In September of 1995, I took delivery of a brand new 1996 Impala SS. I almost bought the 95 model but wanted the floor shift and analog gauges. Here it is more than 22 years later and I still own that Impala. It's pretty much a garage queen now with 303,000 miles. I work from home now so the 100 mile a day commuting has stopped. Now, the Impala is mostly used for running grand-kids around locally. (My 2003 Corvette is not well suited for hauling kids). The transmission and rear end in the Impala are original and have received regular oil changes but they have never been repaired. I think it's safe to say I got my money's worth with the Impala.
Get one, you won't regret it. However, try and obtain a few skills to fix it whenever a problem occurs. Common problems have been solved and you can look them up in the Impala SS forum, they're nice guys and will always help.
Greg Sullivan awesome sir. My grandma bought a 1995 in 1996 used but basically new. She still has it now in 2018. It kept blowing water pumps but stopped that. Other than that. A beast. Love it
I bought mine in September, 1995. It is the new floor mounted shifter configuration. Now she has 28,750 miles on her. Someday I will get all my money back.
@@terrencesimpson9113 You guys got jacked in the United States. In the Middle East and Australia, GM kept the Caprice name alive with Holden's RWD, Big V8 (LS1!) large cabin Caprice since 2000 until they were discontinued in 2018. So, it's RIP for real this time.
It's a shame that GM did not retool its Arlington plant to continue building large rear-wheel drive cars. If they had done so, I could picture the eighth-generation Chevy Impala, tenth-gen Pontiac Bonneville, and eighth-gen Cadillac DeVille being built on GM's V platform, which had been utilized for the Holden Commodore and Opel Omega. Instead, GM decided to prioritize assembling large pickups and SUVs while fuel was cheap and the economy was in good shape in the late '90s. Once gas prices rose between the mid-2000s and the Great Recession, fewer people decided to resort to those vehicles, and GM suffered major losses.
@@SUPERSHANE95 my baby is gone I got rear ended June 2019... It's totalled and now is gone.. I have a settlement going with a lawyer.. Injured my back very bad..😞 I miss my IMPALA SS so much.. I'm going to treat myself with a Charger hellcat to make myself feel better lol...
For their "last gasp", I'm surprised GM went to the trouble of producing a dealer promo about these. Oh, if only big comfortable cars like these could stage a comeback...
Thanks for finding and posting this rare promo video of the best and last year of Chevy b-bodies. I've happily owed 3 b-body caprices. 1993 9c1 (5.7 tbi),1994 LS (grey leather&5.7L) 1994 LS ( blue leather&4.3L). Currently own a low mileage 96 DCM SS. My 4th b-body. So for me this made my day to see this 1 and I'm sure for other ppl too.
SS was big for chevy in 96. We had a 96 Chevy S10 SS pickup. Just a regular cab pickup, that little truck hauled ass. Only the Cyclone was faster. I sold it last Spring with 213,000 for 2 grand. SS models held some value. If it wasnt an SS it would have been a $500 truck at most. That car had the same radio my 2001 S10 has now. These big cars were popular among law enforcement because they were big and powerful. Built like tanks too, so if they had to do pit maneuvers or block roads, they were a tough car to try and out power. You don't see too many anymore. Although there's an older couple that are up the road that have a station wagon version and it is a huge car. Otherwise I barely see them anymore.
Dig the video!! I've owned a 95CapriceLT1, 9C1, Texas Highway Patrol, 4L60E with dessert gears, man oh man, do I love it!! It's been with me since 2000. Never to part!!
I just got a 9C1 in March from a police department; it was in service for 25 years! Completely unmolested, and with only 87k miles, it's gotta be one of the nicest ones left in the country. It was a squad car from '96 to about 2001 (before I was even born! XD), then was relegated to hauling around public works supervisors, but it really was only used for parades and such.
Yup and now all General motors offers is FWD unibody junk, well to be fair everybody does and nobody is smart enough to build a body on frame car any more.
It’s too bad they had to discontinue these cars, as well as the Zeta platform. Unfortunately it looks like GM will soon discontinue the FWD Impala as well from what I have heard. Large passenger cars are a dying breed which is unfortunate.
@@antoniostewart9302 If that's what you wanna call it... I never thought that I would see the day where I would be looking at a "LITTLE" impala, cadillac, ect…Shameful!!!
@@M0DFATH3R Same here. Somehow it looked like slightly smaller scale to my eyes, or maybe the guy was super tall. I thought it was just my eyes playing tricks.
I think the car is real with the dude...but it looks like they used that "Green Screen" effect that was big then. The other background stuff is illusion.
