'69 Body/Model Change

[tmodel66]

I was ask a question yesterday I couldn't answer. It may have been discussed before but I can't find a definite answer. Why did Chevrolet retool in '69 and run it only 1 year?  It cost a lot to retool anything but a whole car must have been extraordinaire.   

[william]

They hardly re-tooled the entire car. Most of the exterior panels were new but much of the chassis and inner structure was carried over. Firebird used some of the same panels.

That's how Detroit rolled in those days. Compare '58-'64 Chevs-almost complete body re-designs each year. The tooling may have been mostly worn out anyway at the end of the model run.

Those days are over. Chevy ran the 3rd Gen for 11 years with only cosmetic changes; 4th Gen for 10. Wonder how long the 5th will go on the current basic design.

[69pace]

Depends on what you mean by retool?
Standard industry practice to retool or restyle for every new model year.
Some years the changes in body style were subtle, other years radical departure from previous years.
GM was no different back then.  If it didn't look "new" why buy