Don't really put alot of stock of anything that comes out of the lounge.

The Impala name is going to be on a FWD/AWD sedan due out year after next, and is tied to the Oshawa assembly plant.

There is alot of logic in using names that would standardize Chevrolet lines around the globe. That would open Lumina and Caprice names for a VE or WM Chevrolet.

As has been learned before, using historic names that have been gone a long time is risky. Like the name "Charger", there's going to be a vocal (and wrong) group who feel the "Chevelle" name should be on a coupe. But then there's the honest question : "should the Chevelle name be on the top flagship of the Chevrolet line"??

Not likely.

Again, Caprice, seems to be by far the best and most logical choice.

That would be like putting a Grand Prix above a Bonneville, or placing a CTs above a DTS or STS, don't ya think?

 

I would actually want to buy a sedan if it looked like that!

 

Thank god for Bob Lutz, and if this thing indeed does show up as a Caprice, THIS is a car that would attract the attention of some of us Pontiac loyalists.

THIS is a car I'd trade the Comp G for...not a Malibu, certainly not an Impala. Well done, Mr. Lutz. I agree with what someone else said though...was it not for Lutz, this wouldn't happen...which tells me too many in the new GM STILL may not get it...

 

The hood scoop doesn't do anything for me, personally and the grille is just subtly different than the mid-east Lumina grille. I do like the twinned taillights a lot though. If the car is indeed rushed to get here, this element will most likely not be part of the package - whether the pics are "quasi-official" I don't know, but they may well be just photochops in which case the taillights are pure fiction.

I could (happily) live with the Lumina (err, Caprice - at least here), as is, with the stand up wing and squared off openings in the lower front grille for the lights, but those twinned taillights are cool, IMO - well at least at that angle and on a car that colour anyway.Could just as easily look goofy if it were reality.

So, I suppose another minor change from the Lumina/Commodore would be the inclusion of the side marker lights in the front bumper - I think the car looks better without them and I'm not 100% sure why the G8 needed them, the headlight assembly with what appears to be a side marker light wraps around into the fender and there's a signal repeater in the fender grille - must be a DOT requirement(?).

So would using the Lumina bumper as is require federalization before the car could be imported, even though the G8 was essentially the same vehicle?

 

+1, I second this....

 

Same....when I hear caprice....I cant help but think of the **** box rusted out junkers that I see driving around from the 90's and 80's But I would rather have the G8 come back as that then go away at all!

 

I have to agree with Johnny. Any possible cache the caprice name might have in the 50-something crowd has to be more than canceled out by the millions of ho-hum caprices of the 80s-90s. I'd say the same for the impala name.

IMO, G8 needs a new name on a chevy floor. While i agree G8 was a stupid name for it as a pontiac (since grand prix or bonneville could have also worked, and were at least interesting, if imperfect cars), the idea of recycling one of the lackluster badges in recent chevy history on the G8 would be suicidal.

I say that because, while i know this is anecdotal, the people i know who have bought G8s have been cross shopping with BMW 3 series, the CTS, the inifinitti G, with some consideration to the charger and even mustang if they weren't locked in to a sedan. G8 buyers are not 'plain brown wrapper sedan' buyers, which is what impala/caprice/lumina have been reduced to in all their most recent iterations.

 

I see your point, but what a reversal it would be to give this car the name Caprice and have it disprove misconceptions. Same name, new game.

Honestly, GM faces an uphill battle with every vehicle they produce - I think we may have reached a point where there's really nowhere else to go but up. So why keep tossing out the old names for sterile monikers like G6 and yes, G8? You know, if the car is positioned as a premium car than it may well be out of the reach of a younger crowd anyway. That doesn't mean it has to be styled or packaged for the 50+ club though.

Realistically the old b-body was not really all that ho-hum, IMO, it was reliable, represented decent value for the money and was usually good for about a quarter million in sales numbers every year - give or take, until the beached whale redesign for 91. Then things changed for the worse.

The problem with the old Caprice was that it was based on a thoroughly antiquated platform that was destined for retirement in the early 80s - platform-wise there was no substantial re-engineering carried out after 77 and the basic structure dated back to the mid 60s. It didn't get anything even remotely sporty until the advent of the 9C1 setup and Impala SS came to the mass-market. The old-fart interior styling certainly didn't help. From 77-90 the interior restyles consisted of swapping out gauge modules and fine-tuning the fake wood grain or metallic-look strip on the dash. 91-96 wasn't much better - still aimed at the seniors crowd. Chevy was finally on to something in 96 when they replaced the digital dash and tree shifter for the real guages and console shifter - but it was the end anyway and only in the SS.

IMO, the Commodore/G8 is different from any Caprice produced after the 81 refresh (and arguably before it, although the Caprice was pretty contemporary back then), it's completely modern inside and out with clean styling, details and touches commonly found on European products and aimed at a younger demographic while preserving features that were seemingly aimed previously at a more senior crowd (here) - large footprint, v8 rear drive powertrains and roomy interiors.

Although the car is somewhat familiar now as the G8, it could still blow away any notions linking the old school Caprice with the new one. This one is not your Grandfathers Caprice - but it could be, and he'd be pretty cool.

 

Caprice is boring.

Sorry.

I agree with some of the others, come up with something fresh, new and exciting.

 

Hey, I do agree on the Caprice name, but it's not a big deal, for me anyway. I could live with it. I think Lumina is much worse and I'm just not sure Chevelle is the ticket either.

Maybe just leave the home market name on it - Commodore. At least it would be new to us.

I guess we don't know at this point if it's planned/hoped to be a single model or a model with a range of trim levels...

 

My comment wasn't aimed directly at you... sorry if it came off that way... just a general comment.

I agree about the other names as well... Chevelle, even though ti might fit, would get blasted like GTO did...

More reasons for a fresh new name...

 

Nah,..... no sweat, we're good.

I'm not die-hard fan of the Caprice name, I was just trying to put some positive light on it since it looks like that's the name Chevy will use going forward. (if it goes forward).

I agree about Chevelle, it kinda looks like people have an even more twisted memory of what a Chevelle was than a GTO - if that's possible.

As for what would be THE name could be, I really dunno....

 

I think most people would see the last B-Body RWD Impala SS as a top of the line car compared to the Caprice it shared platforms with.

 

Neat idea, except even a 32yo GM fan like me would have serious reservations about a stodgy name like caprice. I can't imagine someone whose first preference is for eurotrash even giving a caprice a second thought. Image is EVERYTHING in the sports sedan crowd, otherwise they'd be buying camrys.

 

well i'm 32 as well and i'd have no issues buying that car if it was named caprice.