Start with what the Chevrolet Impala is: a 2-door convertible / 2-door Sport Coupe (semi fastback hardtop) / 2-door Custom Coupe (formal hardtop) / 4-door hardtop / 4-door sedan (car) / sedan / 4-door station wagon with 250 cuin Chevrolet Turbo-Thrift engine#250, built from 1970 to 1976, as the oil crises and the first emissions rules rewired the industry. What it meant takes a little longer.
The background
The fifth generation of the Chevrolet Impala is a line of full-size cars produced by Chevrolet from the 1971 to 1976 model years. The largest generation of the model line, the fifth-generation Impala grew to a 121.5-inch wheelbase (125 inches for station wagons) The Impala was offered as a four-door pillared sedan, four-door hardtop (sport sedan), two-door custom coupe (sharing its formal roofline with the Caprice), two-door sport coupe (semi-fastback roofline, shared with other B-body coupes), and two-door convertible.
By the end of its production, the fifth-generation Impala had transitioned from a higher-trim version of the full-size Chevrolet sedan line to its base vehicle, as Chevrolet had ended sales of the Biscayne and Bel Air in the United States. For 1977, the Impala became the first primary sedan line of the Big Three automakers to undergo downsizing.
The engineering
The engine is 250 cuin Chevrolet Turbo-Thrift engine#250; other versions carried different engines, listed in the specification table below. Drive goes through a 2-speed Powerglide Automatic transmission / automatic / 3-speed manual transmission / manual / 3-speed Turbo-Hydramatic automatic. The layout matters: a front engine drives the rear wheels, the classic proportion — long bonnet, cabin set back — that most people picture when they picture a sports saloon or a grand tourer. The wheelbase is 121.5 in. These are manufacturer figures carried by Wikipedia and Wikidata, not road-test measurements.
Where it sits
In the Chevrolet line-up the Chevrolet Impala has a clear place: it replaced the Chevrolet Impala (fourth generation); it handed the line to the Chevrolet Impala (sixth generation); the factory was Doraville, Georgia. The cars a buyer would have weighed it against include the Suzuki Jimny, the American Motors Corporation AMC Gremlin, the Range Rover Range Rover. Its Chevrolet stablemates include the Chevrolet Adra and the Chevrolet C-10.
Owning one today
Buying one now means $7,900–$25,100 for a typical example, and running it — fuel and maintenance at its age — costs about $3,558–$7,502 a year. Insurance sits around $1,150–$2,200 a year. The figures are class-level estimates from the federal record, with the formula on the methodology page; the model-year pages carry complaints, recalls and repair costs year by year.