Two years ago I bought a fully loaded 2007 Monte Carlo SS from a VW Dealer with 60k miles on it. In that time I only put 13K miles on it. I'm doing a quick, honest review for people interested in an 06-07 Monte SS.

For me though, I got a Fiesta ST for being good on MPG while also being a fun car. Will miss the Monte, got compliments on it all the time, but I need something more efficient.

Short version: Good daily driver, but sporty appeal fades

Long version (bold means important):

Backstory and general impression:

After owning a 1992 Corvette and having to fix it almost once a month with a major repair, and being a kid barely earning enough money to, I decided to get something newer. I swooped in on a 2007 Monte Carlo SS, fully loaded, with 60k miles and a 2 year warranty. The V8 is very appealing, especially to young guys wanting to have some fun or show off. It's a good car for that at face value. Throw on some mufflers and the V8 makes a lovely sound. It's not the best looking car, but it's not a bad looking car. Ones with the rally stripes look much better in my mind, but that's subjective. In short it's nothing too flashy but nothing overdone.

How it drives:

Being FWD, you get in expecting it to be no issue to control starting off. For someone who has never had any decently powerful car or just underestimates it, they're going to push the gas down and spin the tires. I underestimated it, so I did once when I got it and continued to do occasionally when nailing it. Traction in this car is bad starting off unless you get some good tires. You get torque steer out the butt as well, being FWD with that nice V8. Once you get going, you're gonna go up pretty quick. For a while it's cool seeing your number fly up, then it gets disappointing. Sure, it's decently quick, but how numb the driving feels takes the fun out of it. You just don't feel the acceleration like you do in a sports car, and this IS the sport edition. The steering also has a dead zone where it doesn't move as much as it should. Overall, it just doesn't feel like it should.

Cornering in this car isn't its strong point. It's a long car and since it's FWD isn't the best at it. This is a car meant for a straight. Coupled with the horrible stock seats, you really shouldn't be going crazy in this.

However, for normal use, the car is fantastic. I've never been in a car with as nice of a ride. It's soft and perfect for your commute. If that's what your looking for, I'd say get the V6 instead for better MPG.

The interior:

Inside the car, you get your standard mid-2000's GM hard plastic dash and center cubby with some metal trimming. Nothing spectacular, but like with the outside nothing too dull. Your gauges don't give you pretty much any info on how the engine is doing and the gas meter is fairly deceptive. I noticed mine would only go down when I stopped the car and turn, then it would update.

The seats are comfortable, but for cornering they are absolutely horrible. They have basically zero side bolstering. This means you'll be flailing all over the place while unleashing your V8. If you can pull some seats from a GTO you'd like them much better. The leather tends to wear even if you take care of it, at least the dye. Didn't get any ripples in mine.

I can't speak for the stock audio system as mine came with a (very nice) aftermarket one.

The back seats are comfy and fairly roomy given it's a 2 door Impala. The only issue is getting in and out of them.

Straight performance talk:

The 5.3 LS4 is a peppy engine, mine getting me 0-60 in 5.4. Being stuck in FWD, it's hard to get it planted to the ground. The brakes are decent with the pedal not being overly sensitive like many other cars these days. There tends to be a lag in the throttle, so you'll floor it and the car won't realize that for a second, then it will go.

The transmission is bad. It really is. I'm not even referring to the reliability issues others have had. It's just slow. It takes forever to shift. If you want to have fun, you're gonna have to upgrade it eventually to get it shifting faster, as well as to make it more reliable. The thing is a joke.

Reliability:

Owning my car for two years, I only had one issue that made the car undriveable, which was a thermostat stuck open, which was repaired under warranty. There were other issues I didn't get around to fixing.

The steering shaft needed to be replaced. Not greased, replaced. All it did was pop so I didn't worry about it. If you get it soon enough you can just grease it and there's a guide on this forum for that. It's something that you must repeatedly do though.

My power steering would whine and not work properly in slow, tight cornering, giving me a workout in the process. I've read others having the same issue, so it seems fairly common, though sometimes it ends up being the rack and pinion.

The transmission, as I said before, is not meant for this car. GM should have NEVER put it in. It's not meant for a V8. The V8 will tear it up over time. In fact, mine had its replaced at 47k. It's not a question of if it will either, it's WHEN it will. There's a popular transmission shop that sells an upgrade kit to keep it from destroying itself, and it works perfectly from everything I've read. It's a good investment if you're keeping the car for a long time.

The cylinder disablement tends to cause oil burning. Quite a bit, actually. I had to dump 3 quarts in between every oil change. How good this is for your engine is questionable. If you have a 2006 you can have an ECM flash to turn it off completely and not get that issue.

