A luxury Chevrolet. To many people in the 1960s, that could have been considered an oxymoron. Chevrolet sedans were supposed to be economical and practical. For buyers who sought cars with wood trim, fancy interior appointments and copious courtesy lamps, there were Buicks and Cadillacs. But a Chevy? However, Chevrolet product planners had ample reason to think that customers would jump at such an offering. They were right. Still, marketing such a product was tricky. That trickiness brought some entertaining ads, and I’ve put together several early Caprice ads here – selling the public on a luxury car from what was commonly considered a lower-cost brand.
The idea of a luxury Chevy didn’t develop in a vacuum. Caprice was most directly a response to Ford’s LTD, which itself was a fancy Galaxie that debuted for 1965. Ford, of course, faced the same marketing challenge of selling a “premium” car from a non-premium brand as Chevrolet would face. LTD ads walked this tightrope through a combination of stressing value and luxury, combined with a dose of humor. Specifically, Ford’s ads touted that the LTD was quieter than a Rolls-Royce. A bit farcical, but it certainly got people’s attention.
Ford’s LTD didn’t develop in a vacuum, either. The 1960s saw a remarkable increase in Americans’ living standards, and this manifested itself in the appearance of durable and other household goods. The middle class now had access to luxuries that were a dream only a decade earlier, and the clean lines and functional designs of the early 1960s slowly gave way to more ornamented designs. Cars followed suit. Customers who bought things like French provincial-themed home decor naturally appreciated some of those elegant motifs in their vehicles as well.
After Ford’s LTD became an instant hit, Chevrolet rushed production of their own equivalent. In this case, the Caprice debuted midway through the 1965 model year as a the top trim level on Chevy’s Impala line (it became a separate model for ’66). For $236 on top of the Impala Sport Sedan’s $2,791 base price, buyers received upgraded interior appointments including woodgrain trim, additional sound insulation, a cushier ride… and of course distinctive trim to make it known that this was no ordinary Impala.
While it may seem that Chevrolet was taking a risk by offering a tarted-up Impala, all signs pointed to this being successful. Full-size models constituted over half of Chevrolet’s 1964 sales, and many of those buyers opted for well-equipped Impalas. As Chevrolet’s General Manager Semon Knudsen said at the time, “Never in recent history has the demand for our top models equipped with a maximum of options been as strong.” He was right; Chevrolet sold 40,393 Caprices for its short 1965 model year.
But, like all products, this new Caprice needed marketing, and print advertisements were central to that effort.
Caprice’s first widespread ad appeared in magazines in the spring of 1965. A well-dressed couple here are in soft focus, while the viewer’s eye is drawn to the hardtop’s open interior. Interior appointments constituted the bulk of what made Caprices special, and it’s intentionally tough to tell from this photo that the featured car is really some kind of Chevy Impala. Patterned upholstery, “hand-rubbed walnut,” power windows and rear seat arm rest are more suggestive of prestigious makes like… oh, maybe Cadillac… dare we say?
The ad’s copy here is brief, and the operative phrase is calling the Caprice “a Chevrolet Impala luxury option so it won’t cost you a king’s ransom.” The fashionable interior, golden background, and ample fleurs-de-lis conveyed indulgence, though notably, the ad did not shy away from identifying this as a Chevrolet.
With the its first half-year deemed successful, Chevrolet expanded Caprice’s availability for 1966 – adding a Custom Coupe in addition to the sedan. What better way to draw attention to the coupe’s formal roofline than to have it topped by a bikini-clad, lipstick-applying, sunbathing model?
Many readers who came across this ad in the Spring of 1966 probably focused on the scantily-clad woman, though the text highlighted the coupe’s roofline (which was distinct from Impala’s).
The Bikini ad was a departure from most early Caprice ads. Other Caprice sales literature continued to focus on elegant, formal people, like this white-gloved lady from the 1966 brochure. It’s unclear which approach drew more customers to showrooms, but Chevrolet kept more with traditional themes for the next few years.
