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Nobody ever accused the Chevrolet Impala of subtlety. Since 1958 it has been America's default full-size statement piece — cat-eye taillights and 348s, bubble tops and 409s, lowriders and LS swaps, and one very underrated LT1 sedan from the Clinton years. Right now there are 118 Impalas listed in the Motorious inventory, spanning nearly forty years of production and just about every subculture the nameplate ever spawned.
We went through all of them. Here are the ten coolest, from a $299,995 ragtop to a six-speed wagon that costs less than a new Malibu.
1. 1959 Chevrolet Impala Convertible — $299,995
If the 1959 Impala isn't the most dramatic shape Detroit ever mass-produced, it's on a very short list. The batwing rear quarters, the one-year-only cat-eye taillights, the jet-intake hood — nothing before or since looked like this. Ellingson Motorcars' example is a frame-off restored, bone-stock ragtop in Roman Red with 3,093 miles showing, powered by a Turbo-Thrust 348 big block with a single four-barrel and a factory-rated 250 horsepower. It's loaded with period options and backed by an upgraded TH350, which means the most theatrical car on this list is also one of the easiest to actually drive.
2. 1962 Chevrolet Impala Custom Show Car — $243,995
Four-time ISCA Custom Category champion, thousands of hours of hand-formed sheet metal, and 35 miles on the odometer since the build was finished. This is not a car that got customized — it's a car that got rebuilt as sculpture, wrapped in custom Chrysler Deep Blue and trimmed in blue Ultraleather. Under the hood sits a supercharged and intercooled 502 with aluminum heads and a blow-through Demon four-barrel. Inside, the transmission is push-button, the air-ride controller tilts out of the center stack, and the stereo rises out of the console on a power lift. Trophy cabinet included.
3. 1959 Chevrolet Impala LS3 Restomod — $171,995
The other way to do a '59. Built by Hot Rod Dynamics in North Carolina, this hardtop wears Green Metallic with just enough flake to catch light off those horizontal fins, and it sits on staggered 18-inch front and 19-inch rear wheels styled to mimic classic Chevy hubcaps — a detail that shouldn't work as well as it does. Underneath is modern LS3 power and the chassis to use it, so the car that once wallowed on bias plies now corners. Laser-straight panels, exceptional brightwork, 2,893 miles since completion.
4. 1958 Chevrolet Impala Lowrider — $128,995
You cannot tell the Impala story without lowriding, and you cannot tell lowriding's story without the Impala. This '58 — the first year the name existed, when it was still a Bel Air trim — is finished in metallic black with a full panel-style paint job, chrome engraving, and red-striped whitewalls. The interior is black and red vinyl. Under the hood is a 348 V8, the W-motor that started Chevrolet's big-block era. Two hundred miles since the build. It is, appropriately, the most menacing car in the entire Impala inventory.
5. 1967 Chevrolet Impala SS 427 Convertible — $112,995
Chevrolet built just 2,147 SS 427s for 1967. Finding one is hard; finding a convertible is a different order of difficulty. Smoky Mountain Traders' Marina Blue example came back from a frame-off restoration with a correct '67 427 — 3917215 heads, 3883948 intake, Quadrajet, and even the right distributor — mated to a 3885010 Muncie four-speed and a DM-code 12-bolt Posi with 3.73 gears. It has the F41 heavy-duty suspension the SS 427 package mandated, blue bucket-seat interior, and 15-inch Rallyes on Firestone redlines. Top down, 427 badges on the hood, four on the floor.
6. 1962 Chevrolet Impala SS 409/409 Convertible — $99,895
She's real fine, and she is numbers-matching. The Beach Boys wrote the song, but the 409/409 — 409 cubic inches, 409 factory horsepower, dual four-barrels — is the configuration that earned it. West Port Auto Center's Roman Red convertible pairs that engine with its original four-speed, wearing a full nut-and-bolt frame-off restoration down to factory-correct red oxide floors. Factory buckets and console, power top, power steering, factory wheels with spinner caps, correctly detailed trunk. Genuine '62 SS convertibles are scarce enough. A documented 409/409 four-speed one is the whole ballgame.
7. 1974 Chevrolet Impala Spirit of America — $79,900
Here is the deep cut. In 1974, with the malaise era settling in, Chevrolet built roughly 2,500 red-white-and-blue "Spirit of America" Impala Sport Coupes as a patriotic pick-me-up. Almost all of them were driven, rusted, and forgotten. This one has 290 miles. Not 290,000 — two hundred and ninety, since new, with complete original documentation and unbroken ownership history from day one. A 350 V8 under the hood and a white hardtop body that has essentially never been used. It's the closest thing to a time capsule in the entire listing.
8. 1961 Chevrolet Impala Bubble Top — $68,995
The 1961 bubble top is the connoisseur's Impala: a pillarless hardtop with a wraparound backlight so thin and so clean that NASCAR teams chose it for the aerodynamics. This one wears Corona Cream over a factory-correct fawn cloth and vinyl bench interior, and it's honest about being a driver — 93,134 miles — with a 350 running dual four-barrel carbs and a four-speed manual. That's the right recipe. Shiny enough for the show field, sorted enough that you'll actually take it there under its own power.
9. 1996 Chevrolet Impala SS — $44,995
Laughed at when it was new, blue-chip now. The 1994–96 Impala SS took a Caprice cop car, gave it the Corvette-derived LT1, dropped it an inch, and painted it in three colors that all looked like they came from a menace catalog. This is a 10,078-mile Dark Cherry Red Metallic example, factory-correct throughout: 5.7L LT1, 4L60E, 3.08 rear, four-wheel discs, light gray leather, 17-inch QA-style wheels. Low-mile B-bodies stopped being cheap several years ago and are not coming back. This is what a modern Impala classic looks like.
10. 1964 Chevrolet Impala Wagon — $29,995
The bargain of the bunch, and arguably the most fun. A '64 Impala wagon in red with a silver roof is already a great look; this one has a 5.7-liter fuel-injected V8 backed by a Tremec T56 six-speed manual, air ride you can dial in from a digital controller, power front discs, and an aluminum radiator with dual fans. A three-pedal LS wagon on bags, with a red vinyl bench interior and 30,407 miles, for under thirty grand. Load the cooler, drop the tailgate, embarrass somebody at a stoplight.
Prices and availability as listed at the time of writing. Browse the full Motorious inventory here.
