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The Chevrolet Impala is an automobile built for the Chevrolet division by General Motors. Ed Cole, Chevrolet's chief engineer in the late 1950s, defined the Impala as a "prestige car within the reach of the average American citizen". For many years, the Impala was the best-selling automobile in the United States, and its 1965 sales of over one million units still stands as a record.
The Impala name was first used for the Corvette-based show car for the 1956 General Motors Motorama. Painted emerald green metalic, with a white interior, the Impala featured hardtop styling.
The Impala was introduced in 1958 as a new upmarket, sporty trim package created for Bel Air coupes and convertibles. Unique to the model were its six taillights, which set it apart from lower trim levels with only two lights on a side. This classic styling cue would become its trademark. It was named for a southern African antelope.
The Impala became a separate model in 1959 in both two and four-door versions and became the best-selling car in the Chevrolet lineup. For 1960, it became the best-selling automobile in the United States and held that position for the next decade.
From 1958 until 1966, Impala sales were in excess of 13 million units, more than any other full-size car in the history of the automobile. In 1965, the Impala set an all-time industry annual sales record of more than 1 million units in the U.S., which has never been bettered. Wikipedia |
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