Impala

General Motors (GM) announced that it will discontinue manufacturing the Impala in 2021. The announcement made me think of my early years in Midland, TX.  

The Impala is the GM workhorse.  It is more of a utility vehicle than a luxury car.  The Impala is a sedan and somewhat of a larger car.  It has plenty of leg room in the back seat. The engine was a V-8, a powerful engine. The trunk was deep and spacious.  

In short, an ideal company car.  When I was growing up in Midland, Texas many of the oil firms offered company cars to select employees.  Usually these were Impalas. 

The company car was one of the best benefits offered to an employee.  In essence you had a second car you did not directly pay for.  The only negative was that no one else in the family could drive it, but that seems like a minor nuisance to me.  You could almost always tell who had one. It was a Impala, Biscayne (discontinued in 1972), Caprice, or a Ford.  As I recall, they were usually white.  


Of course that what when industry offered employees company cars.  You see very little of that today. It is an expensive perk.  Now, we get mileage for using our own cars or a car allowance.  

I remember my father's 1973 Impala. It was white with a blue interior and very comfortable. This is a picture of the 1973 Impala.  It sure was a good company car.