Supernatural: 10 Things That Make No Sense About The Impala
Season 5 of Supernatural ends with Sam jumping into the pit and Dean retiring as a hunter to be with Lisa and Ben. During that finale episode “Swan Song,” Chuck narrates the history of the Impala and talks about all the ways the car affectionately dubbed “Baby” was a home for Sam and Dean. When Dean stops hunting (for about a year), the Impala sits under a tarp in his garage.
The 1967 car that has been through the ringer more than once at that point is inexplicable able to start right back up when soulless Sam comes looking for Dean’s help a year later. This and more are things that make no sense about the Impala.
10 John Gives Dean The Impala
In Season 1, Dean shows up at Sam’s place and convinces him to help find their father who has gone missing during a hunting trip. Dean has the Impala when he picks up Sam.
Later on, in the show, there are scenes that depict John’s acquisition of the Impala and how much he cared about the car. Yet he goes off on a hunt, leaving Dean behind, and doesn’t take the beloved car with him.
9 The Car Can Be Possessed
Constance, the “Woman in White” possesses the Impala in the pilot episode. Later, in season 6, another ghost possesses the car. In the episode “Changing Channels,” Sam technically possesses the Impala when Gabriel (a.k.a. The Trickster) sends Sam and Dean to an alternate reality where they are trapped in television shows.
In the vein of the famous “Knight Rider” series, Sam becomes the Impala version of KIIT from the iconic show. Fans have named this version of the Impala “Sampala.” There are a few other electronics that are possessed in the show but in the possession cases of the Impala, the possessions result in personification for the car. It becomes an entity similar to a person. This makes no sense.
8 The Endless Budget For Repairs
The Impala is crushed, crashed, rolled around, and driven thousands of miles past the average 1967 vehicle expiration date. Dean rebuilds the car over and over, more than once from the ground up. The brothers live on the road, often making the Impala their home.
They stay at Bobby’s house and use parts from his junkyard, but there are only so many 1967 Chevy parts to go around and they’re not likely to be found in the average South Dakota junkyard. Even with their apparent lack of funds for a place to live, the brothers still seem to have an endless budget to keep repairing this car.
7 Following Sam And Dean To New Dimensions
There are a few episodes where Sam and Dean end up in another Dimension. The Impala may not follow them to Hell, Purgatory, or the Apocalypse world, but it does go with them everywhere else and it appears to be intact every time. Somehow, the Impala just shows up and it works exactly the way it does in their regular dimension.
The only instance it isn’t functional is when the brothers are sent to a reality where their lives are the TV show Supernatural and they are on a set with the Impala as a prop. In “Changing Channels,” the episode where they’re in a Scooby-Doo cartoon, and even when they go to heaven, the Impala is always with them. They need to find ingredients and spells or use Castiel to get to other dimensions but the Impala just comes along without effort.
6 Lost And Found
The Impala is stolen many times. It is abandoned and destroyed more than once. The car seems to be found in every one of these instances like magic. What makes even less sense is that it is never reported missing and never stripped for parts before it’s found. The car is stolen by many people who couldn’t care less about Sam and Dean and their car like Meg, the ghost Constance, Andy the mind controller (Season 2), and even Evil Charlie.
Every time, logic says these villains should have trashed the Impala, especially know what it means to Sam and Dean. But when they find it, the car is still running and waiting to go.
5 Infinite Mileage
While it’s true that the Impala has been rebuilt several times, it still makes no sense for it to be able to reliably transport Sam and Dean over hundreds of thousands of miles, not to mention the miles John Winchester drove before that. The car is over half a century old. The car may be crushed and broken on occasion but it never breaks down.
They never run out of gas or have random car trouble on the road. There is no logical reason that it should still be able to drive as well and as reliably as it does every time.
4 Immune To Tickets
Sam and Dean live a life without a real address. They have no utilities in their name and they have a vague connection to their birthplace in Lawrence Kansas, then to the bunker in Lebanon, Kansas. But they don’t have any kind of real identification registered with any government agency.
In fact, the government has long considered them dead according to run-ins they’ve had with various agencies. Somehow, even though there are no valid license plates or registration and the brothers frequently speed down the highway, they’re never pulled over and they never get a ticket. Not even a parking ticket. It makes no sense.
3 It Is Left Unprotected From Angels And Demons
John Winchester is a hunter the entire time Sam and Dean are growing up and he drives the Impala that whole time. It never occurs to him to ward the car against demons, though. This car is their home at times. They camp out in it, sleep in it, and use it as their sanctuary. But all the time they are in the car, they’re not really safe.
In several episodes, Ruby, Crowley, Castiel, Anna, and other angels and demons show up in the back seat of the car. All of these people are able to transport themselves in other ways so it makes no sense that they’d need to be in the car with Sam and Dean. They eventually ward the trunk but they don’t protect the rest of the car. In their line of work, this makes no sense.
2 Accepted As A Government Agent’s Car
Throughout the show, Sam and Dean pose as government agents of one kind or another. Their car looks like an old classic, there’s no doubt about that, and they get called out on it a couple of times.
Mostly, though, the car is accepted as a government agent’s car. When those that question their status call the number on the cards they give out, that appears to be the finite answer to their questionable identities. There’s never a check on their car’s registration and insurance or a question as to why they don’t have government issue license plates. It makes no sense.
1 It Is Extremely Identifiable
Sam and Dean often have to operate in stealth. They go all over the country and have become known as hunters not only to the people they save but also to the police they’ve worked with. There aren’t a lot of 53-year-old Chevy Impalas on the road. If someone sees that car out on the street, it’s safe to say they know that Sam and Dean are in town and that could be problematic.
During the Leviathan story arc, the brothers had to hide the Impala for this exact reason. Their apparent death (according to government agencies) should be a lot harder to convince people of while they’re driving around such an identifiable car but somehow they aren’t discovered.