One thing that some of America's automakers have become known for by enthusiasts is for creating unassuming sleeper cars that pack a mean punch. While they may look like fairly normal cars on the outside, when you look under the hood you'll find engines shared with the best American sports cars. The car we're about to discuss here is no exception. It was only sold in America for a few short years. During that time (and in the time after it was removed from sale), it gained a reputation for effectively being a four-door equivalent of the Chevrolet Corvette. It's also, by all accounts, starting to become a great used buy... The Chevrolet SS Is One Of America's Most Overlooked Muscle Sedans BaTUnless you really know your high-performance Chevys, it's likely that you may have never come across the Chevrolet SS. It was only sold from 2014-2017, and it didn't sell in big enough numbers to make a real impact. But, it quickly gained sleeper appeal thanks to how powerful it was for a fairly normal-looking sedan. These cars have 415 hp and 415 lb-ft of torque, can go from 0-60 mph in 4.5 seconds and have an (electronically limited) top speed of 160 mph.For a mid-2010s muscle car, those are really good numbers! It's also much more practical than any regular muscle car. That's thanks to its large sedan body, which can seat 4-5 adults in comfort and has enough trunk space for almost anything you could need it for. You could genuinely have one of these as your daily driver, or take a bunch of your friends on an extended road trip in it.Inside, the SS does performance with comfort in a way few muscle sedans manage. It comes standard with leather seating, heated and ventilated front seats, a head-up display, and a straightforward infotainment setup. The cabin materials feel solid and well assembled, and the trunk offers 16.4 cubic feet of cargo space, making it genuinely practical for daily duties.For a muscle sedan, the Chevrolet SS is also surprisingly advanced. The hood and trunk were both made out of aluminum to help keep weight down, and it had a magnetic ride control system. It also has a modern traction control system, and several active safety systems. It was even the first car sold by Chevrolet to come with an automatic parking assist feature. Why The Chevy SS Is Now Forgotten, Sadly ChevroletFor all its “four-door Corvette” energy, the SS slips through the cracks because it was always a low-volume, one-trim niche sedan in an SUV era. Total US sales from 2014 to 2018 add up to 12,488 cars, which is tiny for a mainstream Chevy. The “SS” badge doesn't help either, since plenty of Chevys wear SS as an appearance or trim label, and this one looked so plain that most people never noticed what it was. It also carried a steep price for a Chevy sedan, so buyers who wanted a flashy performance car looked elsewhere, and buyers who wanted a sensible family car usually skipped the V8.The SS backs up the sleeper look with real hardware, though. A no-cost manual arrived for 2015, along with Magnetic Ride Control, a limited-slip differential, and optional Brembo rear brakes to match the fronts. In testing, it hit 60 mph in 4.5 seconds, pulled about 0.96 g on the skidpad, and stopped from 70 mph in 156 feet, helped by sticky summer tires. That puts it in proper sport sedan territory, and it also explains why it feels sharper than most big V8 four-doors. For quick context, an early Charger SRT8 makes 425 hp but is quoted at under six seconds to 60, while a CTS-V plays in a different league on power alone at 556 hp. It Originally Came From Australia Via: Bring a Trailer With the glorious V8 power and noise it has and that traditional sedan body, you'd think that the Chevrolet SS is as American as it comes. That's actually not true! While it may feel like an American muscle car, its origins actually come from the land down under. It's a captive import of the VF-generation Holden Commodore. All Chevy SSs ever sold were built in Holden's plant in Adelaide, and were then shipped off to North America to be sold. It Shares An Engine With The C6 Corvette And The Fifth-Generation Camaro via Bring a TrailerThe real magic within the Chevrolet SS is the powerplant it came with. The only engine option for the Chevy SS was the 6.2-liter LS3 V8. This is the same engine that Chevrolet used in base model versions of the C6 Corvette and the fifth-generation Camaro SS. It also, importantly, was one of the engine options in HSV versions of the VF-generation Holden Commodore in Australia - no alterations to the platform needed to be done! It's a little less powerful in the Chevrolet SS - 415 hp as opposed to 430-436 hp in the C6 Corvette. But, that doesn't mean that it doesn't have the same kind of power and feel as its Corvette contemporary. It actually slots nicely in-between the base-model C6 Corvette and the fifth-generation Camaro SS, being slightly