RIP Buick Roadmaster wagon with Corvette engine , mine did great power-slides in my neighborhood. 330foot-pounds at only 2400RPM , no wonder it would drift so well.
Anybody else think they missed something by not having red as an option for the Impala SS? I saw a red Caprice and thought that red would have looked good on these years.
My '95 9C1 Caprice (black/ruby interior) was built Fri., June 16th, 1995. I WAS THERE & helped in its final assembly. I was in Janesville, Wi. to witness it being off-loaded the train. I was @ the dealer when it was driven off the transport. It now has 299,000+ miles on the clock. It's had 5 sets of tires & 4 sets of brakes. It will still shift into 3rd @ 123. After I switched to full synthetic oil, I've attained 24.9 mpg. Trans. was rebuilt @ 180,000 miles, & the factory-installed Bilstein shocks lasted 210,000 miles. Ya'....you could say I got my money's worth....& then some. It's not goin' ANYWHERE! A personally-ordered cop car (have all the paperwork)....never law enforcement-owned.....quite the feat in itself if you're familiar w/GM's COPO program!
I want to go back in time to 1996. I would get an LT1 equipped wagon and turn it into a sleeper. I would also enjoy less political BS, be 24 years younger, and know what stocks to buy and what to bet on. Yeah, that sounds pretty awesome.
I love this video.I own a Buick roadmaster there cuzn same car just the Buick model.about to do a LS swap on my Roadmaster it's going to be a sleeper when u see it u say that slow Buick til u see the back of it when I take off.
what kind of ls I smoked ls engine equipped cars on my ss 95 but I rebuilt it and put some internal performance parts on maybe that's y they get smoked I don't know and is silent
@digitalfutur It may be a little faster, but it's not a true-to-form Impala. Body on frame, RWD, huge trunk. '94-'96 is the last generation of real Impalas, before the Wimpalas.
@@Uncle05Sam I agree somewhat. As much as I like this one. Its kinda hard to not fall for the 2006-2008 SS with the 5.3 (325 C.I.) I know that was FWD. But at least it had a high powered OHV V8.
@@extremedrivr it had the engine but that transmission was alot weaker than the 96 because it wasn't designed for it GM took it out of the V6 and FWD made it worse not to mention DOD failure....Too bad tho it had opportunity to be great .
GM has this thing of perfecting a platform after many years of tweaks and stumbling then completely drops it almost immediately afterwards. They never seem to commit to anything now.
@@operator91210 There have been some great cars that should just be made forever for being so durable and dependable. I think a lot of times unfortunately things come down to dollars and cents. I wish this was not the case.
In my opinion GM stopped building the B bodies because they were good sellers and the public loved them apparently GM hates selling what people want if you don't believe me look back at their history Ford manufactured the crown vic for 16 more years after Chevy discontinued the B bodies GM can't say there was no market for these vehicles Could you imagine what the next generation Caprice would've been like with a updated suspension,transmission and a 400 hp LS V8 but thanks to GM we will never know
>galiffrey: Along with the L99 from 94-96, there was a 260 Oldsmobile from 1975-82, and a super odd and rare Pontiac 265 cid from 1979-81. All were 4.3 V8.
I love my 96 Impala SS, but to be honest: Every todays mid-size car beats the impala/caprice in comfort, economics, reliability, power and driving comfort. The impala/caprice was a luxury car back then, but times have changed and the car industry improved
Stephan S It’s hard to admit it but even my buddy’s 4cyl 2016 malibu is a better ride in several ways...but my 96 impala gets compliments weekly, looks unique, sounds like a beast and is a great highway cruiser even in stock form. Hoping these cars will become pretty valuable some day!
Everybody sold their Impala SS years ago before the transmission went bad. The 4L60 trans was not designed for the requirements of the engine. Mine went bad at 85K miles, the dealer overhauled it but they said they will not give a warranty on it because its too complex to be fixed correctly. After that I couldn't keep up with a Honda Civic.
Stephan, that is the natural progression on most things. My mobile phone beats Alexander Graham bell version of a phone. But, modern cars do not beat the 96 Impala in comfort. I can and and able to quantify that. Measurement are verifiable and measurable. using , seismic observation, we can measure the difference on the same road of ride quality.
360Magnum - You are obviously a moron. I own three of these cars. My daily driver has 400,000 miles on it with the original engine and transmission. I also own two low-mileage Caprice B4U models which you wouldn't have a clue. The frame on these cars is the same one as used on the 1970 Chevelle SS but you drive a Dodge so you like being broken down and buying your parts from Gunter.