The fascinating thing about low mileage time capsules is you never know when one is going to be rolled out of some neighbor’s garage. It’s especially eye-opening when it’s a car you may have assumed was a survivor, but not to the extent that it had under 30,000 miles on the clock. Take this 1985 Chevrolet Monte Carlo SS – plenty of guys have kept these things in fantastic condition, buffing them nightly in the garage. But how many have just 21,000 original miles on the clock? This example looks like it’s been parked in any other suburban neighborhood, not catching anyone’s attention – until now. Find it here on craigslist near Charlotte, North Carolina, with an asking price of $27,000.
The odometer doesn’t lie (well, sometimes), but it’s also the general cosmetic state of this Monte Carlo that helps to affirm the low reading on the clock. The seller is the original owner, and he’s retained the original window sticker and apparently documentation that confirms the factory installed a shift kit on the standard automatic transmission. I don’t know enough about the available options on Monte Carlos of this era, but with the window sticker in hand, the seller should be able to confirm that he ordered this Monte Carlo that way. These came right out of the box as a desirable muscle car, even if the actual “muscle” at this point in history wasn’t all that impressive.
The interior photos really help to sell this as a collector-grade specimen, with near-perfect bucket seats in that all-too-familiar shade of crimson that many cars from this era left the factory with. The perfect upholstery combined with the steering wheel and door panels that still look new all help to confirm the car’s time-warp status, along with the clean carpets and the shifter console that looks to have no visible scratches or cracks. Speaking of cracks, the dashboard doesn’t have any, and the seller claims it doesn’t drip a leak of fluid, either. The Monte Carlo will likely always be a low mileage specimen, as there’s little to no point in paying top dollar for one of these if you’re just going to rack up the miles.
Now, despite the low mileage, there still appears to be some damage to the trim below the edge of the trunk lid. This is a shame and unfortunately, will likely force investment-grade shoppers to drop out of the hunt, or at least demand to see the car in person to see if the damage can be easily repaired (most likely) and that there’s no damage to the paintwork underneath (harder to say.) The factory “Monte Carlo SS” graphics appear to present as-new, and presumably, the ones on the doors do as well. Overall, if the one battle scar can be written off as an isolated incident and not indicative of poor long-term storage, this SS survivor could be worth a closer look.
Nice car, and I like these, but that seems like a lot of money for a malaise era Coupe.
Exactly! And me being me, I just can’t buy it and drive it, I gotta tinker and tune! So yes indeed, it’s a little too proudly priced.
Way too much money for a 305 smog equipped automatic mid eighties squared off coupe. What is the HP? Uhmmmmm like 165HP or less? Naaaaaaaah.
She pumped out 185 horses and could do the quarter in 16 seconds, with 60 coming in about 8 seconds. Nowadays, that’s slower than a base 4-cylinder Camry or Accord. But, back then, it was pretty quick. Not too far off the Z28 and Mustang GT.
Much of this was due to the gearing – 3.73s in the 1985-88 cars with the 700R4, or 3.42 in the 1983-84 cars with the THM 350 3-speed auto. They were also relatively light for their size due to lack of airbags, power everything, computers, etc.
Geez, my brother had a hard time selling a 2700 mile (Correct and documented) 87, Silver w/ gray interior. Perfect car and the only deviation from original was the battery…this seems a tad high.
I have had like 14 Monte Carlos most of them 4th gen and the spot on the rear bumper is very normal. More than likely it’s from filling up the tank and the gas back splash I use to put a towel there better yet when it shuts off stop don’t force more gas in.
Pie in the sky.
A tad? My gut tells me about 12-15k. 21,000 miles is low but not low enough to bring an off-the-charts price, like this one…
https://bringatrailer.com/listing/1983-chevrolet-monte-carlo-4/
But I can’t blame the seller for trying. Why not? If he finds the right buyer in this climate where everybody seems to be wanting to throw their money away he might score. No reason to start with a low price in this market. It’ll be interesting to see if it sells.
I had one very similar. I believe it was a 1987? Same color and interior, but it had aluminum wheels. Sharp looking car, handled good for a big car. Great long distance cruiser, took it to Nascar races( not to race lol).
Yes the big drawback was the power, or rather the severe lack of it. Embarrassing if you ever got on it.
10,000 dollar car every day of the week
C’mon now its the 80s a lot of people knew u weren’t getting these vehicles for big time hp I still like it maybe cause I grew up in that decade great one actually imo
Glad U like it! so go ahead and buy it for 27,000
I had a silver ’85 but wouldn’t pay 10,000 for something I needed to put a real motor in to make it keep up with a modern 4cyl.
Sometimes it’s not about keeping up with a new Honda your not gonna get the compliments that you would in the Monte driving a Honda I wouldn’t care id still drive the ss over a new 4cyl car who cares if they have more HP not me Im just old school I guess