February 5: Requiem for a heavyweight

A sign of our times, but a heart breaker never the less. For all sorts of reasons, the big General Motors plant in Oshawa, Ontario will be closing in the near future. For many years this behemoth had been a powerhouse of production, at one time sending 25,000 sparkling new vehicles a year to happy customers across the US, Canada and a few foreign lands (remember the Iraqi Malibu? Google it).

But that was then and unfortunately this is now (profound?). When this historic old plant shortly closes its doors, so does it close the saga of one of GM's most illustrious and successful nameplates. Want to take a guess?

Those of you who said the Chevy Silverado, can leave the room and spend a few hours in detention checking out how wrong you are. Shame on you. No folks, the name going into the dumpster of automotive history will be the Chevy Impala. Cast aside and rendered irrelevant by today's consumers' lust after anything suv. Even the very attractive lines of the latest Impala couldn't push it up the sales charts to a point where it would still be viable. Sad.

2019 Impala

Just over sixty years ago (60!), in 1958 the Impala was introduced to an adoring public looking for a chrome laden sport(?) machine........

Featuring a unique to it body style, this first Impala rocked the late '50's with panache. Available as a coupe or a convertible, this Impala started the nameplate on a very illustrious career.

Next year the Impala became a winged wonder (it was the '50's after all), and the nameplate was also put on a couple of four doors following that old marketing adage, if one is good then two is better, or in this case four........

The early '60's had success after success for Impala until it reached its zenith in 1965........

This completely new Chevy was a wild sales success, with the Impala line alone selling well over one million cars. Get that, over a million! Hard to imagine, but this was a time when American cars ruled North America and the Empire of the Rising Sun hadn't yet inundated our shores with a wide variety of quality products. Talk about steamrolling the competition.

And so Impala continued on into the '70's, 80's, 90's and the 2000's. Those '65 sales would never be topped, but hey, the landscape changed completely with hundreds of new models becoming thousands. One place the Impala did hold its own and was in a position of power was the obvious.......

.....becoming one of the best police cars ever, to be topped only by the Chevrolet Caprice in the early 1990's. And eventually GM had those fleet sales (police, daily rentals) to thank for keeping this old and revered nameplate alive and relevant.

One final opportunity to harken back to it's reputation from days gone by, was introduced in 1994.........

Take one Corvette motored, police package Caprice, add four big wheels and tires......voila', the Impala SS. Finally another Impala to lust after. And to collect.

But now the Impala's glory days are well behind it. No matter how attractive, how well reviewed or how well priced, the Impala is a sedan, the latest kiss of death in the North American auto industry. So what for years had looked like this.......

......is shortly going to look like this......

The once heavyweight sales champ of the North American auto industry is taking its last ragged breaths. So let's take a moment to remember when having an Impala meant more than driving a snoozer on wheels. Think back to a time when having an Impala meant your neighbours would want to look under its hood. Another time, folks. And another famous nameplate is saying good-bye.

Maybe they should put the name on an suv?

Until next time......