Reports of the sedan’s death have been greatly exaggerated.
That’s right. While SUVs and light trucks still make up around 80 percent of the market, recent data from 2023 shows that sedans and other types of cars increased by nearly two percent from where they were at the end of 2021. Sure, it’s not a massive increase, but considering that number has been plummeting for the last twenty years, that’s an indication that a shift might be in the air.
With many people looking for something economical to buy as well as own, it’s no surprise that compact sedan sales have seen tremendous increases when compared to last year. Also, some Gen Z consumers appear to be rejecting the SUVs that their parents chose over the wood-paneled wagons or minivans of their own youth; a sedan appears to be a good alternative for them.
Recently, a reader named TheSixSpeed reached out to The Autopian, requesting that The Bishop come up with a reboot of a sedan that once crushed the sales charts years back but now lives on only in our memories: the Chevy Impala. As always, I’ll add a twist that our reader might not expect (or want, for that matter), but I promise it will be fun.
Pull Up Four Deep
I’m very glad that the powers that be at Stellantis didn’t seem to be bothered by the fact that some of the slowest-selling types of cars today are rather large sedans and retro-style “pony” car coupes. Dodge recently relaunched a car model that included not one but both of those seemingly unpopular body styles: the new Charger. Admittedly, they’re essentially the same thing, and you just chose your door count, but we’re still looking at solid four- or five-passenger performance cars:
Pretty much anything with two doors is going to struggle in the market today, so the fact that Dodge gave us a four-door muscle car like the Australians are famous for had me stoked for a Big Three Throwdown of retro high-performance ultra-practical family cars. Instead of the stretched gasoline-powered Mustang sedan Ford has been threatening us with, I envisioned that chassis covered in something that recalled the “Mad Max” XB Falcon that us Americans never received in period:
General Motors would counter Ford and Dodge with my idea of a Chevelle SS revival, though my concept was an EV on the ever-present Ultium platform:
Unlike the Mustang and the now-dead modern Camaro and Challenger competitors, these would be decent-sized hatchbacks that could hold a family of five and their luggage as a Real Car. Of course, what if your corn-fed family needs a little more space? That’s where GM could come through with our reader’s suggestion: a new Impala.
Ridin’ N’ Da Chevy
It’s been five years since we last saw an Impala of any kind, and honestly, the last thirty years have not been kind to the name. The final rear-drive model was the legendary final 1996 edition with the whale-like body and the chassis based on the even-more-legendary “downsized” 1977 GM B-Bodies.
Since then, the Impala name has been most associated with what you once saw lined up in the rental car garage row for “full-sized car.” Not necessarily bad cars, but “legendary” they were not.
According to TheSixSpeed, there was a glimmer of hope that disappeared quickly:
Autoweek had reported in 2006 that the 2009 Impala would run on the Zeta platform along with the Camaro, similar to how the Charger existed alongside the Challenger. Unfortunately, due to a combination of the 2008 bankruptcy and CAFE changes, this wasn’t meant to be, and we received the Epsilon 2 based Impala that we all know and don’t love.
TheSixSpeed wondered aloud what it would have been like had a new Impala appeared on the chassis that essentially succeeded the Zeta: the Alpha 2, as underpinning the Cadillac CT5:
TheSixSpeed also stated that the larger Omega platform (which underpinned the full-sized CT6) might be better suited for a new-school Impala:
Hey, you know that I’m down for another “sumo” class big muscle machine, but which one should we use as an inspiration? Retro isn’t always the way to go, and we could always just make a start-from-scratch design and call it an Impala. Still, with Chevy having done just that with forgettable versions since the late nineties I think it’s better to pay homage to some fierce examples of Impalas from yesteryear. Time to look at a bit of history.
