I agree with the decals needing to be on the car. I guess maybe people liked the color scheme(s) of the special edition cars but didn't want the extra graphics to go along with them. Stupid if you ask me, just look for a non special edition car in the same color. But I guess dealers will do anything to make a sale.

 

I'll never know why my decals were missing. I have no COT either... kind of bummer. There were no decals in the trunk and GM wants as much for the original decals as it cost for me to do this.

I would certainly prefer to buy the TS edition with the vinyl on (you can always take it off later, but don't). Do either car come with the Certificate of Authentication?

 

I agree about leaving a special edition car as is. The TS Monte Carlo I have decided to buy this Friday has all of the works on it. If I were to see a special edition car that had a few things missing but was in really good shape for a decent price I wouldn't hesitate though.
One thing I am not sure of is the filler plate, I didn't see one on the car, but maybe it's in the trunk, I'll have to check this Friday. If not, I will be searching for one, that's for certain .

 

 

if there is no filler plate you should have them knock $120 off the price! that's what the chevy dealership quoted me for a new one!! it's not much but maybe it'll cover the dealership's charges.

 

Buying a used car is not easy. I went through hell to get what I got. Not exactly what I wanted (quality wise - I have very high standards), but couldn't pass up the price. Every 05 SS I looked at, they wanted way too much and wouldn't budge on the price. About 2 months after I got Silver, an 05 SS Laser Blue Metallic became available at a local Pontiac dealership (a place where my family has done business there since the mid 80's). The guy was asking 15600 for it and it just sat and he never sold it so he auctioned it off. Funny thing is that I was looking on ebay the other day and the Ford Dealership NEXT DOOR bought it at auction and he's selling it for 15k. I wonder when they are going to realize that no one is going to pay 15k for a 4 year old car. I just don't get it. I could have bought a Tony Stewart edition with around 35-40k miles on it at a local Lincoln Mercury dealership - they came down on the price to $13,400 but to me that extra 3400 wasn't worth it. It would have only cost me only around $1500 to get Sliver up to the quality of the TS edition. So in time Silver will look almost perfect but I have all of the time in the world to do it.

 

No doubt ChevySSGirl, I hear you on that! I had to order a plate filler before for another car, and then had to take it to a shop and get it painted because they sell them in primer.

 

I agree 100%.

That's exactly the reason I bought the one I did. The dealer had one with and one without the stripes. Same price. I bought the one with. Looks so much better.

 

That's what I plan with the Pace car. The local Chevy dealer knows me well enough they allowed me to keep the plug wire loom GM is recalling the '97-03 3.8 cars for so I could keep the car as original as possible.

Okay. I plan on installing a roof spoiler on the car as soon as I can get it professionally painted. Would that negate a change from original and hurt the value of the car? Or............ is this splitting hairs?

For one the roof spoiler will come off with some work. And I'm hoping NOT TOO easily.

A little side note. A local village is having a festival next weekend. They asked if I wanted to drive a car in their parade? I said okay and signed up the '86 LS Monte and the '03 Pace car to be in the parade. The people who co-chair the parade called last week to tell me the Pace car can not be in the event. I tried to explain the car is a limited edition and only 1,401 were built in 2003. The wife said she saw no reason the car couldn't be in the parade. The husband said no. ONLY cars 1988 and down can participate.

Mike from Mike's Montes is the one who got me thinking of bringing a Monte Carlo to the parade in the first place. I saw him there last year. He wanted to know why I was driving a '57 Chevy and not a Monte?