Impala SS vs the Standard Impala

The base Impala was Chevrolet's volume seller, built for families who wanted style without fuss. Bench seats, a column shifter, a soft ride tuned for comfort over corners. It sold in huge numbers because it did exactly what most buyers wanted from a full-size car in that era, which was to be quiet, comfortable, and reliable.

What the SS package actually added

The Super Sport option dressed the same body in bucket seats, a center console, and SS badging that told the world the buyer paid extra to say so. Underneath, the SS was mostly a trim package rather than a mechanical one. The 1961 original, with its mandatory suspension and engine upgrades, and the SS427 of 1967 to 1969, with its heavy duty suspension and front sway bar, were the exceptions. In 1962 and 1963 the SS could be ordered with any engine on the list, from the base six up to the big blocks, and by 1967 the SS427 option put a 385 hp 427 behind the badge.

None of that made the SS a different car in the way a Corvette was a different car from a sedan. It was the same platform, dressed differently and tuned differently, aimed at a buyer who wanted to feel something behind the wheel instead of just getting somewhere in comfort.

The ride difference nobody expects

Here is the part that surprises people who have only read about these cars and never driven both back to back. The standard Impala often rides more comfortably than the SS. On the SS427 cars, the heavy duty suspension and front sway bar that make the car feel planted in a corner also transmit more of the road into the cabin over a long highway stretch. My uncle ran a standard Impala for fifteen years specifically because he hated how the SS he test drove beat him up on washboard roads. He was not wrong about what he felt, he just wanted a different car than the one his neighbor bought.

What the interior actually tells you

Sit in a standard Impala and then sit in an SS from the same year and the difference registers before the engine even turns over. The bench seat in a standard car puts three people across the front in a pinch, which mattered to a lot of families in an era when one car often had to do everything. The SS bucket seats and console mean two people up front and cargo or a small child in the middle if you are stretching the definition, but they hold a driver in place through a corner in a way a bench seat never will. That single difference in seating tells you almost everything about which buyer each car was built for.

The instruments tell a story too, though not quite the way most people assume. A standard Impala driver watched a few warning lights and trusted the car to tell them when something serious happened. The SS did not automatically change that. A special instrumentation package was a separate option that added a tachometer and extra engine gauges, and the buyers who checked that box were the ones who wanted to watch the car's behavior rather than just react to a warning light after the fact.

Trim, badges, and how to tell them apart today

Decades later, plenty of standard Impalas have been dressed up with SS trim, badges, and bucket seats pulled from parts cars or reproduction catalogs. None of that is illegal or even dishonest if the seller is upfront about it, but it does mean a buyer cannot trust badges alone. From 1964 through 1967 the SS cars had their own VIN prefix, so the VIN itself shows whether they left the factory as an SS. For other years, original build paperwork such as the dealer invoice or build sheet is what shows whether a car left the factory with the SS option or picked it up later from a swap meet.

"I have watched a man argue for twenty minutes that his plain Impala rides better than my SS, and the thing is, he is right, and I still would not trade."

- Wayne Coburn

Engine choices tell the same story

Look at the engine order sheets from either car and the difference in intent becomes obvious fast. The standard Impala buyer typically checked the box for whatever six cylinder or small V8 kept the monthly payment reasonable, because the car was transportation first and image a distant second. The SS buyer skewed toward the biggest engine on the sheet, because the whole point of paying extra for the package was to have something worth bragging about at the drive-in. That is not a judgment on either buyer. It is just two different reasons to walk into the same showroom.

Resale value has followed that same split for decades now. A standard Impala with a small engine holds value as a solid, honest driver, but it rarely commands headline prices at auction. An SS with a documented big block engine and clean history is a different animal entirely in the marketplace, and the price gap between the two has only widened as the collector world has put more weight on performance history.

Which one is actually right for a buyer

The choice between a standard Impala and an SS comes down to what an owner actually wants to do with the car. Long comfortable cruises with a family in the back seat favor the standard car every time. A car meant to be driven with some enthusiasm, shown at events, or simply enjoyed for its image favors the SS. Neither is a wrong answer, and neither is objectively the better car. They were built for different Saturdays.

• Standard Impalas are more common and generally cheaper to buy and maintain
• SS models command a real premium, especially with documented big block engines
• Ride comfort favors the standard car more often than people expect
• Always verify SS badging against the VIN and original paperwork rather than trusting trim alone

For readers who want the full arc of how the Super Sport package came together and where it went from there, the whole picture lays out that history in detail. And if you are shopping either version right now, you can find a classic Impala and compare what standard and SS cars are actually asking in today's market.

My advice after years of listening to both sides argue at car shows: buy the one that matches how you actually want to drive, not the one with the badge everyone recognizes. The standard Impala and the Impala SS were never in competition with each other. They were built for two different owners who happened to shop the same showroom, and both of them made a perfectly reasonable choice for what they actually wanted out of a Saturday afternoon behind the wheel.

Sources and notes

• Impalas.net: 1967 Impala SS vs a Regular 67
• Impalas.net: HD Coil Springs on 1963 Impala SS
• Chevy Hardcore: When Is An Impala Not An Impala? The SS427
• Barn Finds: 1962 Chevrolet Impala SS Sport Sedan
• Wikipedia: Chevrolet Impala

Updated November 4, 2026: Corrected: the gauge package was a separate option rather than standard on the SS, heavy duty suspension came standard only on the SS427, and the 1962 and 1963 SS could be ordered with any engine. The SS option history and the VIN note for 1964 to 1967 cars were fixed too.