Rollin’ In My ‘64
To many the most iconic Impalas are the third-generation Kennedy-era models that culminated in the vaunted “six-four”. These 1964 models (primarily coupes and convertibles) were most often seen in early nineties hip hop videos with the owner protagonists expressing their attractiveness to members of the opposite sex, their skills with firearms, and extensive usage of cannabis:
Still, it’s the clean-looking 1965 and later models of that decade that commanded the US market, and I mean dominated. Want proof? If I told you the list of the best-selling automobile platforms in history, names like the VW Beetle and the Ford Model T wouldn’t surprise you at the top of the list. Number three is a bit more obscure, but understandable: the Fiat 124/Lada was one of the few Soviet car choices for decades. Number four? It’s the 1965-1970 General Motors “B” platform, which underpinned the Chevy Impala. Seriously.
Want a bigger shock? What’s the best one-year sales of any car model in history? I’ll give you a clue: the year was 1965. Oh, you say, it was the first Mustang, right? That didn’t even come close. In 1965, Chevy sold over one million copies of Impalas. That’s a million examples of one car model, a record that has yet to be beaten sixty years later.
I asked TheSixSpeed what he thought the best Impala to use for a revival was:
Although I’m partial to the 1969 Impala, I believe that the 67 is one to go with since it’s the most iconic example.
These fourth-generation Impalas were everywhere as beat-up old cars when I was a kid, but I needed an image search to see what a ’67 looked like exactly:
Yeah, that’s nice, and it says “Impala” all right. It’s a subtle refinement of that gangbusters-selling 1965 version. Anyway, let’s take a gander at that 1969 model TheSixSpeed mentioned as well:
Oh, crap! Look at that thing! I’d forgotten about the available covered lights and the “fuselage” style body modifications, sort of similar to the Chrysler products of the era. That thing is not ‘nice’ at all; it’s impossibly sinister and tough.
Even bone stock, I can’t unsee that shape and minimalist detailing: I’m sorry TheSixSpeed, I know what you’re saying, but that 1969 version you (and I) are partial to is the way to go.
That taillights-in-the-bumper thing GM was doing in the years just before park bench 5 MPH ram bars was something I was always fond of.
No question about it: that’s our visual muse, so now to choose a chassis.
Crips Tryna Get Me, Red Impala Bumpin’ Like Acne
Sure, as TheSixSpeed had requested, we could use the GM Alpha or the larger Omega chassis for our Impala, but I had second thoughts. Considering that the Omega platform went to join the Corvair and Fiero in the afterlife two years ago I’m reluctantly thinking that I need to look towards the future with dreaded EV underpinnings. Plus, even the larger Omega platform isn’t big enough for the enormous “real” Impala revival that I want to do.
Naturally, that means General Motor’s ever present Ultium platform that’s used in over a dozen vehicles from a Honda Prologue (hey, that’s not GM?) to the BrightDrop van and even the top-of-the-line full-sized Cadillac Celestique.
Cadillac’s new flagship is hand-built in a special facility once dedicated to concepts and show cars; reportedly, no more than 500 will be made each year. Many features are customizable, and customers are encouraged to participate in the design at a special center on the grounds of the General Motors Technical Center. Due to the low production quantities, the Celestique uses many 3D printed parts since there isn’t a volume for tooling; something you can do with today’s technology if you don’t mind parts that are gawdawful expensive. With a price tag of around $340,000, this is the first Cadillac in decades that competes in the rarified air of Bentleys and Rolls-Royces.
At the price, most of us will never be able to come up with the cash to buy it. However, back in the day full-sized Cadillacs shared their chassis with lesser GM cars; today, that Ultium platform in the Celestique is obviously used on a lot of affordable vehicles. If we did a highly decontented, mass-produced version of that Celestiq, you’d have something that I’d find more appealing anyway. Come on, you don’t need that hand-stitched interior and such that will only make the thing less usable as a Real Car for Real People. Honestly, that Caddy’s nose and tail feature a few too many streaks, sweeps, gewgaws, and weird lights than I want, especially when the body shape between is so clean and appealing.
Starting with the Celestique, I’ll remove the front end and add the sinister chrome-framed nose of the ’69 Impala, and strip all of the ornamentation from the flanks. The upsweep on the lower rear quarters of the back doors changes to a form that captures more of the “Coke bottle” shape of the old Chevy.
