Chevrolet Impala sales were down every year from 2010 until the end of production in February of 2020. Sadly, consumers clearly want SUVs, trucks, and crossovers rather than actual cars and the sales numbers don’t lie. The seller has this 1966 Chevrolet Impala wagon posted here on craigslist in the Phoenix, Arizona area and they’re asking $20,000. Here is the original listing and thanks to T.J. for sending in this tip!
This is such a great look, in my opinion. I like the smaller wheelcovers much better than full covers to expose those nice black rims. I would have thought that this base-level look would be more for a lower model than an Impala but it works very well for me. My dad had a similar era company car (1968) in this same color so I have fond memories of the fourth-generation full-sized Chevy sedans. Although, I think his company car was a Bel-Air if I remember right. He also had a ’65 Bel-Air sedan in gold with a white top.
The fourth-generation Impala was made for the 1965 through 1970 model years and they’re by far my favorite generation of the series for Chevrolet, how about you? This example is an Impala Series 64, style number 35 which is a nine-passenger wagon. Oddly enough, the nine-passenger wagon was cheaper than the six-passenger wagon by around $100 in 1966.
This Impala wagon has 92,500 miles on it according to the seller, and it’s a solid, rust-free car – it sure looks great in the photos. Hagerty lists a #2 excellent condition six-passenger wagon as being worth $15,200 but this is a nine-passenger wagon. I can’t imagine that the price goes up that much for the extra seat in the rear compartment. We don’t see the extra seat but the other seats look nice if not an exact match to what would have been original. You can see that it could use new windlace in the photo of the back seat.
The engine is Chevrolet’s 327 cubic-inch V8 which with a four-barrel carb would have had 275 horsepower and 355 lb-ft of torque. It appears to have a new water pump and the seller mentions that it has fairly new tires, a new battery, carb rebuild, and it runs and drives great. It’s backed up by a Powerglide two-speed automatic transmission and this would just be a fun cruiser. Any thoughts on this wagon?
Love it.
We had a ’66 Impala 9-passenger wagon with the 327 and Powerglide. Ours was a dark green color that was very common at the time. It took us on many enjoyable trips; my brother and I usually occupied the rear-facing back seat on those trips. It survived many years of abuse by teenage drivers, and became a party wagon when we added a homemade speaker box with two speakers between the middle and rear seats to blast tunes from the 8-track tape player. I think this one is the only ’66 Impala wagon I have ever seen with black wheels and lacking full-size wheel covers. This one would be brutal without A/C.
Now that is a Driver.
Never really liked the ’66. But loved the ’67. I remember as a kid back in ’72, my brother bought a beatup ’67 gold Impala with the 327 and that thing accelerated like a rocket. He only paid 300 bucks for it and kept it until ’77. Good memories.
I remember it was a hot and humid summer, we were all piled in the station wagon and dad something like, “We don’t need no stinkin’ air conditioning”!
Ah, good times.
It has a 760 a/c, doesn’t it?
Open 7 windows and do 60 mph.
Yes. Low Milage due to No AC in Phoenix Arizona. Thus Parked in the Garage till Nov. through Feb.
Cool car. I like that it doesn’t have the rooftop luggage rack but that’s a lot of car to maneuver without power steering. (I didn’t see a power steering pump in the two underhood pics). But I’d drive it after converting the front drums to disk brakes and maybe adding a newer four-speed automatic and a 3.55’ish geared positraction rear axle. It would make for a great highway cruiser.
Ours had the luggage rack, and it was frequently stacked three feet above the roof! We also had the wind deflector above the rear window. I thought at first that this one doesn’t have power steering, but I think I see an additional belt on the crankshaft snout in front of the water pump/alternator belt, so I’m guessing the P/S pump is mounted low on the driver’s side.
Yup, these have PS pump located below alternator on driver’s side. You can actually see the lower part of the pump + its pulley in the last pic. But the most obvious tell-tale sign is the plumbing going to the steering box
Yep, I see that now; I had not looked at the pictures in the Craigslist ad. It is strange that it doesn’t have power brakes.
Strange perhaps but not at all unusual – apart from the 327/PG and PS this longroof appears lowly optioned. The power window tailgate came with the 3seat package so it’s not a ‘real’ option. An all-drum setup usually requires fairly low input force so non-power brakes was still ‘adequate’ for many drivers by mid60s standards.
With that said a conversion to a power dual bowl brake setup with (at least) front discs would be one of my first upgrades
Those hubcaps are not from a ’66 Impala. My family had a ’68 Nova with the same hubcaps. Also, when you got hub caps in those days, the rims were painted the same color as the car, which makes me think this car originally had full wheel covers. If I had this car, I would probably put a set of trim rings on it to dress it up, or maybe put on a set of Chevy rally wheels.
I am a Moparhead but I like some of the big GM cars of the sixties, especially the 62’s and 65’s. I passed on a Maroon with black bucket/console 65 SS several years ago at a swapmeet, missing the motor and transmission but with a super solid body. It was a 400 hp 409 4speed car. I didn’t know they made 409 cars in 65 but they did in the very early part of the year. They only built 742 of them that year and 2086 of the 340hp cars. Probably worth a fortune, but I had to many cars at the time. Pity.
It’s nice to see a small block under the hood