wicked stories guys, keep em coming. i love reading this stuff

 

Mine is not as exciting as the others, but here's how I got my monte.

I owned a 99 Grand Am GT that I bought brand new. While killing time one day in 2005, I drove through the Chevy dealer at a local automall. I noticed two red 2004 Monte's parked side by side, one had the number 8 on the sides and a Dale Jr. signature on the trunk lid (no stripes on the sides or "supercharged" badge), the other car had the 8's, the sig, the stripes on the sides, and "supercharged" badge. Both were labelled as demo models. I wasn't very familiar with Monte's, and didn't know anything about the signature series Monte's in general. I did know I liked the one with the stripes and liked the idea of having a supercharged engine. But I wasn't in a position to purchase a car.

Over the next year or so, I drooled over the thought of trading in my GA for this awesome looking car. But gave up the dream around late '06/early '07, and forgot about it. About early summer last year, I had a major expense come up with the GA. The entire steering system had to be replaced. This was yet another major repair that I had on the thing. I should add that I have always kept and maintained every car I owned, in excellent condition. I never got into an accident with the GA or beat on it. But this thing had every known issue with 99+ GA's go on me. Last summer, I added up all the major repair bills on the GA. Not including regular maintenance items like tires, oil changes, etc... Over the 8 years I owned the thing, I spent over 10 grand in major repairs. After the steering issue came up, I decided this thing needs to go. I looked around at various new models.

Around mid summer, my dad needed to trade his oldBuick for a newer, more fuel efficient car. He asked me to go around to dealerships with him for advice and opinions and such. One of the dealerships was the affore mentioned Chevy dealership. To my surprise both Monte's were still there. Since I was now in the market for another car, this got me drooling againover the Monte. I talked to a salesman about the Monte's, got prices and details on both.
Found out that they were both demos with about 17,000 kms on the odometers. Driven around by staff for the first year, then sat on the lot since and never sold.

Being a member of a grand am forum, I did a google search for monte carlo forums. This site was the first one to come up. I searched around the site for info about reliability and known issues and such. Also got info from various car ratings mags and websites. But I found out from MCF that the car I was looking at was a limited edition model. This got me doing some serious math with my finances to come up with a price range I could afford to pay. Debated as to what my initial offer would be and such. Went to the dealership a couple days later, took the car for a thorough test drive. I was very impressed at the performance of the Monte compared to my grand am GT.Gave the salesman my initial offer, and to my surprise they took it. So glad I got rid of my GA.

Thanks to everyone here for the great advice.
You guys (and gals) are awesome!

 

I am not going to lie I have never been a Monte fan prior to now. I was not a hater but just not a fan. I was out looking for a Classic Camaro/Firebird maybe a 70s Vette open to many “muscle cars�
My wife did not want me to get an "Old Money Pit" so we compromised and I started searching for a 02/03 Camaro Firebird, so if I was going to get one of those I had to have the Z/28 or the WS6 Ram Air Trans Am. I even looked at a 04 Mustang GT. (I just Looked) so I started hunting locally and kept finding V6 Camaro/Firebirds. I was getting discouraged and I stopped in at this little hole in the wall Outlet dealer in our small town, I told the salesman what I was looking for and he told me about the Intimidator he had on the other side of the state, he proceeded to tell me he could get it here for me to look at my interest was perked but very skeptical, so I said ok call me tomorrow and I’ll check it out. I left and went to the Chevy Dealer and they had an 02 LS I looked at it and was more Interested, so I went home and searched the net for Intimidators and found one for sale on Ebay with pics of every angle. Then I was really interested. While I was waiting for them to get it to me I found a 04 GTP that was nice, so I had a decision. Needless to say the Intimidator Won! I am hopelessly obsessed with it, I never really followed Nascar and didn’t even know Dale was the Intimidator…lol, Don’t get me wrong I knew who Dale Sr. and Jr. was. But since my purchase last August I have found my self looking into nascar just a little more. I even bought the replica Intimidator. And since my stay on this forum I have found myself wanting a 86 or so SS.

 

i know whatcha mean.

 

Well.............. something I'm not proud to admit. If not for my parents I wouldn't own a Monte Carlo. Either car.

They bought the '86 LS for me cause they knew how much I wanted a Monte Carlo. And the fact i'd just purchased one but still didn't own one cause I gave it to my g/f since she needed a car. The part-time job I did had at the time sure wouldn't have paid the $2800 that was given to the guy who used to own the car. He wanted $3400 for it. But I told him to keep the stereo & speakers and came down that much in price.

And they helped make it possible for me to own the '06 LTZ. Yes I'm paying for the car. But I didn't think I could afford the $17k price. I was going to buy the 3LT the dealer found at the same time they located the LTZ. The 3LT was $1,000 less in price versus the LTZ and more in my price range.

I've never been one for fancy toys like power sun roofs, heated leather seats, or heated outside mirrors, and if you looked at the 3LT or LTZ they looked like the same car on the outside. So I thought it was stupid to pay the extra $1,000 for things I really didn't need. But my parents asked how happy I think I'd be with the 3LT in a few years compared to the LTZ? I thought it over and decided the LTZ would be more something I'd rather own. Just where was the extra money going to come from to own it? That's when they offered to help.

So without their help I wouldn't own a Monte Carlo.

 

hehe... you must have been cute there Cort... an "Arlo".

I think he wins the award for the biggest Monte Carlo fan just for that

 

Not that we all don't love our Montes but I thnk it'd be difficult to find a more devoted Monte fan then Cort.

I'd love to have my own fleet like he does.

 

you guys are more devoted to me... honestly i don't like anything before the 4th generation, and i care so much for the early 4th gens.... i think ti sucks that chevrolet got lazy and gave basically teh same front end to the 7th generation as the impala had. i really like my 6th generation... the 2000-2005's are my favorites looks wise... then the 87-88's.. then 06-07's. other than that, i'm not a huge fan of Monte Carlo's.[] i just don't like most 70's stylings anyway. the chevelles were okay.. the 70's 'stangs were just crap. the camaro's were "eh". theFirebirds in teh later 70's were pretty damned nice. but other than that... i meanthe Crapstang II...come on... that was only one of some crappy cars that came out of hte 70's in my opinion.Just above the Chevette and theCharger that came out in the later 70's/early 80's


go ahead, stone me.