Based on engineering, passenger comfort, performance, handling and styling, Motor Trend awarded the Chevrolet Caprice its vaunted golden calipers as their "Car of the Year" for model-year 1977, beating out seven other nominees. Additionally, they congratulated Chevrolet for a new concept in passenger car engineering and design, and for recognizing the need for smaller, lighter, more fuel-efficient vehicles.
"New concept in passenger car engineering and design"? If you say so, Motor Trend. At the risk of being contrarian, essentially, through my prepubescent goggles at the time, all I saw them do was downsize their wares to what they had been in 1965. An all-new 1965 Chevrolet Impala, Caprice was an Impala trim-package before becoming its own model-line in 1966, was 213-inches long and 79-inches wide riding on a 119-inch-long wheelbase. The 1977 Caprice was 212-inches long, 75-inches wide riding on a 116-inch-long wheelbase; essentially, what General Motors determined was an intermediate from 1973-1977. Curb weight was similar between a full-size '65 Chevrolet and a 1977. The two-models featured similar recirculating ball steering, power-assisted front disc\rear drum brakes, rigid live rear axles, leaf springs, coils, front-wishbones, front-engines and rear wheel drive. This was progress?
Somewhat amazingly, stupefying even especially considering the drastic model-years changes or "planned obsolescence" that was a General Motors hallmark in the '50's and '60's, Chevrolet pushed out, for all intents and purpses, the same Caprice for 14-years. Suffice to say, an update was long overdue when Chevrolet introduced us to "Shamu", nick-named after the famous Sea World killer whale, for 1991.
Whereas the 1977 Caprice was a risk-aversive, calculated design, the 1991 Caprice was, being kind, a progressive and bold a design as GM ever came out with; especially to replace a long-established make and model. Like kind-hearted, supportive, well-meaning parents attempting to see any good in our children's most often-times terrible artwork, many a GM rear-wheel-drive, sedan-lover stuck these things to the proverbial fridge. I, candidly, was not one of them. And if I was ambivalent to what it replaced, imagine how I felt about these things.
Buick got a version of this for 1992, Pontiac never did, Oldsmobile only got a wagon; Cadillac did, technically, come 1993. These only came in four-door sedan and wagon guises; they spared us coupe girls the ignominy of what one of those would have looked like. Just as well as Chevrolet hadn't made an Impala coupe since '82, a Caprice two-door since 1985. Try as I may to see the best in everything, though, which at times can be challenging, the new-for-'91 Caprice wasn't all bad. I mean, it was mostly bad inside and out, the interior had the soul of a Tupperware bowl, but from some angles and in the right light, it could be construed as somewhat handsome, or less ugly. Give me an LTZ (above) with the 9C1 cop package and I might be as happy as I am currently with my 2009 Toyota RAV4. It ain't sexy, I hardly love-it, love-it, but it gets me from point-A to B without much drama. With it's silly-powerful V-6, it can be quite fun at times too.
The most polarizing design element of an overall odd blueprint, of course, was the Nash Rambler-esque lower rear quarter panels. While I'm not a fan of the design in general, the "skirts" do give it some semblance of cohesion, theme and balance. Apparently, there were those inside either GM, Chevrolet or both who found little to appreciate about them. And I get that.
For MY 1993, they saw-zalled them off turning "Shamu" into a 1992 Ford Crown Victoria doppelganger at best, cars that had removable rear fender skirts missing at worst. I remember seeing these cars at a new-car-expo on Long Island in the fall of 1992 and thought that while Chevrolet (probably) gave their customers what they asked for, they might have been best to put the skirts back on. Especially considering that was literally all they did to it.
To illustrate my point, using "paint", and I'm no expert with it, I've doctored our 1996 subject here putting the "skirts" back on it Even with this crudely if woeful mock-up, we can see how little Chevrolet did to change the design of the car. Interestingly, the Buick Roadmaster's semi-rear skirts (or spats) remained on the car through the end of its production run in 1996. In my humble opine, the look worked best on the long-wheelbase 1993-1996 Cadillac Fleetwood.
Under its massive hood there's more uniqueness or, depending on your point of view, oddness. Our '96 here doesn't have the full-tilt, 5.7-liter "LT1", which debuted in GM B- and C-bodies for 1994, but a smaller-bore, 4.3-liter version GM dubbed, "L99". The L99 made a palatable 200-horsepower but just 240 ft-lbs; adequate twist perhaps in the '80's, but even by the mid-'90's, it made for a pokey, two-ton sedan. What's more, there was minimal fuel-economy gains which was, allegedly, what the L99 was all about. The point of this engine, exactly?
Shamu's sales, the ultimate litmus test of the success or failure of anything, were a fraction of what they were even in the 1980's. In fairness, spats, skirts or no such trivial quarter-panel styling, it wasn't the wonton styling that was the sole culprit. Rapidly changing consumer tastes and a never seen before competitive landscape doomed not only the Caprice, but the vehicle segment en masse. Well, eventually. Ford hung in there with their Crown Victoria through 2012.
In the end, the "Shamu" Caprice was an inglorious end to a once storied staple of domestic automobile-dom. A curious GM offering in a day and age when the once world's largest corporation was in transition with feet firmly (more like shakily) in both the future and the past.
If you're curious, this 148,000-mile red-on-red horror was for sale on Facebook Marketplace up near Detroit with a more than reasonable $1,995 asking price. Honestly, for the money, you could do worse. You could also do a hell of a lot better.
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