Could you guys do me a favor and post up pictures of an 85 tail light and an 88 tail light? I am looking at a monte carlo this weekend to buy and the guy said he changed out the tail lights cause he said he likes the 88 lights better. I just wanna know what to look for before I get there so I don;t get the run around

 

you know what, I did some research on cardomain and saw the diff. But if you guys still wanna post up close up strait on pics of the tails, it would be super!

 

i can give ya one better then that.
If you know what they look like and if you do some reserch on teh Vin# and find out what year it is this way it will tell you the year of the car or at least the body of the car.

On the tail lights there at the bottom of it (most of the time) there is the D.O.T. S.A.E. markings. they are date coded on every car. they have to be with in i belive it is 6 months of the start of the run on the car. SOOOOO if they are 88 on a 85 then the tail lights will say 1988 and the vin and body tags(inside doors) will say the other.
Honestly i know there were some changes but i want to say it was more of a one have a chrome out line and knight in it the other didnt have this feture but not positive on it but i do however know they were not real diffrent in size and shape.
Good luck.

 

thanks. Yea, I was planning on checking the tag inside the door. Now I will also check the bottom of the lights...the one major diff i could see in the tails is the reverse light. The 88 has the white light towards the bottom...any other difference is too suttle for me to tell fomr the pics I was looking at.

 

yeh ok i rember the rev. light now , But im with you on the whole dont notice much diffrence on tehm .

Good luck

 

'88 tail lights will look like these. 1986 the LS was the first year to get the euro-wrap around tail lights later used in '87/88 on the SS and aerocoupes.




A little advice I might be able to offer on the VIN thing.
My car has the VIN etched into the door glass and back windshield.
I'm told Montes of other years (the 1980s) also had this done.
But try looking for this on this Monte you're interested in and copy it down. Then you can check to find out the car's model year.