1996 Chevrolet Impala SS - Lipstick On A Pig

Years ago, General Motors had a curious habit of discontinuing production on cars just as they got them right  - or as right as they could be. The 1969 Corvair and 1988 Pontiac Fiero come to mind as examples of cars they tweaked and prodded for years and then, just as they got them right, poof, they were gone. Another example is the 1994-1996 Chevrolet Impala SS incarnation of the 1991 Chevrolet Caprice.

The 1994-1996 Impala SS was born of the ashes of GM's comical 1991 "Shamu" Caprice, one of the most bizarre, dare I say botched, redesigns in automobile history. The 1991 Caprice struggled to find buyers and while much of that struggle had to do with a market shift away from sedans towards SUV's, the car's over the top styling certainly didn't help. Still, the 1991 Caprice was nothing if not distinctive if somewhat handsome looking from certain angles; copious studio lighting helping our brochure car look almost glamorous. The most unusual styling detail being the quasi fender skirting on the rear quarter panels. Personally, I never warmed to it and often wondered, like many people I would have to imagine, would the car look more conventional, mainstream and less controversial without the skirts? 

Oh...well...be careful what you wish for. Not unlike the 1974 Buick Riviera sans boat tail, for 1993 Chevrolet removed the '91 Carprice's most distinctive styling detail and turned what was a strange, albeit balanced design into one that was suddenly unbalanced and drab; in addition to still being strange looking. That awkwardness stemming from the fact that the rear wheels didn't quite line up perfectly in the wheel wells; they looked fine on the fender skirted models since the misalignment appeared to part of the design but the rear end on the car needed a complete overhaul from the rear doors back with the skirts gone to balance things out and...Chevrolet opted not to do that. Why? We can only guess it was because GM knew they were going to off the car in just a couple of years and went the less expensive and time consuming route of just removing the skirts to appease buyers who didn't appreciate them. While it ruined any semblance of design unity on the Caprice, there's no doubt it did wonders for the Impala SS that came in 1994. 

Can't imagine what a fender skirted Impala SS would have looked like. Amazing what a little sprucing up can do for a car; the addition of sharp and beefy aluminum 18 inch rims, a lowered police car suspension, a blacked out grill and removal of most of the chrome from the Caprice and an otherwise forgettable automobile was suddenly Prom King. Actually, these cars were so big the entire prom could have fit in it. There was also the matter of a new-for-1994, 260 horsepower, 350 cubic inch LT-1 V-8 that helped turned the car into a performance watershed. Sometimes, lip stick on a pig works wonders.

It's ironic that in 1994 a sub model of the Caprice, which was for all intents and purposes the top of the line Caprice, was called Impala. Caprice began as a top of the line trim level of Impala in 1965.

The 1994-1996 Impala SS washed away most of the sins of the 1993 Caprice and let's be honest, the 1991 Caprice as well. However, despite cheap gas in the 1990's, Impala SS was unable to stem the tide of buyers who would have bought it ten years prior from buying the scourge of the full size car in the 1990's, sport utility vehicles. 

If you can't beat them, build them. After 1996, General Motors closed the Arlington, Texas factory that made these cars retooling it to build sport utility vehicles. Seeing how long it takes to rebuild a factory, it is interesting that General Motors spent any time on building a low volume, niche vehicle like the 1994-1996 Chevrolet Impala SS. Personally, I've always been glad that they did since it's always been one of only a handful of sedans that I've ever liked enough to seriously consider buying.