Chevrolet SS: The Last of Its Kind and a Performance Bargain

One could argue that two of the best "if you know, you know" cars of the 2010s were products of General Motors. Interestingly, these ultimate sleepers were fashioned in rapid succession by the final remnants of "Old GM" and the new guard of "current GM." After retiring what's arguably Bob Lutz' greatest hit, the Cadillac CTS-V Wagon, a 556-horse Nürburgring slayer that has since become a cult classic, the fresh-faced brass of The Renaissance Center wasted no time in taking a page out of the Maximum Bob playbook to cook up its own under-the-radar legend.

In a mid-aughts last-ditch effort to revitalize Pontiac, Lutz spurred GM to start importing and rebadging rear-wheel-drive Australian muscle cars. Unfortunately, the economic downturn that closed out the decade with a gut punch to the automotive sector cut those plans short. Pontiac was shuttered in 2009, and along with it, the greatest of these wild Australian tire-shredding "Pontiacs," the VE-generation Holden Commodore-based, LS3-powered G8 GXP, was lost to the North American market after one short model year.

Almost immediately after the big GXP's demise, the gossip mill started churning out rumors of its return, though this time it was to wear a Bow Tie in place of its native Lion or briefly adopted Pontiac "Dart." The rumors were right: It'd take some time, but the Chevrolet SS was on its way.

Post-bankruptcy, a more financially sorted General was ready to make good, this time using the updated 2014 "VF" Commodore. The Zeta platform that underpinned the VE was revamped for this next generation, becoming both lighter and stiffer in the process.

Chevy debuted the somewhat confusingly named SS at the 2013 Daytona 500, and announced that the nameplate would take the baton from the Impala for Chevy's NASCAR efforts. The association with NASCAR made sense-in the SS, Chevy once again had a thumping big, rear-wheel drive, V-8-powered sedan.

The 2014 model year saw the SS and its 415-horse 6.2-liter engine arrive in showrooms. Its Australian lineage was apparent in the overall design, but a lot had changed since the G8. Electronics and interior materials were thoroughly upgraded, and an impressive list of standard equipment filled the one fully loaded trim level. The spec sheet included a color head-up display, heated and ventilated 10-way power-adjustable sport seats, reverse camera, and parking sensors. The only options were a full-size spare and a sunroof.

Conspicuously absent from the 2014 cars, though, was the ability to row your own gears. That was cured the next model year with the addition of a six-speed manual as a no-cost option. That wasn't the only thing Chevy's engineers added to the list-Brembo calipers and GM's excellent Magnetorheological dampers were now available as well. Continued tinkering brought dual-mode exhaust, LED running lights, a set of de-chromed wheels, and functional hood vents to the party in 2016. The SS' final year, 2017, added several new colors.

Other than "outstanding to drive" (so much so that it earned numerous favorable in-period comparisons to the all-time sport sedan benchmark BMW E39 M5), and perhaps "difficult to differentiate from a Hertz-spec Malibu," the expression most closely associated with the four-door SS was "value." The only family-friendly car available with the holy grail naturally aspirated V-8, three-pedal, rear-wheel drive combination started life around $45,000 in 2014 and never wandered north of $50k before falling casualty to Detroit's retreat from Down Under in 2017.

When the sun set on the SS after gifting the U.S. with an improved four-year do-over of that sweet GXP goodness, nobody called the 12,924-unit run a sales success-Dodge moved 374,285 Chargers in the same window. But for those in the know, the Australian-American Q-ship was as irreplaceable as the smile it plastered on their respective faces while going undetected by law enforcement.

Resale values immediately reflected the SS' cult status, too. Early on, drivers could put a healthy dose of mileage on one without taking a penny off of its MSRP on the secondhand market. During the boom of 2021, when other recently-retired low-production analog domestic heroes were setting records, an under-enjoyed SS Sedan sold for more than $64K, but by and large, they've been the model of consistency, hovering between 40 grand and around 55 "boxes of ziti" for an exceptional specimen.

Hagerty valuation data for the SS bear this out. Given the car's limited production, stellar reputation, and small but ardent following, it's tough to find a "cheap" SS. Cars that are solid drivers but need a little care (#4 "good" condition) are valued in the mid-20K range, but the SS is an instance where most owners actually do know what they've got, and therefore keep their cars in better-than-good condition.

And then, of course, there is the top of the SS market. The 2015-17 cars are worth more because of their additional performance options, with the final model year coming in at the top of the heap. A 2017 SS in #1 (concours) condition is valued at $55,400 in the Hagerty Price Guide, but if you add the 15 percent premium that manual-equipped cars commmand, that number swells to $63,710.

A concours-quality car of any kind is a rarity-this rating represents better-than-new condition-so it's not a regular occurrence (aside from superheated markets like the one we saw three year ago) that a car tests that value. But one recent listing of an SS caught our eye for that very reason-Monroe, Washington's aptly named Speedway Chevrolet listed a final-year SS with just 945 miles for $62,995. A mere four days after posting, the car was no longer in their online inventory, so an SS afficiando may well have paid up to have one of the lowest-mile, cleanest examples in existence. We're unable to verify the sales price of a private transaction so this won't factor into Hagerty's data, but it does stand as a noteworthy marker for the general health of the SS market.

This car's highly desirable specification deserves an assist in the stat sheet. Out of the 2645 total manual SSs brought to our shores between '15 and '17 (that figure represents 20.5 percent of overall production; for the 2017 model year, 32.7 percent were manuals), this example was one of 735 (302 in '17) painted Phantom Black. That put it in the enviable position of wearing the most popular color in its select group of enthusiast specials. Top it all off with the sunroof option that was selected by 87% of all SS customers, and you've got a rare but popularly specced-as opposed to the less boast-worthy "rare because nobody wanted one like it"-slice of the SS pie.

Speaking of popularity, the SS is an intergenerational hit. Millennials make up the largest share of SS buyers seeking qoutes from Hagerty at 37.5 percent, while Gen X and boomers follow with 29.5 percent and 21.9 percent, respectively. Interest from Gen Z is on the rise, too, up nearly eight percentage points in just two years.

It's not particularly surprising to see stable prices in the meat of the SS market, along with healthy asking prices and sales of superior examples. Unless longshots happen, like GM giving the Cadillac CT4-V Blackwing an LT2 V-8, Toyota granting the IS500 access to the Supra's manual transmission, or the mythical Mustang sedan comes to fruition with a manual, Chevy's SS will stand as the last of its most excellent breed.