Yes, we’ll have projector headlamps and not the super-expensive LED units of the Celestique. To keep that clean front, retracting doors over the lights as on the ’69 will be needed, as shown in this animation:
In back, the new Impala is still a hatchback, but the fastback of the Celestique gives way to a more notched tail, with LED rear lighting that mimics the 1969 car; a move that really cleans up what was a very busy-looking tail with a few too many lights. It’s amazing how similar that angled upkick in the rear quarters is to the back of the old Chevy; even the angled rear side marker lights are dead ringers for the ones on the 1970 Impala. Here’s a close-up view:
It’s a big car; amazingly enough, despite our impression of old cars being “boats” the Celestique is actually a few inches longer than the 1969 Impala. With that kind of length, you feel like you could get another row of seats in that thing. Wait, what?
Posse In Effect Three Rows Deep
The Celestique’s large size allows for limousine-like space in the back seat, and as a hatchback, there’s even plenty of room behind that could probably let that second row slide back even further. Our Impala SS is a notchback, but that rear roof still extends pretty far back; enough that I think if were to allow the rear seat to be able to slide forward somewhat we’d have space for two tiny jump seats to create an occasional use third row.
Stellantis was suggesting something similar on their RAM Revolution concept pickup a few years back. You might not know this, but early Tesla Model S cars offered the option of a rear-facing seat in the cargo area. This was not a popular option since it was rather confining, even for children, and killed any cargo space (other than the frunk).
Our Impala’s third row would also be suitable only for children or small people; legroom would be very tight, and headroom compromised by the rear backlight. Let’s face it: if you have seven or eight full-sized adults to carry, you’ll need to get a Suburban. Still, how often does anyone do that? Most third rows are aimed at kids up to pre-teen age, and having a pair of legal seats is better than having to take two cars, regardless of how minuscule they are. Indeed, we’d likely have one of the coolest and fastest seven-seat vehicles on the planet.
In The Black SS With The Navigation
Before we start, let me do that same damn rant that always do. Yes, we know that LCD screens are flat and thin as a pancake: car makers don’t need to keep propping them Dell-desktop-monitor style on my dashboard to show that off. Next, the idea of a full-width screen across the dash or a center screen the size of the one in your living room also does nothing for usefulness or ergonomics. “But I can watch movies really big in my car while I wait for the parking lot to empty after a concert” you say. Great, but what about 99.99 percent of the rest of the time you own the car? We want our information segmented and parsed out so it’s easy to decipher while driving, not something that looks like a Yahoo homepage with everything all the time, all at once. Rant concluded.
As always with these revivals, I’ll use the dashboard of the original car as an inspiration for the design.
My design follows the same shape as the original, and it’s packed with screens: a wide one for main gauges, one for climate and entertainment and another one on the optional console for drive modes and other information. The difference between this and a lot of current cars is that we don’t just make one giant screen: dividing the space up with physical buttons helps tremendously when you’re trying to pilot a seven-passenger, three-ton behemoth that goes to sixty in less than 3 seconds. Also, making them flush with the dash looks much cleaner. Besides, like on Impalas from a few years back, the fact that the screens are flat means that we can put secret storage bins behind them if we choose.
The buttons across the top of the dash are for drive modes that control suspension settings, steering ratio, how the car accelerates and other pre-programed combinations. If you get the three-wide front bench seat (for up to eight seats!) then the console goes away and those buttons become PRND shift selectors.
Baller, Shot Caller, Twenty Inch Blades On The…
Can an EV Impala really capture the essence of this big Chevy from days past? Well, our neighbors had a ’70 Kingswood Estate version with a 350 that I rode around in the back seat of when I was a kid; I don’t have memories that include dumb stereotypical muscle car sounds. I recall that it was less like a car and more akin to sitting in a 747 heading down a runway with a constant “whoosh”, the bumps below barely noticeable (and the front end lifting maybe only a little less than the Boeing aircraft). Naturally, a near-silent drivetrain would help to maintain that feel in this massive car. For the vast majority of us, that rumble and burble is cool for about three blocks, and then we just want it to shut the hell up and hear the sound system until our spouse says to turn that down, too.
