been cratering for years, starting mid 60s.
https://www.hemmings.com/blog/2018/09/24/on-the-many-possible-causes-for-the-death-of-the-american-convertible-in-the-seventies/
This is one of those situations where you wish a car could talk.
This is a colour combo that I’m sure was ordered for a reason, either to be a showroom queen or by someone wanting their dream machine.
It’s still a solid car but shows its years.
It would be an interesting story I’m sure to go from someone’s shiny new dream to a street corner in Boston 48 years later, obviously still well loved but far from a trailer queen like a lot of its surviving siblings probably are.
Long may you be cherished and free to roam Impala!
Like RetroStang Rick, I originally thought this was a Joseph Dennis post, certainly because I would more expect to find this in the Midwest than in New England.
Living in the Upper South (on the border of the Midwest), my convertible is really a “two-season car,” but the two seasons are not contiguous: Typically it’s not driven as much, and certainly not with the top down, in the winter and summer. Spring and fall is what I consider as prime convertible weather.
I can’t recall seeing a full size American car like this in Boston in recent memory. As I said, I see them from time to time out in the burbs and at car shows, but as a daily driven city car, no way.
Totally agree with regards to prime convertible weather being in the spring and fall. From experience, a hot summer day in a convertible makes for a very sweaty and often sunburnt driving experience, even with the A/C on max cool.
Yes, you’d be a “Solitary Man” if you were driving this around on a hot summer day.
You’d definitely would “Thank the Lord for the Night Time” to cruise around in the evening with this in the summer.
’71 Impala convertibles are pretty rare, good catch!
Nice Impala convertible, even if it’s not quite cherry, cherry…..
Great find Brendan, and a nice article. That’s a cool Impala ad you located, I haven’t seen that one before. Like a lot of 70s car ads, I suspect a fair amount of airbrushing in the image. When I look at these early examples, my subconscious mind automatically adds the vinyl roof base, quarter panel, and door bottom rust. 🙂
Perhaps other than Daniel Stern, I am one of the bigger non-fans of this generation of full-sized Chevs at CC. Like the other GM B-Bodies from 1971, I find they always looked too bloated, even when they were new. And didn’t exactly make the most of their girth and weight, in space utilization. Though full-sized Fords had the worst reputation for rust, the B-Bodies had their own rust issues. I liked the C-pillar windows GM added near the end, but ultimately I think this era of full-sized Chevs made the ’77s look that much more rational.
Whenever I see a 71 Chevy it always appears that the springs are losing the struggle to hold up it’s bulk.
A friend of mine had one in high school, and both front and rear suspension was riding on the rubber bumper stops..
One factor that fails to get much notice in the near-death of convertibles was ever-increasing speed limits.
Puttering down the pre-Eisenhower 4-lane at the posted 45 or 50mph limits in your ’55 Bel Air convertible was pleasurable, I’m sure.
Barreling down the Interstate at 65 or 70mph in your ’71 Impala convertible was significantly less fun. I once experienced 100mph in the back seat of a ’72 Centurion convertible, and it was downright brutal.
Very true. Not many convertibles even today mix well with highway speeds. My first-gen Miata seemed to work best with the passenger side window up. I didn’t mind 70 mph with the top down, but my passengers, especially long-haired ones, did. My 2004 BMW 330Ci is significantly better.
As a result, most of the time you’ll see convertibles with the tops up when cruising the Interstates.
Is it for sale? Any information or location of 71 Impala/Caprice for sale?
There was no evidence that this Impala was for sale. I’d suggest checking out a retail website like eBay, Cargurus, Craigslist, etc. so you can possibly find one in your local area.
Fabulous find, post, pictures, and musical tie-in, Brendan!
I too enjoy the musical musings of Mr. Diamond and have since I was a young boy. The Impala? Eh, not really my thing but a great find in that location nonetheless! At least it has the whorehouse red interior I so cherish.
Great find, my favourite year of my favourite gen,
Ditto. Though by a few accounts from this site, not much chop as an actual vehicle, it seems.
One sure did get a lot for one’s money back then.
I would love to have this car if ever up for sale hit me up childbo@gmail.com
Great little piece, Brendan. The photos are very evocative. It is out of its time and place, but like Mr Diamond himself, has a time-worn comeback here on an August Boston street, and is also still impressive.
So much so, in the last pic, it’s actually still turning heads.
I like the look of the 71-75 full size drop tops offered from Chevy. I always questioned when they changed thee convertible from an Impala to a Caprice Classic, the exterior trim became full on Caprice, while the interior remained Impala. Anyone else realize this?
Plus, I hated where they placed the Caprice Classic badges! Why where they in a weird position near the back windows? They would of looked better on the front fenders !
Neil Diamond never quite made it over to FM. If you were there you know what I mean.
“Boston in particular”
Huh, I thought you were somewhere around Barstow.
is this car for sale I am looking for a 1971 impala convertible only I have about 17k to spend on a nice one or maybe a good roller hit me up anyone that have one or no where one is at im willing to pay finder fee, my email is childbo@gmail,com
A nice find Brendan, as well as providing a backdrop of how unique this would be in Boston. Someone with the courage to be an individual! The fifth generation full-sized Chevys seemed to have a range of aesthetic appeal. Honestly, I thought all the ’71s looked a bit dour and homely. I just don’t know how to describe it other than sort of dull and bleary eyed looking. My preference has always been the glamourous and flashy ’75 Caprice convertible. But this ’71 seems to increase its appeal greatly with its white paint and a red interior. A classic combination for a flashy converitble! It is also not a combination that I would envision upon the mention of “71 Impala Convertible”. The interior looks like it has held up rather well, though of course, convertibles typical lead a more coddled life than anything more utilitarian.
The production numbers mentioned interest me. I must be in the market team’s area of intrigue, curious as to the socialogical factors that caused a downturn in convertible sales in the 1970s. Convertibles seemed to have a couple of revivals since, first in the early 1980s, and then in the 2000s with a trend towards the convertible hardtop. I am saddened by the decreased interest in them, but buying public in general seems to be more interested in whizbang technology and being shielded in a cocoon from road reality.