The Chevy Caprice Classic Over The Years

The long, successful life of the Chevy Caprice Classic was on display in various styles and designs, and it proved a real winner for the company from the time it debuted back in 1965 until it ended its run after the 1996 model. The car served GM well, and its many customers took to it with enthusiasm for four generations and a number of body and engine/transmission changes.

The Caprice Classic as a vehicle meant to appeal to as many buyers as possible couldn't be said to have been other than a success, and it was Chevy's most expensive full-sized vehicle from its creation, which the division worked hard to keep equipped with all the good things buyers in that segment came to demand from a big car.

The Caprice sported only 8-cylinder engines - both big and small block - over the course of its first two generations of life, and it wasn't until the third that an inline-6 cylinder was offered in an attempt at increasing fuel economy, which up until that point had never been its strong suit. Perhaps its most radical change came in 1977, when the Caprice Classic was totally redesigned and reduced in overall dimensions.

The new changes proved to be a great success with the buying public, and buyers took to the modern, boxy-looking vehicle with enthusiasm. This look would be the standard until 1990. Cops loved the big Chevy, too, and many police departments looked at the Caprice as the perfect vehicle for their needs due to its body and engine combination (body-on-frame and V8) and large rear seat.

As the luxury offering in the Caprice line, the Caprice Classic did its job well and with a great deal of aplomb, never straying far from the top of the Chevy price lists for full-size cars. Its final offering resulted in it appearing in another new redesign, though it carried over nicely-powered V8 engines to the point it offered a detuned Corvette mill.

Never a vehicle that conceded anything in the way of interior room, the Caprice Classic continued to be a favorite not only of consumers - though fragmentation of the market meant that sales would never be as robust as during the vehicle's 1970s and 1980s heyday - but of cops everywhere. It also carried on in station wagon form until the end of its life.

Generally speaking, the Chevy Caprice Classic disappeared from the American market after the end of the 1996 model year. The nameplate, though, carries on over in the Middle East, where a Caprice Classic-badged model from a General Motors Australian subsidiary sells well. The big Chevy, as iconic a vehicle as Chevy has ever sold, played well to Americans for over three decades and is still missed by many.