Monte owner for a few years now, forum member for a few minutes!
 

Hello all! Not sure why it took me this long to become a member of a forum for my Monte, as that's something I usually make a point to do with a new car. But I'm Brandon, I'm 26 and I'm from Kansas. I'm a former Marine, now studying Computer Science at Kansas State University. I got my Monte from my grandparents a few years back. It's a 2001 all black, all options SS with 97K miles. She spent most of her life in a garage (they drove semi for a living and were rarely home), so when I got her in 2015 she only had 66k miles. So I managed to get a garage kept, single-owner SS with low miles, no accidents with a sunroof, steering wheel controls and leather seats for 4 grand! I've made a few modifications over the two years. One of my headlights broke so I replaced them with ones that had a black housing (don't worry the reflectors are still chrome), replaced the tail-lights with an led version (because I love the look of leds and I thought these looked rather tasteful). I also modified the exhaust. I put a very mild aftermarket muffler on it, as I just wanted to have some kind of sound but I didn't want it to be obnoxious (because a loud 3.8l doesnt sound good anyways) and replaced the tips with larger ones because I feel like factory tips look way too small given how big the opening is in the GFX kit. The only other mods are a complete stereo replacement. I wanted to modernize the stereo because I was tired of relying on a tape adapter to listen to my music, and even though my stereo featured a factory amp it still left a lot to be desired for someone who loves music. So I replaced the deck with a pioneer touch screen unit that featured apple car play along with USB and aux inputs. Which is amazing for road trips where my apple maps displays on the stereo and I can charge my phone and use it as a music source with one cord! I also replaced the front speakers with JL Audio C2650 speakers, and the rears with JL C2690's. I replaced the factory amp with a 2 Channel JL amp that puts out 360 watts. With only two channels I lost the ability to fade from front to rear, but still kept my left and right audio (I've never need front or rear fading anyways). And I installed a 12" JL W6 subwoofer with a 1,000 watt JL single-channel amp to power it. Given that much power consumption I also swapped the battery for a yellow top Optima and supplemented it with a small battery in the trunk that's mounted on the back of the rear seats next to the amps. I can't tell you the amount of times I've had people tell me they've never heard a better stereo system. The W6 is an amazing subwoofer, and the speakers are incredible. I can turn it up to max volume and there's no distortion and amazing clarity to the sound. But anyways, that's the story of me and Monte, thanks for reading! I look forward to being a part of the community here.

Welcome to the MCF. Brandon. :thumbsup:
The stereo system sounds impressive for sure maybe I would bump into you at a car show sometime, I am just up in Nebraska. :cool:
I would enjoy hearing a great sound system but have a significant hearing loss from my Military experience. :(

Hey thanks! But you never know, it could happen! I do end up in Nebraska quite a bit, my sister lives in Omaha and I've got a lot of family around Minden. Plus I used to practically live in Nebraska when I was a millwright working on grain elevators. I've been to pretty much any rinky-dink town in the middle third of the state. Whereabouts are you? But I was military too, Marine Corps. Just in the IRR now though. Thanks for the welcome!

No former Marines, my Brother, Semper Fi!! 0311, Kaneohe Bay, HI, 1980-1984, OOOOhh-Rah!! 1000 mwatt Kemwood in my Monte, with 2 12 inch Alpine S-Types, kickass back massage!!

Semper Fi brother! And I know "there's no such thing as an ex-Marine" its just easier for me to tell people I'm a former Marine so they don't still think I'm active duty haha but that sounds like killer setup man! I was wanting to go with a nice pair of 12's, but I was worried I'd lose too much trunk space. So I opted for just getting one badass 12". It's seriously louder than the 2 500w pioneer 12's I used to have in my truck. And that with it being in the trunk, when they were in the cab with me in my truck. It's a monster sub!

LOL, I know, am on a Marine Vets FB group, made the mistake of saying former Marine in my intro, caught crap for that a couple of weeks!! It is easier to say that, which is what I did for 33 years after my discharge, never ran into any other Marines all that time, is nice to have a group to talk to!! I shoe-horned my boxed 12's into the space in the center of the trunk area, with the capacitor right next to it, still got trunk space, but can't get groceries in it, which makes my wife mad!