One of my favorite Chevrolets. Many of you already know this, but since they stopped production almost a decade ago (the same year I started this blog!), let’s recap. The Chevrolet SS was Chevy’s four-door sleeper: a rear-wheel-drive sedan with a Corvette-sourced 6.2 liter V8 hiding under styling so plain it looked like a Malibu. It wasn’t totally American — it was a rebadged Holden Commodore, built in Australia and imported here for exactly four model years, 2014 through 2017, before Holden shut the factory down entirely. GM only brought in 12,924 of them total. And if you wanted a manual transmission — the one enthusiasts actually wanted, or should have wanted — you were choosing from an even smaller pile. The stick wasn’t offered until 2015, and across the three years it was available, only 2,645 SS’s got one, about one in five.
Today, CarMax has eight Chevrolet SS models on its lots, and two are the more coveted manual transmission unicorns – a 2016 above and a final year 2017 below. Back in 2017, when these were still available new and a couple of months into blogging, I wrote this crappy simple post to note CarMax had a whopping 24 Chevrolet SS models in inventory. I even drove a new one and loved it, but instead bought Etta, my used Porsche 911. It was an $18,000 savings and I am too vain to drive a Chevy when I could have a 911.
MSRP was about $48,000 when new, and at times, these were deeply discounted to move them on. The final-year enthusiasts panicked, ordered a bunch, and even more manual transmission ones than before. In 2016, only 711 manuals were sold, and in 2017, that number increased to 1,310. Makes our 2016 model rarer, perhaps offset by 2017 being the final year?
Inside, both cars carry the same well-equipped-for-the-money spec Chevy gave every SS regardless of year: leather seating with heated and ventilated front seats, an 8-inch touchscreen with navigation and a 9-speaker Bose stereo, a head-up display, remote start, and memory seat settings. The safety suite is surprisingly modern for a car this age — forward collision alert, lane departure warning, blind-spot monitoring, rear cross-traffic alert, and automated parking assist all came standard. What you won’t find is Apple CarPlay or Android Auto — the infotainment system predates both. It’s a handsome GM interior.
The 2016 shifter on the left above looks standard – the 2017 on the right is modified with an eight-ball grip. For what it’s worth. The 6.2-liter motor below made 415 naturally aspirated horsepower. Car and Driver’s testing confirms the numbers: 0–60 mph in 4.5 seconds, the quarter-mile in 13.0 seconds at 111 mph, and 0.96g on the skidpad — figures that put the SS ahead of a V8 Dodge Charger R/T and within range of the more aggressive Scat Pack, despite giving up nearly a liter of displacement to the Hemi. They also called the SS “…a V-8-powered aberration to GM’s four-door plan…” and said it “…had staffers talking resurrected E39-generation BMW M5…” – not bad company.
Both of these cars are one-owner, accident-free CarMax unicorns. They’re not cheap, but when I look at the dozen manual transmission Chevrolet SS’s on Autotrader today (nine of which are 2017 models), they are comparably priced. Hell, there’s even a 2017 6MT with only 920 miles on it selling for $75,000! Of our two here, the 2016 has 46,000 miles and is offered at $45,998, and the 2017 has a very low 18,000 miles, and is $9,000 more. There were no changes between the 2016 and 2017 models, other than the paint chart — “Orange Blast Metallic” (my fav) and “Nightfall Gray Metallic” in, “Some Like It Hot Red Metallic”, “Jungle Green Metallic”, and “Mystic Green Metallic” were dropped. Clearly, White survived.
The 2016 Chevrolet SS above spent its life in Bellevue, Washington, and is offered here in Puyallup, Washington. Stock No. 70075651 VIN: 6G3F25RW0GL228603
The 2017 model below has always been in Salt Lake City, Utah, and is for sale here at CarMax Salt Lake (South Jordan), Utah. Stock No: 70072052 VIN: 6G3F25RW1HL300801
MaxCare? You can buy it for another five years of coverage and up to 150,000 miles – stunning to cover a nine-year-old Chevy for another 132,000 miles of driving! Is it needed?  The LS3 is a proven, simple pushrod V8 — not a warranty-anxiety motor on its own — but both cars are now roughly a decade past GM’s factory coverage, so it’s a reasonable hedge on the 46k-mile 2016, less necessary on the 18k-mile 2017 in my opinion. The cars have Magnetic Ride Control (MRC) adaptive suspension and Brembo brakes – neither of which would be covered under MaxCare anyway – but not too much else expensive, sophisticated stuff that would be covered. Maybe save the MaxCare money for when the MRC goes?
