Wordless Carwash Outtake: 1996 Chevrolet Impala SS – Lord Vadar, Your Car Is Ready (And Clean)
– Posted on July 24, 2017
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I always liked these cars. I remember seeing one of these at a car show when fairly new, it had a Lingenfelter(sp?) big block in it.
Forgive me but at this point I’d rather have a nicely optioned Caprice sedan.
Due to everyone trying to make their regular Caprice look like an SS the real thing has become a theft target.
You know, I have to say the same. I ONLY liked the Impalas when I was a kid but now I actually find the Caprice appealing. And I’m talking the original skirted bathtub design before it was impalaized for fleet use.
In my teenage years I preferred the Impala over the others but have flipped since.
My Dear Ol’ Dad has a 1996 Caprice with the small V8 (yes open rear wheel wells), roughly 120,000 miles on it and the worst thing I can say about it is there are some broken trim pieces that need replacing.
I’d love to put a small tasteful dual exhaust on it and only drive it long distances.
To each it’s own…but that’s the coolest part about owning an actual Impala SS 94-96 A civilian caprice could never be equivalent to a WX3 no matter what clone accessories to put on it, and the 5.7L 9c1 is mechanically equivalent but the money it takes to make any Caprice into “good” imp clone with a floor shifter is insanity because it’ll still be a clone and never of equal value to anybody but yourself. By that point you could’ve and should’ve just bought an actual 96 Imp SS. Your clone would be just as much of theft target also.A steering column lock will shut all that down. You only live once. I’ve never seen ANYBODY trying to make there Impala SS into a Caprice I’m just saying….
Freshman year in college this was hanging in my dorm room.
I was the owner of a 1995 SS from the showroom floor until 2003. It was my first major (5-digit price) vehicle purchase and I look back on my time with it with 2 parts fondness, and a hefty part of disappointment.
Although plenty fast for its era, and a platform for easy bolt-on upgrades (including some from the Caprice 9C1 police package bin), it also had passé interior build quality (also in keeping with its era), and revealed virtually all the cost-cutting GM did on it. Biggest problem was the transmission was not beefed up to properly back the LT1 engine and failures just past 100k miles were quite common (including mine at 107k).
Still, once properly set up, it was an unbelievably good handling car (especially given the wallowing land yacht reputation of other GM full-sizers). This was our first “family” car as it carried our sons from the time we were babies until the arrival of Clifford the Big Red Avalanche in 2002.
Too bad there are no more like it, but the market has spoken.
I disagree that there aren’t any more like it. Sure, the market has spoken and there are a lot less, but there is still a market for them. You just need to head to your Dodge dealer and check out the Charger.
Dimensionally, it’s roughly the same size as the Impala. Lenght is shorter, but wheelbase is longer. Interior dimensions are ~1″ less in all directions, but you still get a plenty roomy full size car.
It meets all of the criteria you laid out about the Impala. V8. RWD. Plenty Fast for the era. Easy Bolt on upgrades. Handles really well with the upgraded supensions (R/T, Road & Track Pack, Scat Pack, SRT, etc).
I’m very surprised at how well my Magnum SRT8 handles considering how large and heavy it is.
These were pretty popular in the Midwest, and I saw one just a few days ago. Were 97% of them black? I have seen another color or two, but not very many of them.
I believe during the first year of production the only available color was black.
I think your percentage is about correct. The only other color I’ve ever seen was a kind of dusty green which I liked over all the black ones.
Later on they added black cherry and dark gray colors.
The 1994 was only black. The 1995-1996 models added dark green and dark cherry.
Actually JP, only about 50% were black over the three years. As other’s have said all ’94’s were black, then the cherry and dark green were introduced in 1995. These other colours were pretty dark though, and I suppose depending on the lighting could look black.
Back in the day I’d have preferred a 9C1 Caprice, but now they’re too old to scare anybody anymore :). Even P71s are getting long in the tooth (2011 final year).
No police package built since then floats my boat except maybe the Caprice PPV. I have no interest in either a Taurus or Exploder, and the Chargers might have some appeal if they weren’t pure junk.
Roger you and I are pretty much on the same page. Although, I have to say, I did like the Impala SS slightly more than a 9C1, albeit both were pretty close under the skin. Your comments on the police package cars are exactly on par with mine as well.
+3.
The 9C1 could have also benefited from some beefed-up front suspension components, but these days it seems to be common for suspension parts to not even make it to the 100K mile point on many domestic (and some foreign, heavy sedans and SUVs with car-based suspensions) models.
My 2001 Odyssey with 224K miles on the clock is still riding on the original suspension bits right down to the sway bar links. I drove it on a trip this past weekend and I marveled that it still is driving like a new one. It’s the tail end of “peak Japanese” I think.
I’d consider a clean detective-only Caprice PPV as well – the Crown Vics are all to old and ratted out, driven by young, wanna-be cops that only made it as car lot overnight security patrols.
Vader*
I recall when these came out, there was a mix of opinion among consumers and journalists.
Some thought this car was an antediluvian throwback to an earlier time, and a cynical line extension, a cheap way for GM to spin a few extra sales out of an ancient platform, instead of developing a modern and relevant car. .
Other people felt this was an instant collectible and a cult classic.
As we know now, both viewpoints were correct.