This next 1966 Caprice ad was a bit less sexy, except maybe for piccoloists. Returning to the proven luxury car theme of creature comforts, this ad showed the car’s “opulent” interior and focused on that most elusive of luxuries: Quietness. A cameo appearance by the most diminutive of musical instruments reinforced the notion that this was no ordinary Chevrolet.
Caprice was restyled for 1967, and that was an advertising-intensive year for the Caprice line. Here we see a sophisticated-looking lady offering various poses in and around a Butternut Yellow Caprice Custom Sedan. The ad’s focus on the car’s exterior indicates that Chevrolet was proud of its new appearance. Indeed, the text mentions fender skirts and extra features that distinguish Caprices from “other Chevrolets.”
Gold was the theme here – a Granada Gold Caprice with gold pattern cloth upholstery and even a gold background for the ad itself. Lots of focus on little details such as a new tail light design, new front armrest and a fashionable instrument cluster. The close-up of the gas pedal is a bit baffling, though. Granted, it’s a nice-looking gas pedal… but still.
Here’s an early Caprice ad that’s as much textual as visual. “You could fly to Europe and back on the difference” between Caprice and those unnamed “costly cars.” Great example of an aspirational ad – drive this stylish Caprice and you could save enough money to become a jet-setter.
The ad copy didn’t exaggerate. One could fly to most European destinations for under $300 (the ad on the right shows fares from Washington). Add a second person, accommodations and other expenses, and a vacation to the Old Country might cost about $1,500. A fully-loaded Caprice ran about $3,200 in 1967, which was about $2,000 less than Cadillac’s cheapest model, the Calais. So a Caprice could get you a trip to Europe, and some extra cash.
This 1967 ad was as close as Chevrolet came to comparing itself to the brand-that-cannot-be-named. The elegant setting, the doorman, the fur coat… this all resembled Cadillac-Land. But the ad copy is worth a read too. I wonder how many drafts were needed before the admen settled on this:
“…plenty of people are ‘moving up’ to Caprice from less expensive Chevrolets. Yet the occasional customer ‘moves down’ from a make more expensive.”
Hmmm. That’s doesn’t seem like a compelling selling point for buyers moving in either direction.
Now, if Chevrolet really wanted to be uppity, they should have shown a back seat scene with an equestrian girl feeding a horse, as Lincoln did for 1967.
Chevrolet made up for that oversight the next year, with this horsey ad. Caprice can make you feel richer, though this wasn’t quite like the Europe ad… after all, it shied away from saying “You could buy a horse with the difference” between Caprice and costly cars. Horse ownership is undoubtedly more expensive than a European vacation.
Over its first few years, Caprice drifted a bit from its “near luxury” beginning, though occasional luxury ads still appeared. Caprice went the humorous route with this one: A mustached gentleman doing what the landed gentry supposedly often do – drive through fields.
Through the 1970s though, rich people were gradually replaced by ordinary folks in Caprice ads as the nameplate drifted to being more of a family hauler than a mini-Cadillac. This happy family was pretty far from soft-focus romantic couples, fur coats and piccolo players, but it was the wave of the future. Caprice became just another nameplate for Chevrolet, eventually becoming a mainstay as a family hauler and living out its remaining years as a car that appealed mostly to retirees.
Selling a luxury car through a low-price brand may have been a bit risky, but it paid off for Chevrolet. While many market factors led to the luxury Chevrolet’s success, these ads likely played a contributing factor. And most importantly, they provided us with some good material to enjoy decades later.
There wasn’t anything farcical about claiming the Ford was quieter than the Rolls. It was. Before the campaign began, Barney Clark , of J. Walter Thompson, Ford’s ad agency, remarked on the quietness of the 1965 Ford. He felt it may have been “almost” as quiet as the Rolls. He had an acoustical consultant, Boldt, Beranek and Neuman, run tests to find out. Ford actually purchased 2 new Silver Clouds to run the test. The test was certified by USAC. The Fords actually turned out to be quieter, and by a significant margin. Ford actually downplayed this into a “slight” margin to avoid creating too much controversy. They had enough legitimately acquired ammo to run an ad campaign on, and the rest is history.
