I had a '79 Impala wagon for 11 years. It had a 350ci V8 with 4-bbl Rochester carburetor. 3-speed automatic and a Positraction rear axle. Classy two-tone grey/silver paint, set off by the factory chrome roof rack. I added air shocks to overcome the comical rear-bumper dragging. The front wheels could be turned very sharply, which made it reasonably manoeuvrable though certainly not nimble.
The main use of the car was for group trips up the farthest nastiest logging roads in BC's mountains for hiking and skiing the untracked wilderness up there. With a load in the back and the Positraction it was almost as good as having 4wd. (Useless with no weight in the back) It was as comfy as a limousine and as useful as a pickup. The quality was certainly good enough, with the only headaches being rust and defoliating paint.
Having 5-6 people in two wide seats made for lively conversations, as opposed to the isolation between front and third rows in vans, or the lower number of participants in small cars. I recall plowing through deep snow with it on an "end of the earth" remote road with 6 passengers, 8 overnight backpacks, and 10 sets of ski gear. (We were accompanied by a Saab owned by someone who would not carry skis because he was afraid of scratching his car.)
Though the wagon was tough enough for that sort of abuse, changing forestry regulations resulted in deep cross-ditches being dug across deactivated logging roads, and the wagon just couldn't get through them. Replaced with a Pathfinder. The Aussies who bought the wagon from me drove it to Alaska, and then sold it in Nova Scotia.
For what it was designed to do, it was quite a good car. Had those wagons evolved into packaging like the Ford Freestyle, they might have avoided or delayed extinction.
