Chevy's 1958 offering was a shock to most fans of the maker as the body style was longer, lower, wider, and heavier. GM went on a fatso look in '58 and luckily Chevy and Pontiac were spared the "chrome dome" visage of Buick and Oldsmobile. Even so, the new car was a surprise to most fans, who expected a transitional change much like the 55-57 cars had been.

That was not to be, and while the '58 car was not radically styled, it was hard to relate it to the previous exciting designs. That and the recession hurt sales, but not as much as their brethren up the GM chain.

There was a lot of "new" besides the design; a frame (borrowed from the BOP line), a new big block 348 V-8 with tons more torque (needed to lug the heavyweight around), a new transmission, called Turboglide (a cross between the old Powerglide and Buick's Dynaflow), and a new upscale sports model called the "Impala". The Impala nameplate would remain in the Chevrolet stable until today - one of the longest running nameplates in America.

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