faster than the Camaro while still giving space for the Corvette to be the top performance option. It Had A Brief Stint In Stock Car Racing Like several high-performance Chevrolets in the past, the Chevrolet SS got its time in the sun as the face of Chevrolet's NASCAR program. That was something it achieved not just in America in the NASCAR Cup Series, but also over in Europe in the NASCAR Euro Series. In the Euro Series, it ended up being known as the EuroNASCAR FJ 2020. That's because the Chevy SS styling kept on being used long after the model was discontinued – the last season it took part in Europe was 2023.Of course, the NASCAR version of the Chevrolet SS was nothing like the road car. It was a coupe instead of a sedan, and the SS styling cues were just there to promote the car instead of having anything to do with it mechanically. Most enthusiasts won't be bothered about that, though, as the Chevy SS Cup Series car was incredibly successful. It was absolutely dominant during the 2010s, winning 44 Cup Series races (one of which being a win by Jimmie Johnson in its debut at the Daytona 500) and three championships (2013 with Jimmie Johnson, 2014 with Kevin Harvick and 2016 with Jimmie Johnson again). It's A Real Performance Bargain Bring A Trailer Because the Chevrolet SS has tended to be forgotten over the years, it's remained a performance bargain. The average used value of the Chevy SS is around $40,064 at the moment. That average seems to be an accurate representation of how much SSs tend to go for, as the cheapest ones you'll see are usually around the $25,000-$30,000 mark.While it may still be a bargain now, that absolutely won't be the case in the future. All trends point towards this sleeper sedan appreciating in value. It's not unheard of for the cleanest examples to sell for more than $55,000, or even as much as $60,000! With more and more demand for more traditional-feeling muscle cars in the used market appearing as those cars have all but disappeared in showrooms, it's probably not that surprising that the Chevy SS is starting to gain real appeal with collectors. It probably also helps in that, compared to Camaros and Corvettes from the same year, it's pretty rare.From a reliability standpoint, the SS is surprisingly owner-friendly for a low-volume V8 performance sedan. Average annual repair costs sit at $833, which is reasonable considering the LS3 under the hood. Common repair items remain fairly manageable as well, with brake light switch replacement typically costing between $125-$154, brake master cylinder replacement ranging from $252-$304, and even larger jobs like an engine mount replacement averaging $413-$492. But, spend a little time crawling through forums, and you'll notice that this tracks. One 2017 automatic owner reports over 110,000 miles with only fuel injectors, one magnetic ride shock, and a mass airflow sensor replaced, with no major drivetrain issues. Given that, KBB's 4.9/5 reliability rating is hardly surprising. That kind of durability reinforces the SS’s reputation as a usable, long-term muscle sedan rather than a fragile performance experiment. It Had A Precedessor With The Same Sleeper Appeal PontiacWhile the Chevy SS was definitely the best Aussie-built captive import North America got, it was far from the first. In fact, it actually had a predecessor that was brought to America! This is the Pontiac G8, and like the Chevrolet SS it's become a niche favourite in the muscle car world. Based on the previous generation of the Holden Commodore platform, the Pontiac G8 had three trim levels and more engine options. The highest trim of them all (the GXP) had the same LS3 engine as the Chevy SS, but you could also have it with a 3.6-liter V6 in base form and the older 6-liter LS2 V8 by choosing the GT model. The LS3-engined GXP also exclusively came with a manual transmission, while the lower-spec models were automatic-only.As you might expect, the G8 GXP has very similar performance to the Chevy SS that replaced it. The only real difference is that it's got a slightly lower top speed. The other two trims are significantly slower than the Chevy SS. The base model V6 seems glacially slow by comparison, taking 7 seconds to get to 60 mph and only having a top speed of 137 mph! The G8 Is Also A Bargain On The Used Market GM The Pontiac G8 has the same kind of sleeper appeal as the Chevrolet SS that replaced it. So, it's not surprising that it's also a high-performance bargain! Classic.com puts the average price paid on the used market for a G8 across all trims at just $24,509 today. If you're happy to go with the V6 base model, you can pick up examples for less than $10,000 in some cases. As you'd expect, the GXP models are the most expensive, with immaculate examples selling for as much as $40,000 or more in isolated cases.Sources: Car & Driver, Chevrolet, Classic.com, Pontiac