When you’re a teenager, you don’t realize how hard it is to be an adult. Sure, you may not have to go to class and do homework, but you do have to work, pay bills and taxes, eat something other than Doritos and Mountain Dew, and balance several personal and professional obligations all at once. There are advantages, though. You don’t have a curfew, you can make your own decisions, and that job of yours provides you the money to buy things you couldn’t afford when you had braces and acne. Comedian Gabriel Iglesias (aka “Fluffy“) knows that from experience. He’s buying cars he wanted when he was in high school in the 1990s. One of his most recent purchases is a 1996 Chevrolet Impala SS, which he made sure to show to Jay Leno.
After a long absence, the Impala SS returned to the Chevrolet lineup in 1994. The B-body combined a sinister monochromatic finish with a detuned Corvette LT1 V8, a Special Ride and Handling suspension package, and room for five people. Unfortunately, it only lasted until 1996, when Chevrolet updated it with fully analog gauges and a center console-mounted shifter for the 4L60E four-speed automatic. More than 41,000 ’96 Impala SSs left Chevy’s Arlington, Texas assembly plant, but by now, many of them have either been wrecked or driven a lot. Iglesias managed to find one with under 1,000 miles. Not only is the Black paint nice and shiny and the Gray leather interior factory-fresh, but the window sticker is still attached.
As Leno tells Iglesias, he prefers cars from 1975 and earlier because he doesn’t have to worry about them passing California’s strict emissions test. However, he does have a lot of love for his guest’s blacked-out muscle sedan. He praises the handling and drives it like it should be driven – with a heavy right foot. You’d expect that from a car guy like Leno, but apparently, Iglesias didn’t. Each time Leno gets on the throttle or fires the big-body cruiser through a turn, Fluffy is thankful his car still has plastic over the carpeting.
The 1996 model year was the end of an era. GM stopped producing its full-size, body-on-frame, rear-wheel-drive, V8-powered sedans, such as the Impala SS, Buick Roadmaster, and Cadillac Fleetwood, to focus on building SUVs. Fortunately, cars like those are gone, but forgotten or invisible. As Iglesias puts it, “I like that you still see this car out on the road.”
Source: www.classiccars.com