As far as Caprice vs LTD goes, the Chevy may been superior in it’s traditional areas like powertrains, but as far as interior appointments and quality, as well as NVH, Chevy couldnt touch Ford.
I could have written that better. What I intended to mean was that it was farcical to compare the Ford to Rolls-Royce in an ad campaign. I do realize that the quietness was genuine, and when I was writing this piece, I thought that those LTD ads would be a good topic by themselves since there’s a quite a few really good ones.
Here’s another one of those LTD ads that I enjoy. The sales pitch certainly worked.
My one data point on these cars was a 68 Caprice 4 door hardtop owned by a friend of my mother in the mid 70’s. In my high school years I made some pocket money by deep cleaning cars for people (nobody had started calling it detailing). It was a day long job and I charged $20, which was fairly hefty but the results were always great.
The lady with the Caprice let me take her car for the day, and I was really impressed by the quality of the interior materials. I had always looked at that car before with a little bit of a side-eye, but after I spent the day up close with it, could see why they sold as well as they did. It was far nicer inside than much higher level GM cars of the mid 70’s. And the car cleaned up beautifully, with its pewter-silver paint, black vinyl roof and light silvery-gray interior.
As an ad collector myself, I think these are great, Eric. Even the home interior ads speak of a completely different time, for better or worse (I myself wouldn’t hate a 1960s theme in my house, but I don’t think my allergies could stand the moldy furniture). 🙂
I love the Bell Telephone ad – to me, it perfectly encapsulates the increasing standard of living of the period. It seems quaint by today’s standards of affluence, but just a decade earlier even wealthy people often had just one telephone in a house, and here we have a lady choosing between various pastel-colored phones for her dressing room!
But then again, maybe that couple could afford that extravagance because they shrewdly bought a Caprice instead of a Cadillac…
I remember the times of that phone ad quite well. My sister had a whole French Provincial bedroom set. All white and gold, very popular at the time.
A pastel-colored “Princess” phone was an object of desire for tween/teen girls at that time (the mid-late 1960s) and if a middle class parent could afford it, they’d make their daughter very very happy…and the envy of her peers. Having more than one phone then was indeed an expense in terms of both the phone rental AND the fact that the phone company would charge you for each phone connected in the house. And yes, they checked. If one were somehow to have “acquired” an extra phone and then attempted to plug it in, you’d likely get caught (the phone company would periodically ring houses and measure the resistance on the line) and then have to pay both a fine as well as start paying for the extra phone. Ask me how I know….
(I was allowed by my parents to keep the “extra” phone if I went into it and disconnected the ringer. Which wasn’t an issue for me as I was quite happy for the excuse to take apart a telephone.)
The part about that ad I like the most though is the memory that it brings back of how the phone company (Bell whatever depending on where you lived) would bring those phones to your house and let you choose the color and type (they weren’t all the same price). We went though this a lot as we moved a lot. Each new house necessitated such a visit from the guy like the guy in that ad. We never got anything other than the standard desktop and kitchen wall phone. My sister didn’t get a Princess phone…she had the French Provincial bedroom set and my parents figured that was enough indulgence.
I had no idea that the phone company would send sales reps to people’s houses to pick out phones. They must have hated when people would say “I’ll take whatever’s cheapest.” They probably kept a stock of beige wall phones in their vans just for such customers.
My daughters are teenagers now, and I’ve explained to them what a status symbol it was when I was growing up for girls to have telephones in their bedrooms (or better yet, their own phone lines)… and how many parents would joke about never being able to use the phone because their kid’s always on it. Completely baffling behavior to today’s teens!
