Good morning. While I have been working on my 2001 Monte SS I have been looking for another daily driver. I stumbled upon this nice 2007 Monte Carlo SS, my dream car! The list price is $10,900 with 113,000ish miles. I am driving to see it Monday. If the car is as good as the salesman says is it worth this? I haven't started negotiations yet. I have two questions for the experts.

1, Do you guys think the 7th gens in great condition will continue to increase in value over the years?
2, I'm looking at the stripe on the front the way it comes down past the grill, is that original?
Tell me what you guy's think! I have always wanted an '07 SS. I do want it original though.

 

Unless you personally know them, I'd ignore everything they've told you. Their entire job is to sell cars to put money in their pocket period. They dont care about you and they likely know virtually nothing about the car. I wouldnt take anything they've said as a fact until you've verified it yourself. Don't let them try to rush you into it either - they're not that rare and its a 15 year old, fairly high mileage car. There are plenty of other fish in the sea if this deal doesn't work out.


In my opinion, that price is high. Just 3 or 4 years ago, this would've been lucky to pull $7 or 8k. But the jump in price today isn't because this car is getting more valuable, its because all used cars are much more expensive right at this moment. The covid supply chain issues destroyed the new car market which cranked up the prices people were having to pay. That in turn sent a wave of people in the market for a car into the used market, which in turn drove those prices up. Personally, I believe this spike is temporary (if you ignore inflation contribution of course). Supply chains are catching up in general as the world figures out how to work through covid. Thatll lead to more inventory in the new market which will help increase the supply side of the equation. Higher interest rates will in turn hit the demand side of the market as they translate to higher payments and push some people out of the market completely.

As to if the price is fair for today's market - we can't say for sure without more details. You'd need to review the cars history, maintenance records, and perform a thorough inspection to weigh that. Usually cars this old aren't 100% clean across the board. KBB (taken with a grain of salt of course because dealers will always argue their value) shows its a few grand too high.

Just from looking at country wide listings of these today, its on the high end for a dealer but not crazy amounts - but of course its not a level playing field as history can be so varied at this stage in a cars life. I will say, IMO, I don't see a benefit of buying this at a dealer vs private party. You're going to spend a few grand more doing so regardless how much you talk them down, and I don't see that they add any value (assuming you can do a thorough inspection) as it'll likely be sold as-is anyways.

In the near / mid future- almost definitely not. A great example is to look at price history on the same cars that came immediatley before it - the 5th and 6th gens. Price generally declines year over year until the cars aren't worth much more than scrap value. Before the covid price craziness + massive inflation lately- most any 5th gen was only worth a grand or two. Many of the 6th gens weren't far behind. Of course I'm talking regular daily driven type cars like this - with a good bit of mileage on them. Certianly ultra low mileage cars bring more. You have to keep in mind that these cars were cancelled after the 7th gen because they were selling poorly. If you look at the landscape of car types being sold today - that outlook certainly hasn't improved today nor does it seem like it will in the near future (not only for the large 2 door fwd coupe market, but also v8s in general with the way gas prices are going today).

Long term (20+ years), who knows if they'll become a desirable classic or not. I'll say the fact that people are losing so much money selling near 0 mile collector edition 6th gens - it doesn't look good. TBH, I wouldnt worry about this at all though. You're thinking about buying one with relatively high mileage as a DD (where it'll continue to collect wear and damage) - so this is never going to be an investment grade car. If you wanted to buy one as a collector to speculate on future values, you want to get one with as little mileage as possible and to clean it up and park it as soon as possible.


Since you're considering a LS4 car - you are aware of the transmission issues, right? If not, I strongly suggest you read up on it before you buy one. To fix it correctly with a trans built to handle it, it could cost half the value of the car if you drop it off at a shop to do the whole job. Even if this car has a receipt for a warranty replacement or rebuild, I'd still be leary as stock replacements / rebuilds seem to fail just as often as OEM transmissions did.

They're generally pretty reliable cars otherwise, but that one problem item is a big one as the fix is such a large % of the cars value and you'll likely never get a dime back out of the money spent on it.

 

That's good information. I hadn't thought about the tranny issues.

 

Over the years I have owned a Grand National, a handful of 94-96 Impala SS, and a Pontiac G8 GT 6.0. I saw the same trend over time with them. They start off at MSRP, and go down. At about the ten year mark they level off, and depending on condition fluctuate in price. At the 15 year mark they are at the lowest. Then they start creeping up from there. The G8 was the only car that seemed to go through the entire process faster. The lack of new cars has not helped to keep the prices down, so now we have artificial increase in prices. Just to give an example of cost. Lat year I sold a truck for 2k more than I paid for it new, bought a new Jeep. Decided I hated it. traded it in for another truck, and the dealer gave me 4 more than I paid for it new. So the prices for used have just gone off the charts.

 

Completely personal opinion, but I think thats a bit of an apples to oranges comparison. The cars you mentioned are relatively popular with many car enthusiasts and collectors and as such would tend to level off much higher than a 'typical' car and even have a good chance of rebounding in price.

Most usual American FWD cars seem to level off at rock bottom values with little to no hope of a significant rebound (if you factor in inflation and major market disruptions like the current covid situation). Cars like a Grand Am, Intrepid, Contour, Beretta, Malibu, etc etc that get down to near scrap value with age and mileage. I also think its important to look at the price history of other W body vehicles as before the recent price spikes across the board, you could pretty much take your pick of model for $1500-3k and get a low mileage clean one for maybe $5-6k (with special models being a little higher). I just dont personally think the 7th gen monte will be notably different (and if I were buying a car to speculate on investment values, I'd pick something different with a better historical track record).