Back in the days before we were overwhelmed with beige khakis, computer parts, and more, to the extent beige is a metaphor for “boring”, Chevrolet decided it would be a suitable color to offer on their full-size B-body sedan. As the largest sedan offered by Chevrolet (and in fact, the largest sedan ever offered by them), it was suitable for all kinds of roles, including government, taxicab, demolition derby car, law enforcement, rental, and hogging the left lane of rural highways with the blinker on. There’s really no reason why a car with available V8s named TurboFire and TurboJet should have not also garnered the attention of driving enthusiasts, but that may have something to do with their ubiquity and emissions-strangled outputs. That said, it’s now unusual to see one of these low-spec Impalas, even in car friendly Western climates – after their usefulness as a transportation module disappeared, their reason for being did as well. Funny enough, that makes it a pleasant surprise to see this 1975 Chevrolet Impala for sale for $2800 in Norcross, GA.
Wow, that is so beige. 1980s computer parts might just blend in like a not-scary-at-all tiger in the shadows. Seemingly free of grandpa scrapes, perhaps the best thing about these cars is they bring back memories of iconic car chases in films of the 1970s and 1980s. And with the benefit of hindsight, there’s something fun about the idea of being able to fit yourself and 5 friends into one car – perhaps this would be the ultimate ironic carpool-mobile, if it weren’t for that nausea-inducing ride.
Skin tone seats mean you could drive it without clothes and nobody would see you, just like in some cheesy caper film of the 1970s. What is visible in these low-resolution pictures looks original and in good condition, with the only let-down being the lack of color-matching safety belts. For 1975, the speedometer got a readout up to 100mph as well as new metric readings – remember when we were all going to go metric by 1980? No? There was also an optional Econominder gauge package, though it’s not clear if this car is so equipped.
The car is said to drive well, and is equipped with the bottom-spec 350 engine. That 5.7-liter unit was good for 145hp and 250 lb.-ft. of torque, narrowly more than a 2.0-liter smog-spewing modern VW TDI, but with 900 extra pounds to drag around, and through a 3-speed 350 automatic at that. To make up for that, the engine is super-shiny, surely because of careful application of two spray bottles of Armor All elbow grease. As with the seat belts, Chevrolet made the disappointing choice for a black engine compartment, instead of a more attractive beige look. All that said, besides car-chase nostalgia, what do you see in this car?
Rusty But Trusty 
March 23, 2016 at 1:09 pm |
looks green to me. This seems like a serious deal to me, these cars have a strong demand from the folks who like to “donk” their rides and a clean one is tough to find; being near Atlanta I suspect it’s already sold or will be soon.
March 23, 2016 at 7:50 pm |
Ha, color blindness strikes again! Some of those muted greens really give me a hard time…
March 23, 2016 at 11:37 pm |
Haha! Yup, so beige it’s green. 🙂