When my folks moved in the 1970s, I remember the (older) house they bought had a “telephone box” in the foyer where the only phone in the house was located. One of the first things Dad did was to wire the house for more phones.
A ‘Princess’ phone was a huge deal in the 1960’s .
I have a few and thought I’d surprise my lady friend in 1996 by giving her one, she wasn’t impressed even slightly .
I have a few dial typ trim lines too, as i just recently dropped my land line I guess I’ll have to sell those on, Pacific Bell couldn’t be bothered to give me a static free land line for nearly 40 years .
-Nate
I remember turning 14 and dad was in real estate. Mom finally told me that she’d pay for a second line in my room to stop the busy signals people started complaining about!
It was a black trim line phone with the lighted (in green) push buttons! I recall it costing $12 monthly. She had been paying me $3 for cutting the lawn and figured i cut it 4 times a month, so she kept that money!
Ah Yes. I had a 67 2 door Caprice Black w Black Vinyl top & 283. Wish I still had it. It was used of course this was in 1986. I loved it, but I never thought of it as “luxury”, more of a cool cruiser. To me it was another version of an Impala.
I’m noticing (in the 68 Caprice Sedan ad with the horses), that rear end looks VERY high, especially as it appears to be going uphill. Has skirts, yet almost the entire wheel cover is exposed. I wonder if the 1st shot it was too low, and they jacked it up a bit, going way overboard.
I went back and looked at that 68. It does look a bit jacked up!
They all seem stanced a little too perky. Maybe they’re hollowed out shells of prop cars like the one in the Lincoln Versailles ad showing one parked inside the restaurant atop the Twin Towers?
My dad was one who “stepped down from the other car” to a Caprice. I’ve written about it before but in 1973 his boss offered him a company car. They drove Chevrolet for all their cars and trucks, so dad ordered a fully loaded Caprice. He was, after all coming from a 1970 Cadillac!
Well, his boss dropped off his wife’s car for service and there were no loaners available. He asked if dad’s car had arrived but it was still two weeks away. So the boss looked at the order, deemed it too expensive and chose a much lesser Caprice in the same color.
To say my dad was annoyed is being nice. Words were said and he kept that car one year. He told his boss that a raise was a better option and he’d provide his own cars. Within a year after that, the company went belly up.
To say I like the Caprice is an understatement as we’ve owned a 74, 75, 79 and an 82!
That’s a great story!
This outcome suggests that your father’s salary increase must have been truly very generous…
Actually, no. The top three men ran the company poorly. In fact one lost everything. However, my dad was pretty smart man. The company was a building firm and they were just finishing two commercial buildings. Dad saw what was happening and contacted the mortgage people. He “suggested ” that they would need someone to oversee the leasing of the spaces and maintenance! They hired him so he never lost a days work.
And yes, even my 11 year old self helped by mowing, cleaning and changing light bulbs.
Louis Chevrolet’s dream came true. He wanted the Chevrolet to be an upscale automobile, but GM management did not. His wish was granted long after he passed.
Just curious about the engines in these. Saw the post about having a 283, would have thought they would have put something larger in these.
Ford had their 289 as standard when they introduced the LTD. So both had V-8s, but they were both a bit underpowered with their standard engines.
As a Ford guy, I wasn’t paying attention then–but I now see that for 1966 Chevrolet’s Caprice wagon had the fake-wood “Di-Noc”:
Excellent article Eric. Terrific explanation of how the consumer products industry both responded to and also inspired middle class aspirations and tastes. This sort of cyclical/feedback process underlies what is reflected in consumer culture and it’s a great thing to take a step back periodically and take account of what drives (so to speak) all of this.
In the 1950s and 1960s we knew lots of people who could have been cash buyers for Cadillacs but drove Chevys because they did not want to show off. The Caprice would have been easy to sell to these folks.