To the first point, would it have it been considered that way had the Impala SS been a model from the very start of this generation, or even earlier? GM effectively abandoned the sporty full size segment in the late 60s, completely leaving behind an entire generation of potential younger buyers to win over in the interim. The downsized 77s would have been a prime time to bring back the SS type package, for what were arguably the best B bodies ever under the skin. Instead they turned the full size lines into the car equivelant of those old people phones with big numbers, and then belatedly reintroduced these nearly 20 years later, on a less attractive, heavier body, right before they killed the entire platform.(typical GM)
The Marauder garnered very similar criticism, but I have found that there are faction of critics who will say that about virtually any new car still being equipped with a V8. If every single car in a lineup needs to fit the arbitrary definition of being “modern and relevant”, why even have a “lineup”? The whole reason automakers have them is to offer individual choice, and not all individuals are modern and relevant.
I loved these cars when they came out and pretty much read ever review the press had on them. The press was overall very positive about this car, and GM sold everyone it could make. I don’t recall much if any negative press. Production actually increased from every year until it’s demise. There was a lot of hype when these cars were new. They had a strong following even when new, and still do today. Although, popularity seems to have waned a bit, probably because it’s in that awkward to new to be a collector car, but too old to be a new car category.
Ford tried to capture some of that same hype with the Maurauder, but it fell flat. Despite more power than the Impala, it really didn’t have significantly better real world performance. Further sales were weak, only 11K over 2 years vs the Impala SS’s 70K over 3 years. I am not trying to knock the Marauder in anyway, but it really didn’t have the impact the Impala SS had.
XR7Matt, as for your comment about an Impala SS for 1977? That would have been terrible timing. Performance was not a hot seller in 1977, and things got worse by the time 1980 rolled around. Ever see the 1980 B-body sales? And there was a reason the 267 was the base V8 for the early 80’s Chevy B-bodies. The 1977 Impala with F41 Suspension was a good handler for it’s day, but a ’94-96 Impala SS had a number of chassis refinements that make it far better handling than the 1977 versions ever were. By the 1990’s performance cars were once again becoming hot sellers, and it made much more sense to have a hotrod fullsizer then than it did in 1977.
I’m not saying it should have been a big block hot rod Impala SS, but a specific consumer SS package with F41 and 350 equipped as STANDARD wouldn’t have done any harm I don’t think. It’s not like GM didn’t sell performance anymore, there were still Corvettes and Z28s in the showroom, just neutered performance.
I would love to build one now. Start with a 77-79 2 door caprice or Impala, with the curved rear glass and put a supercharged ls in it. I would say that I’d want a manual transmission out of a CTS-V but that may be pushing it to far. The 77 redesigned B body just scream auto only. Then I’d give it suspension and breaks to match the engine. I would want to leave the interior looking bone stock, just showroom new. Put a brand new paint job on it, something simple like black or white, and some Chevy rally wheels and it would be perfect. Wearing your seatbelt would be a must least you end up sliding into the passenger side of the big bench!
I loved the exterior looks of the 1st year of the Impala (1994) but I did not like the interior of it. I thought GM half-assed it that 1st year with a column shifter instead of a shifter on the console. But by the end of production they had a floor shifter.
Agreed, it looks like the dash was recycled from a work van.
A lady at the company I once worked for bought one of these brand new. What was “interesting” was that she was in her early 60s when she got it.
I still like the looks of these cars, except for the interior. Aside from the unrelenting grey plastic everywhere, the small switches on GM products of this era looked like they were surplus Fisher-Price parts.
That is interesting. During my last year in high school (this was in 1995), I took a business class where the major project was to do a comprehensive write up and analysis of a local business. I chose to do my write up on the Chev/Olds/Cadillac dealer that my parents were long time customers of. To make a long story short, I was shown some “internal” marketing/salesman documents on the Caprice (but not the Impala), and the 2 things I remember from it was that by gender buyers were about 60/40 female to male (!), and that the average age of purchasers was about 65.
Hence the large-print speedometer and column shifter.
Yeah, her Impala SS had that column shift which I thought was kind of clunky for a performance car. (Her’s was a 1st year model) I thought later cars had console shifters?
BTW, I’m starting to see Ford Crown Victoria LX Sport models on sale, a sort of Mercury Marauder by Ford. The big selling point in ads is the “RARE” console shift.
I have to compliment you on your photography skills here Brendan. It looks like something I could almost see in a movie or a TV show, like an establishing shot of a vehicle that manages to seem so menacing doing something so mundane, and the driver has this very antagonistic look about him.
Nice car, interesting comments. Not to fuel the classic Ford vs Chevy wars, but setting aside the attributes of these cars, whether in SS or Caprice trim, when new, it does seem that high-mileage Crown Vic’s are a daily sight, but full size GM’s have become rare. Sure, most of those CV’s are black and white, or yellow, the last generation Panther is obviously a long-lived vehicle. Not the GM counterpart. On the other hand, while Ford pickups of that era probably outsold GM, there are still zillions of 20-30 year old GM pickups on the roads here, in both personal and fleet use. We’re the cars really less durable (lighter duty trans, suspension etc)? Did the trucks continue with the original small-block and the cars use a GenII LT or something like that?
@dman, this is ONLY MY PERSONAL experience from down here in Georgia and I’m not saying that this is true for every truck everywhere but nearly all of the GM trucks from about 1988-1999 that I have seen and talked with the owners about say that the truck is on its 2nd, 3rd, 4th motor. I don’t hear that very often of the Fords with the 300, 302, or 351.