Wow – does it get any cleaner than this? A 1973 Chevrolet Monte Carlo with a mere 14,374 miles on the clock. These big body personal luxury coupes were a bit of a milestone purchase when new, a car that you were proud to be seen in leaving the dealership. The body appears to be in remarkably clean condition, with nary a dent or ding to raise any doubts as to the low mileage claim. The seller claims the first one to see it will want to buy it, but you’ll need to have $15,500 in your pocket to enjoy the privilege of ownership. The Monte Carlo is listed here on Facebook Marketplace and located in Sturbridge, Massachusetts.
Thanks to Barn Finds reader Dennis H. for the find. The Monte Carlo is located in a town that sits between the well-defined hubs of Central and Western Mass., and has long been a destination for families and field trips due to Old Sturbridge Village being the epicenter of the community. It’s like a smaller-scale Plymouth Rock, or Colonial Williamsburg. There’s also a strong, underlying classic car culture, so I’m not at all surprised to see a minty survivor like this residing there. You never really notice all of the styling details until you look at the car up close – the lines sweeping through all four fenders, the twist of the taillights towards the trunk lid – it’s a pretty car.
The interior is exactly as you’d expect a low-mileage specimen to look. The bench seat is near-perfect, with no indication of any rips or tears. The same goes for the carpeting and the dash, and really, any touchable surface. The cabin is actually remarkably simple and devoid of controls, and I don’t mean that in a bad way – there’s virtually no clutter. The woodgrain trim is obviously fake but it still presents well, and given the lack of fading, the seller’s claims that the Monte Carlo has always been parked indoors seems to hold up. No word on whether the air conditioning still works, but at least there are no power windows to fail.
The odometer confirms the low mileage reading, and the clarity of the gauge faces leaves little doubt as to how nicely preserved this example is. The seller doesn’t provide any insights into how the Monte Carlo survived in time capsule-grade condition, but I’m sure it has to do with an older owner who purchased the car new and kept it in mint condition, as a sort of ongoing celebration for the achievement of buying such a fine automobile. While I feel the pool of buyers for such a car is getting smaller each year as the next generation of collectors comes into the fold, you can’t deny that this is likely one of the best ones left.
Man, what a great car to cut up and slam onto the ground!
no……………………….
One of John DeLorean’s fetishes. Lovely car, I had a 71, I think, the memory is getting a bit shaggy, it lasted through several Midwestern Winters. Very Chevrolet; dependable, very little trouble, and the car was not aggressively priced to begin with. Buy this and enjoy.
If not for the cloth upholstery and front bench versus front bucket seats and rich-grained high-quality vinyl of that era’s upscale GM models, I’d be so tempted by this. Regardless of the interior, I’m swooning. From 1978, as a sophomore in high school to my sophomore year in college, my daily driver was a ’72 Monte Carlo Custom, silver, black vinyl top, beautiful black vinyl interior, 350 4bbl, posi … Of the eclectic range of cars I’ve owned/driven, that one is my favorite. I’d love to find a low-miles ’72 Monte Carlo to cruise with, again … but the ’73 through ’77 generations (don’t care for any of the post-’77 generations) would be pretty fine, too.
Back in the day in HS I started with a 55 Belair Hardtop then last year a 69 Rally Z28. I remember the parking lot stuffed with these cars. They used to kid that a MC was like your bum as everyone has one.
I do think this one is in great shape. I personally like the smaller Monte version 70-72 with a small or big block.
I remember in the in the HS lot had the 454 swivel bucket jet black with 235 ponies to pull the big sled body. The person seemed to think the larger Cragers would make it faster. That made me and my friends enjoy a Saturday night as it went home after the second race when a 305 monza edged him out 😂
I remember when I met my girlfriend… Now my wife, I have one 1973 Monte Carlo we use to go cruising around the city… now we heve three beautiful adults childrens and three beautifuls grandchildrens…We bought one 73 Monte, We almost finish the restoration We planing to have some back memory… after my wife battle with cancer, We want to remember some of the past.
Gorgeous car! Too bad the Craigslist quality photos don’t do it more justice. Why, oh why???
Very nice example.
I took driver training and my driving test in one of these monsters, even got good at parallel parking it. Going back to my own car, a tiny-by-comparison ’55 Chevy, felt like going from a bowling alley to a broom closet.
my driver training car was a ’75 Caprice, my personal car was a ’66 SAAB 96….talk about bowling alley to a broom closet, LOL
I cant believe that when I was a kid I thought these were small cars.
Love it! I would keep the original hubcaps, in the garage, and put on a set of Chevy Rally wheels with wide white letter tires, just like the high school kids used to do to these back in the day.
Seller doesn’t tell us what engine it has but most likely it has a 350 2-barrel just going by the odds. You could make some pretty good power with these engines with a few bolt-ons.
IIRC, Chevy Rally wheels were a factory option. Back in 1988, these and the Cutlass, Grand Prix’s, Regals were the $1200-$1500 cars that were still relatively good looking and still in decent shape at that price point.
Funny how he mentioned the power window fail, not sure which kind of failure he meant ,but I was in one of these with PW and as it was going up, for no reason it completely shattered sending chunks of safety glass everywhere.
