1996 Chevrolet Impala SS: the final, largest year

Wikipedia gives 41,941 Impala SS sold for 1996 and states that production ran late into the calendar year, with the last car built on December 13, 1996, a run this record's own dek describes as both the final and the largest model year for the nameplate.¹

That 41,941 total splits into three color-specific rows this record carries with their own counts: 19,085 Black, 12,180 Dark Cherry Metallic, and 10,676 Dark Green-Gray Metallic, all three summing exactly to the year's total as given by both Wikipedia and the Engine Factory page they come from. This record's own production note is careful to add that these color figures come from a single commercial engine-rebuilder page rather than a factory document, so they are reported rather than independently verified, and separately flags that Wikipedia's own three-year total for the Impala SS run, 69,768, does not actually equal the sum of its own yearly figures, which add to 69,678. An unpublished lead notes that an Impala SS Forum thread gives a slightly different 1996 total, 41,934, with the same three-way color split otherwise, but that thread was seen only as a search snippet rather than read in full, so this record does not carry it as a confirmed alternative total. The best missing primary source, GM or Arlington assembly production records or the GM Heritage Impala SS information kit, could not be retrieved due to a website access error.^2,1

Chevrolet's 1996 order guide, revised January 29, 1996, gives a manufacturer's suggested retail price of $24,995 for the Impala SS sedan, model 1BL19, stated as including destination and handling charges, alongside a $490 price for Preferred Equipment Group 1. The LT1 5.7-liter V8 with sequential-port fuel injection is rated 260 hp, with a 330-lb-ft torque figure drawn from Wikipedia; this record's own engine note explains that the factory sheets it draws on give horsepower only, so the torque figure comes from a separate kind of source than the power rating beside it. The only transmission documented is an electronically controlled four-speed automatic, standard equipment.^1,2

A short list of regular-production options is documented for the year: the 1SF base preferred equipment group, listed at no charge; the 1SE Preferred Equipment Group 1 at $490, bundling an automatic day/night mirror, an illuminated right-hand visor mirror, a passenger six-way power seat, and Twilight Sentinel; the K05 engine block heater; the UN0 ETR AM/FM stereo with a compact disc player, automatic tone control, a digital clock, and theft lock; the A23 heat-reflective windshield; and the YF5 California emissions option.

Three exterior colors are documented, Black, Dark Cherry Metallic, and Dark Green-Gray Metallic, matching three paint codes from the order guide, 41U, 77U, and 18U in the same order. The interior is documented as a single gray leather 45/45 seat under code 143, with the order guide's own trim entry stating that seat option AS7 must be specified separately for that code to be selected. No specifications, no performance-test data, and no identification detail were found in an accessible documented source for the year, so those sections carry nothing further in this record beyond the production, price, engine, option, paint, and interior data already described.²