"Proportions"
 

I've read in a lot of reviews about the 6th/7th Gen body style, that a lot of reviewers think the proportions are wrong, but are never specific about exactly which proportions are wrong and what should have been done to fix it. Myself, I think the patch between the C-pillar and the wheel well is a little narrow, but other than that, it's the third-best-looking W-body ever made (after the Grand Prix and the Intrigue). Does anyone know specifically what the complaint is?

(Keep in mind that the same thing was said about the Mustang II, which, unlike the Fox body, actually resembled a Mustang.)

Probably the proportion of power sent to the front wheels vs power sent to the rear wheels. :)

In all seriousness though, I feel like in that era of car reviews it was "cool" (for lack of a better term) to rag on GM cars and praise the Japanese offerings. That's what everyone did, and that was the easy way to stay with the popular opinion. When you can't think of any more legitimate things to rip on, what better way to complain than to talk about subjective stuff that you can't really quantify (such as proportions being off). Just my .02

Agree, reviews are biased. Our 6th Gens actually received high accolades back in the day by most magazines. I remember it was the 1st car designed in a wind tunnel or something like that. It was very slippery in the tunnel. Here is the article for any 6th Gen. owners and a reason to be proud of our Montes. IMO, the Best looking of all the Montes. :cool:

From: NEW CAR TEST DRIVE.COM Jan. 26 2000

One of the flaps during the 1999 NASCAR Winston Cup racing season was that Chevrolet produced this all-new Monte Carlo SS well in time for the season, but wasn’t allowed to race it. After close inspection, race officials told Chevrolet that the car could not be raced until the beginning of the 2000 Winston Cup season in February at Daytona. The reason? It may have been because this car is so good in the wind tunnel that NASCAR had to re-think its rules package.

The Monte Carlo you’re looking at is a production car in race-designed body shell. All new from the ground up, it’s shape is designed for winning Winston Cup races at America’s superspeedways.

It’s also the replacement for the best-selling midsize coupe in the United States. So it has two important jobs to do for Chevrolet.

Walkaround

As slick as it is aerodynamically, from an esthetical standpoint the new Monte Carlo almost looks like it was designed by a committee, with each member handling only a small part of the car. It was most assuredly not designed this way, it’s just how the final product came out when the engineers and designers emerged from the last wind-tunnel session.

The 2000 Monte Carlo doesn’t look anything like the 1999 model. Nor does it look like any Monte Carlo before it nor any other car in the Chevrolet lineup. That’s good for drivers who want something that looks like the one the Winston Cup boys will race next year. And it’s good for those among the avant-garde who will like it because it is so different.

The droopy nose, the flat flanks, the bump in the deck lid and the radical roofline may not appeal to everyone, however.

What you can’t see is just as important to the integrity of the Monte Carlo and, in that respect, we have to give Chevrolet high marks. The engineers have strengthened the roof, doors and floor pan. They designed an aluminum front cradle from which to suspend the engine, transmission, steering, suspension and front sheet metal. The interior features a cast magnesium beam, called a MagBeam, that fits behind the instrument panel; this further increases chassis rigidity and provides mountings for the dashboard systems. As a result, the new Monte Carlo is much quieter than any previous generation. Increased chassis stiffness also makes the car less prone to squeaks and rattles developing over time.
One of the best things about Chevrolet design in recent years is the uniformity of instrument panel design and appearance that has been wrought throughout the product line – from the Corvette to the Silverado pickup. With black background, white markings and red needles, the instrument layout is not only racy in flavor, but also easy to read and scan, with the major and minor gauges placed on slightly different planes to add visual interest.

Another really nice touch inside the new Monte Carlo is its cockpit-style instrument panel that houses those new gauges and controls. It separates the driver completely from the front passenger and provides fingertip access to every system in the array in a nicely styled package that works.Overall, the interior is a nice design with a sporty flavor that reminds us of Corvettes and Camaros.

The SS version of the new Monte Carlo features a thoroughly proven V6 that delivers 200 horsepower and 225 foot-pounds of torque. It may not hold a candle to some of the old V8-powered rear-wheel-drive Monte Carlos, but it’s more than enough to break the tires loose on this new front-wheel-drive Monte. Punch the throttle and there’s instant power and lots of it.

GM’s popular 3800 engine is the most highly developed overhead-valve V6 in the world. With all the refinements that have been baked into it over the years, in terms of valve train friction, bottom-end strength and friction, and electronic engine management and fuel injection, this is about as good as it gets. Couple this engine to GM’s excellent 4-speed automatic, add all-speed traction control, and you’ve got yourself a really solid power unit that offers fun as well as decent fuel economy.
In motion, the Monte Carlo’s four-wheel independent Sport suspension works with fat P225/55HR16 high-performance tires to provide really surprising levels of grip. As a tradeoff for the bite they yield, the tires are a little noisy. The steering is over-assisted in a lot of situations and does not provide as much feedback from the front tires as we would like, but it’s tight and accurate. The Monte Carlo has the widest front and rear track in the segment. (The track is the distance between the left wheel and right wheel.) Coupled with the tires and suspension, this makes for a platform that is good fun to drive through the backwoods as well as on the boulevard or Interstate. In short, the Monte Carlo is stable and responsive.

If you’re gonna run with the fast guys, you’d better have good brakes. Larger, more powerful antilock brakes were fitted to this new Monte Carlo and they are up to the job. They are, in fact, the largest calipers and rotors in the class, and we punished them mightily on one of our favorite stretches of twisty road, without a whisper of fade or grabbiness.
:eek::)
There’s a certain amount of boy-racer charm exuding from this all-new Monte Carlo. That’s been a traditional element of Monte Carlos going back to the first ones in the middle ’70s – cars that won many, many NASCAR Winston Cup races. Aerodynamically, this new Monte Carlo is vastly superior to the body being used by the 1999 NASCAR racers. Though attractive to wind tunnels, the Monte Carlo’s styling won’t appeal to everyone.

It's a good read zippy.

I've explained before that the Monte Carlo was my choice because it is a street car that was designed specifically for NASCAR use. A lot people are quick to point out that all manufacture's car of that era in NASCAR were the same accept for the stickers (headlights, tail light, etc). It was the Monte Carlo body template that Ford, Toyota and Dodge were using too, instead of the models they were supposed to be based off of. The body wasn't identical, but the cars in NASCAR for 2000-2007 were proportioned identical - the same length and width as the street car, with only a 2" lower height, likely to do with suspension lowering.

I don't think they would have used those proportions if they really sucked