The car companies did and probably still do spy on each other constantly. I am sure that as early as 1963 GM was aware that Ford was planning a “luxury” Galaxie 500 for 1965. I feel certain that they had the Caprice all ready to go when the 1965s were introduced but sat tight to see how the LTD was accepted by the market before introducing it. Obviously the LTD was a big hit so Chevy released the Caprice.
I thought the well to do but non show off types went for Buicks.
In that regard, I wonder how the Caprice might have impacted sales in all of the aspirational GM brands.
The reason a couple of the early Caprice ads show the gas pedal or the brake pedal was that “bright pedal moldings” were part of the original Caprice package. Not that anyone was going to buy or not buy a Caprice based on the pedal trim, but I think it was intended to suggest what an impressively thorough luxury package the option was.
Thank you!
I remember these new and yes, they were amazing cars and well made too .
Too darn big for me but in general Americans will always buy the biggest car they can afford .
-Nate
I have mixed feelings about the Caprice. It was clearly a reaction to Ford’s LTD but it moved the Caprice into Buick territory. GM was in effect cannibalizing its own divisions, because a Caprice was basically the same car as a Buick or Oldsmobile, or even a Cadillac Calais.
GM should have had an Oldsmobile or Buick as its LTD fighter.
That just wasn’t how things worked at GM in the ’60s. Chevrolet management got nothing from Oldsmobile or Buick sales, and a lot of Chevrolet or Ford buyers were not likely to step up to a fancier brand for reasons of assumed cost or class self-consciousness (although Oldsmobile and Buick had been poaching some Chevrolet customers for years with low-end models like the Jetstar 88). GM corporate management was unlikely to say no to Chevrolet responding to a very profitable trend, and was very invested in the Ford-Chevrolet sales race, since keeping Chevrolet No. 1 was a big deal. No one was going to leave money on the table to preserve some kind of idealized image of the Sloan ladder.
Chevrolet wasn’t alone to reply to Ford. Chrysler also reacted to Ford’s LTD with the Plymouth VIP but it wasn’t lucky as Chevrolet since most of VIP potential buyers have probably instead buyed a Chrysler Newport since Plymouths shared the same floor with Chryslers models in the dealer showroom. The VIP was removed after 1969 and the Sport Fury inherited some of the VIP attributes for the 1970 model year. https://www.curbsideclassic.com/curbside-classics-american/curbside-classic-1967-plymouth-vip-very-important-plymouth-or-footnote-to-the-great-brougham-epoch/
I had a 67 caprice two door with a 396. I loved that car up until the day that I got T-boned By a lady who ran a yield sign. Looking back I’m surprised that I walked away from the accident unscathed. Especially given that safety wasn’t a primary focus in that day and age. I still look at that as one of the best cars I have ever owned.
That first photo showing the luxurious interior makes it appear so classy that it puts many current cars’ interiors to shame (especially when the latter is all black). Imagine a blue interior like that in leather today (realizing of course that the featured Caprice’s upholstery was all vinyl).
Well, for Australians during the 1950s and 1960s, Chevrolet Belair 4 door sedans and from 1965, Chevrolet Impala Sport Sedans represented pure luxury in every way. These factory right hand drive examples were assembled on special slow moving GMH assembly lines and sold directly against Mercedes Benz, BMW and Jaguar.
In Australia during the 1950s and 1960s only well off Aussies could afford to buy luxury Chevrolets. So with this thinking, the Chevrolet Caprice when it was introduced in 1965 seemed absolutely natural, but Chevrolet Caprices were never assembled by GMH. Only a very few made it to Australia as private imports.
But 1965, 1966 and 1967 Chevrolet Caprices look there best in 4 door pillarless (Sport Sedans) bodies, so much better than in common 2 door hardtop form.
In the Spring of ’65 a local widow in our small rural Illinois town bought a fully – loaded Caprice four – door, gold with a black vinyl top and fully loaded with every option. I remember people saying, “Wow, she paid almost $5000.00 for a *Chevrolet*…!!!???”…