The only time I’ve ever seen that happen
The Colonnade cars were really the pinnacle of style for GM despite being handicapped by the 5 mph bumpers and choked by emissions regulations. There’s no reason this couldn’t be someone’s daily driver and far preferable to the suffocatingly bland offerings from today’s market.
Economic value is whatever someone is willing to pay but like everyone else in the BF community I’ve never bought a car based on common sense. Cars are an emotional experience for us lucky ones and this Monte Carlo was built to tug at your heartstrings.
this car has manual windows
Had a 1973 and a 1977, both gave incredible trouble free service. The ride quality was perfect for long commutes between Santa Monica and Sacramento.
The 73 had swivel buckets, same red color but more options than this one. The 77 had every available option that year, close to model year end, so they ran out of HD batteries, and it showed on the sticker as a delete credit. Still the sticker was touching $7800, a lot of money in 1977.
I wish I could grab this one. As one person on here put it…going down memory lane.
Definitely a time capsule; even the color combination. Takes me right back to loving these cars at the time, and that’s a nice feeling. I always liked the map pockets in the door panels, nearly-hidden in the upper panel.
Who said Colonnades can’t be great…? A pristine pre-smog personal ‘luxury’ car with all the benefits of Chevy parts availability; this is one MASSIVE find! 👍
I had a brand new 1973 that was black on black with swivel buckets seats and a 454, the car had less than a 1000 miles on it when a semi truck hit me on a bridge that was under repair and I went off the side and landed on some logs. I wasn’t wearing a seat belt, but did not have a scratch on me. The swivel bucket seats kept me in the car. Car was totaled, ordered a 1974 the same way but had a set of Keystone Classic mag wheels put on.
I leased a ‘73 when in college for $105.05 a month. It wasn’t that great on gas, small V8; but it was one of the best handling, best riding big cars I ever owned! And my GF absolutely loved the feel of that bench velour on her bare skin…. oh yeah, gas was $.28…….
The good ole days….😉
I sold these back in the day. We sold a lot of them. Most had a 350. the 454 was not much on performance. By 77 a lot of them had a 305. I owned a 77 with the 305. It was a good cruiser but not a real powerhouse.
My first girlfriend had this car. Lots of firsts for me in the Monte
1973 , was the best looking Monte ,in my opinion – the smaller rear bumper and the angled taillights were only used this one year. My only complaint on this car is the color ! Of all the colors available back then, silver would have been my last choice , but if this were mine, I’d leave it all original , right down to teh hubcaps.
Plane Jane nothing special except the mileage….No P/W, PDL, Column shift, No buckets probably has only AM radio
My lord at how many of these met their fate in a demolition derby.Very hard to beat!!!
They made better race cars ,when Enduro racing started ,nearly any kind of car would show up, but as the years went on, people figured out what ran the best and the majority of cars that show up were 73-77 Monte Carlos
My Aunt Joyce bought one of these in ’73; odd color: Persimmon. It was a wonderful, trouble free car. I drove the car several times and really enjoyed the ride and handling. I later bought a ’77 in ’78. Mine had the swivel seats and floor mounted shifter and console, 350 4bbl. The ’73 – ’77 models were my favorites. I would rather have this model than a Corvette. A fine example of the best that Chevrolet offered.
Bought one of these used from a guy in the eighties. The odometer has broken at 75K so who knows what the actual miles on it were. It was the 454 with the swivel seats, blue with black vinyl top. I drove if for 3 yrs, then gave it to my sister and she drove it for another 3 years. I once took it to the garage as it was hard to start, the motor would only turn over slowly on the battery. The guy said that there was so much carbon buildup in the cylinders that the compression ratio had gone up causing the battery to struggle when starting. I always drove around with the gas tank between one quarter full and empty, it was a gas hog and I couldn’t afford to fill it up.
I had a 73 Monte Carlo, Maroon in & out. I loved this body style & still do. If I had $15,500 I’d buy it now. I had a growing family then & had to trade it in for Station Wagon. Broke my heart
What a beauty. My dad had a 1974 Monte Carlo. LM1 350 2bbl. The only thing slower was a Vega. Unfortunately, this car dissolved in the brackage air of the City of Houston. I swapped the double hump dual exhaust transmission mount that it had stock with my 1977 Pontiac Can Am’s single exhaust trans mount. My dad sold his Monte to a friend of mine who was going to race it on the dirt track. He pulled the 350 apart to freshen it up. He stood the crank up on the shop floor and jokingly hit it with a wrench and the crank rang like a crystal glass. Everybody who knew what this means was visibly shocked. It was a steel crank out of a 1974 2V LM1 350. The factory must have run out of cast iron cranks
Such a Clean Monte Carlo, now the question is Keep it Original or Strip It Down for Pain and Slam it to the Ground,
In early 1980 I was driving a black/black ’74 Monte Carlo – 454 and every option, including sunroof, swivel buckets, 8 track, gauges/tach etc etc. A friend and I were planning a junkyard trip from Minnesota to Colorado and I needed some spending cash. A co- worker had a somewhat beat ’73 Monte same color as this one but with a black bucket seat interior. He also needed money, so I gave him $500 for it. In 10 days I parted it out, got $500 for the 350 and trans, $300 for the doors, $500 for the front clip $175 for the swivel buckets, gave what was left to 2 nephews to make a race car. Now had some money to buy goodies from a new junkyard area. Wish I still had the energy to do all that good stuff!