Overall, it's pretty minor stuff with one major issue: the transmission. That is the big, bad thing with this car. If that's covered, you have a very reliable, comfortable car.

Gas mileage:

Why are you buying a V8 if you're concerned about mileage? Anyway, it's bad in the city. I'm usually getting 14-16 MPG in city driving, with 28 on the highway. If you're just running the highway on your commute, it's not bad. If you're in the city, don't even think about it.

Summary:

If you want a car that's comfortable as a cruiser, one that can pick up and go when you need it, this is the car. If you have coverage on the transmission, go for it. It's a good car for a nice, smooth ride.

If you want a car to carve corners or race, this is not a car for you. Not stock. These things can be made into monsters on the straights if you have the money. In the price range of $8000, you can get a better deal for pure performance though. That much will get you a nice late gen C4 vette, without issues, and it's RWD.

If you want a car for a commute, it's not a bad car. If you take the highway, get it. The mileage is good. If you take city roads, skip it. You'll be at the pump a lot.

Transmission and numb driving feel aside, this is a good car for the money if you don't want raw performance. Just make sure it suits your needs. If I didn't drive city so much, I'd keep mine.

 

Thanks for your Honest Review Now, please give us your dis-honest review

I enjoyed reading your review & I hope our member's do also.

*How do you like your Ford Fiesta ST. (Your Honest review) Please.

Ford Fiesta ST - Car and Driver

 

That was very insightful for sure

 

So far I'm really enjoying the Fiesta. The manual box it has is really nice. How well it handles cornering is amazing. With tbe little turbo it has I can still get up and go while getting around 32 MPG while beating on it, 38 if I drive normally. The Monte would beat it in a straight line of course, but would lag behind in corners.

 

Thanks for your reply on your ST. I like human go Karts

Member Turbo Monte has a Focus ST & loves it. I think Ford did a good job on both. I'd like to test the new RS when a dealer gets one

The Monte S.S. & Fiesta ST are two totally different animals. Wish you good luck with your human Go Kart > Have a Blast... They sure are fun to drive...

 

Beater, that was a well-organized, concise, and fair car review. It does give some good insight in regards to a modern coupe that has a strong engine/FWD-automatic combination. I wonder what you'd recommend as the perfect, ideal transmission for an MC SS, though.

 

One that doesn't get torn up by the engine. They're good if you get that kit I mentioned in the review. It still suffers from being FWD. Had it been RWD I'm sure they wouldn't have depreciated as much as it would have been better for pure performance.

A manual would also be nice.

 

IMO, it never had a chance to be rwd. I think it was already a stretch to make a v8 specifically for a limited production fwd application. The chassis would need significant modification for rwd, and there was no chance gm was going to do that at the tail end of the wbody's lifespan. Not to mention, pontiac already had the gto and g8 rwd vehicles, and a camaro and the ss on the horizon. With the kind of money it wouldve cost to redesign it for such a limited car run, the end car prices would be insane as they were already a $30k or so car being fwd.

Certainly it wouldve been better for performance, but in all honesty the car is limited to just being a fun cruiser. The w platform was almost 20 years old at that point, and it was one of the heaviest fwd vehicles gm had for sale at the time. So it never could seriously compete performance wise against the lighter fwd cars or any of the sporty cars designed for rwd from the start.


I will definitely agree with the transmission thing though. Everyone who had been modding w bodies for years knew the transmission limits from thr factory weren't particularly high, and that even at stock power the ls4 would tear it up over time. I don't think GM had a manual option at the time that would've worked. Their best transmission, the f40 is still a bit shy of holding the stock ls4 torque (ie could've ended up just as bad as the 4t65).

The 4t80 mightve been a solution, but they're very expensive new and a lot heavier/larger. I wonder if packaging room drove them away from it. On top of that, the 4t80 has no real aftermarket support since it wasn't really used in any performance vehicles (outside of maybe the bonneville gxp). I think the best bet would've been a 6t80, but they just weren't available when theselecting cars were being designed.

With that said, I do wish they would've spent more time upgrading the 4t65 for better longevity. They certainly didn't do enough IMO.

 

Interesting read
thanks all

 

I agree and Disagree with some parts, I think maybe because I've owned and driven mine daily for 5 years now i have gotten used to things, like torque steer i don't have an issue with and hardly notice.
The trans is 100% right, everyone knows the trans in these are junk.
The other thing i highly agree with are the seats not holding you! I constantly have to slide around after taking a sharp corner quick to get comfy again lol
Decent write up