For a long time the Impala was to Chevy what the Taurus (before they destoryed the nameplate) was to Ford...it's bread and butter family car and not much else. There were occasional performance models like SS and SHO, but 95 percent of the cars made were bland family transportation.

Sure Impala's weren't always FWD, but what mid-sized family car made today is RWD?

 

Yeah, but where's the 70's, 80's performance models? There weren't any, and the name was put on hold in the 80's I believe.
Impalas aren't supposed to be performance cars, their first and foremost family sedans, always were, always was. The 409, 427, and LT1 were the performance versions of the Impala, other then that, it's always been a family sedan first, performance second.

 

To add here, Impala was also the mid cost version of Chevrolet's full size cars once Caprice came out in 1965. SS as was pointed out is small potatoes to the rest of the Impala lineup.

If you think only of SS's and 409s with the name Impala, you are only considering a sliver of it's history. In 1969 (final year of production), out of 777,000 Impalas, less than 2500 were SSs. Impala SS's best year ever (1965) it still garnered about 30% of total Impala sales. Also, of 37 straight years of production, there was an SS model only 9 of them!

Like I always say, when toying around with names of the past, beliefs & reality are 2 different things. A few months ago, someone actually thought the Nova name should come back because it was a great muscle car name from the past!

Good source of Impala history & production figures:
http://www.goissca.org/imp_hist.htm

 

This is what I think of when I hear Chevy Nova http://www.bestforlessautos.com/cars/2503.jpg

 

I think a "productionized" hard top version of the BelAir concept...with a normally aspirated I5, would make an interesting modern Nova. Even if they don't call it "Nova".

 

now to counter point...though the Impy SS was made with a limited SS option run..compared to the volume sale..
Think of this..the marketing of it made you think of SS and 409...that made you go into the show room and say hey I want an Impala..and depending on your budget..your Impy was what you could afford...and the SS well I guess not to many people could go in and buy the SS..

so it works both ways....
and I remember seeing on Power Tour some guy made a 2 door Impy from the 80's an SS..really nice car too...

when did they bring the Impy back?? 78? till when 86???
it was on the Caprice platform I know..

 

I thought it died in the early 70's and didn't come back until the Impala SS in 94'.

 

The Impala ran until like '83 or '84 or '85. It disappeared and resurfaced as the Impala SS.
It was always built on the same chassis as the Caprice. As was the Bel Air and any other name variation they had for Chevy's version of the B-body.
The different names suggested different levels of equipment.

 

Impala went out of production after the 85 model year. It first appeared in 59 - My mother had one (an 85) but it was mine (and my first car at that) for all intents and purposes, since I was the only driver - a great car with plenty of great memories. Afterwards, they were replaced by the base Caprice model for 86. Theywere a sales maintstay, selling well over half a million units per year (not counting Biscayne, Bel Air and Caprice) for most of that run falling behind the Caprice in sales only in the (very) late seventies. The sales figures aren't within easy reach at this very moment, but they regulary matched Camry/Accord combined sales today. Too bad it's almost hard to believe that Chevy used to be a real (check that, THE) force in the market.

 

I dont see the need for Caddy to fit a different car into their lineup that would be a coupe. A CTC would fill that role perfectly, and a CTCv even better But with the new STS and still the big DTS, I'd say they touched their bases pretty well, you dont want to flood the market with 10 different Cadillacs.