Look, TheSixSpeed, with a name like that I know that you’d want an ICE Impala with a clutch as much as I do. I’d prefer to have a V8 in place of the frunk on this thing, and there’s no reason this design couldn’t have such a powerplant. Still, if we lean into making this big bad boat emissions-free then maybe we’d have a better chance at making it a reality.
Thanks for the well thought-out suggestion; all of you other Autopians, please keep those ideas coming!
That Ford Interceptor looks so badass.
Another excellent concept Bishop! I would buy one of these in a heartbeat (of America)
I rather like this. My first car was a ‘67 Impala SS though, so I wish you’d gone for that instead of the ‘69! But I love all the late 60s b-bodies. Excellent giant boat cars and some of the best regular cars for pure style of all time if you ask me!
Those pictures bring back memories. My great grandparents bought a new 1969 Bel Air that’s still in the family. My grandma owned it until a few years ago and now my uncle has it. Make mine blue on blue please!
Ford Interceptor please.
The 4dr that shares mustang parts to cut costs.
It also shares 1986 Camaro parts to cut costs.
Thanks. I hate it. Well done.
There is no que in Celestiq, only a queue for them.
Here’s the thing w/ the Celest-Ick:
What’s under that enormously long hood? Anything?
Because EV motors don’t take up that much space – and AC hardware is also relatively small compared to that enclosed space – which is why Dodge used the forward space for aerodynamic ducting.
So you could cut down the length of the thing ahead of the firewall and still wind up with an imposing profile for a sedan with plenty of frunk space.
Remember too that Impala – for most of it’s run – was a car for the Everyman.
So it was practical and affordable before it was “performance” – That’s how they sold a million of them in one year.
So two bench seats on a shorter wheelbase with flat floors are quite enough for 6.
Need more seats? Get the wagon and add a third row to seat 9.
After all, you’ll still have plenty of enclosed storage space in the Frunk – which will also help keep Dad from needing to load a roof-rack, extending range even when fully loaded with nine people and their stuff.
Most Impalas had a gear selector on the column – whether it was a three-on-the-tree or a two-speed Powerglide. So there’s no need for dashtop buttons (which will get filthy and are hard to reach anyway) And definitely no need for a massive airliner-throttle-looking handle in the middle of a huge space-wasting console on a non-existent floor hump where an unnecessary transmission won’t be – – besides – consoles and floor shifters were typically optioned on 1960’s coupes or convertibles anyway – not sedans or wagons. Column drive selector for the win.
Meanwhile – Where are the cupholders and phone charging platforms? Lets go to the big pull-out ashtrays that were in the lower-center dash – and update them for cupholders and Qi phone charging/wireless connection platforms.
As far as lighting – Doors covering big round lights are silly and unnecessarily costly in this day and age.
LEDs are amazing – all you need is an array of linear LEDs taking the place of grille-slats. Run two rows across the front on lower-spec cars – three rows for higher-spec (Caprice?)
Now lets address something that made these cars fantastic – Hardtops.
No pillars, no window frames.
With the structural rigidity of floors of batteries – There should be no need for B posts, and therefore no need for window frames.
Bring back the hardtop!
Watching the headlight animation was joyous. You nailed this!
This is Archbishop caliber work.
I was apprehensive about it being the size of the Celestique, but the third row sold it for me. To get people into sedans again you have to somehow convince them they can be as practical as an SUV. This is a novel approach to that.
Im pretty sure thats just a wagon, and they wont buy them because they think they need a tall car to see over all the other tall cars that they tailgate
To us it’s a wagon because we don’t think wagon is a dirty word. But you have to trick the general public into thinking it’s not a wagon.
The third-row Celestique concept is somewhat reminiscent of the early-’70s full-size GM “clamshell” wagons, in both size and execution.
Not too much bigger than the 4th gen caprice station wagon either.