It’s not all that uncommon to see a black Monte Carlo SS with red pinstriping appear for sale, often with ridiculously low mileage. However, my personal experience has been that the earlier cars are much harder to find. Check out this clean 1984 Monte Carlo SS here on craigslist wearing just 24,058 original miles for $16,500.
That’s certainly a lot of money for a Monte Carlo, and some might even say the later cars are more desirable. I’m personally an “early” car fan, as I like the notoriety of owning the first run of a model that would later become so popular that you’d see one on nearly every street corner. Seeing a Monte Carlo SS in any color other than black is a treat, and this ’84 was one of the first ones on the road after a 12 year window when the SS wasn’t offered.
What’s interesting to me is that you don’t see more of the early SS’s pop up for sale in condition like this. I would have thought after so many years of Montes sold without the most well-known package in Chevrolet’s lineup that enthusiasts would be socking away every SS they could get their hands on. Regardless, there were a number of subtle variances between the early SS models, including some that were made in Mexico and a small batch that received the 200-R4 transmission.
I don’t think this SS is hiding any early production surprises, but it does appear to be as nice as the seller describes, with original paint and a numbers-matching 305 V8. Does anyone think these cars will start to appreciate further, or have they already reached the top of their value chain? At the moment, I don’t think $16,500 leaves a lot of room for appreciation, so the purchase of this car is more about owning an early example in as nice of shape possible than future ROI.
Nice find for an 80’s Monte fan… I always thought the dash layout of these car just looked cheap though…. I prefer the 1st gen Montes
These 80’s Montes are good lookers. I see lots of them for sale, and this price is a little higher than most, I guess do to the claimed low miles. I question it accuracy though, look how broken down the driver seat cushion is, and is that metal I see poking through the brake pedal pad next to the gas pedal. I think these will one day be collectible, but for now there a just too many of them on the market, and they will never garner the numbers of their Buick cousins.
My first and only new car was an ’82 Citation X-11, and was actually a demonstrator with about 6000 miles on it. The driver’s seat cushion was already a bit collapsed when I bought it. Quality and durability wasn’t a strong suit on GM cars of this era, to say the least. So I wouldn’t make any mileage assumptions based on the rumply seat cushion. To me, it definitely looks clean enough to be a 24K-mile car.
I had an 83 SS, bought it new off the lot when I was 20 years old. That car would haul butt. I remember that it came stock with dual exhausts, and 4 barrel carb. on an aluminum intake. I kept it a year and traded it off on a Dodge 4×4.
JT
Dual outlets. I doubt very much it was true dual exhaust.
Yes, dual outlets, I had an 86, not terribly fast, but an excellent cruiser. I drove that car all over the US, it only was driven one winter, but once sold the floor collapsed as the driver seat went through the floor. Salt in Ohio was bad, but not that bad. That car should never have rotted the way it did, cheap 80’s steal……
Sorry, but I take all low mileage claims on cars with 5 position odometers with a grain of salt. That is especially true on special interest cars that stand a better chance of being taken care of throughout their life than the average family sedan hauler.
Ad says black… This is white. And I like the gauge cluster. T-tops would have made this car. However, I wouldn’t pay 16,500 … If it had the 350 maybe. Nice car and the seller could have brightened up the RWLs.
I agree with Rustytech although if this were the later Aero version w/ NASCAR style rear window and had a 4 or 5 speed manual I’d be more inclined. Did they even make these w/ a manual trans? The really rare GM counterpart to the Monte is the similar vintage Pontiac 2+2 Grand Prix Aero
Only came with a slushbox. Had one, and the transmission drove me crazy. Could never decide what gear it wanted to be in! Underpowered and definitely not a winter car. Swapped ends in a heartbeat. Great looking, I’ll admit, but it’s attributes pretty much stopped there.
“Did they even make these w/ a manual trans?” Nope
Each of my older brothers owned MC SS Aeorcoupes back in the early 90’s. Both black. One had burgundy interior, the other grey interior. Both t tops. Both had wind noise and leaked…
I would prefer a blue earlier model as well, no t tops, manual windows and locks, bench seat and column shift. (yes, the power windows/ locks and buckets, console/ floor shift were optional. I have seen a few like this.
A close friend of ours in the 90’s had one identical to this one, his 305 was a H.O. motor and it was pretty fast but it wouldn’t pass a gas station since it had no overdrive.
What made it seem fast was the 3.73 rear axle. That’s why it couldn’t pass a gas station.
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Hi Rick, in the early 2000’s I drove a truck for a friend, and one day he asked me if I liked classic cars (Duh) He said he had a Monte Carlo and would I like to see it, and while I wasn’t particularly interested, I said sure. We went to a storage unit place, he opens the door, and it was an Aero Coupe exactly like this, with about 30K miles on it. I still wasn’t that interested until several years later, I found out how rare they were. At the time, he was kind of struggling, and I could have had it cheap ( He hinted at $3,000) I’m sure it’s long gone by now.
Easy enough to set the numbers back on these mechanical odos. Even simpler to pull a 124K mile or 224K mile gauge pack out of a junked car and put it in your 95K mile car. I agree with That Guy that the interior doesn’t look 24K mile fresh. FYI Chillicothe is a depressed town south of Columbus, OH with a rampant heroin problem among other things.
I was never a fan of these…but I will say this: Anytime a bowtie product says “SS,” believe it…
Not getting your meaning on “SS” comment- please explain.
I mean that the SS package is more than just graphics and pretty paint. Chevy always gave any SS, whether Impala, Malibu, Camaro or Cobalt, just a little more kick under the hood and little more road handling down below..
The 86/88 years got the 200-4R and 3.73 gears. None were manuals, other than some for export to Mexico.
I like black ones with T Tops. Here is mine.
Nice car, Paul, is that A1A in Florida?
Pensacola Beach Florida
The anemic 305 with 180 HP left a lot to desire. I went with a 383 stroker and with the 3.73 rear gears, its a blast to drive now.
Never had an issue with T-Tops leaking or any rattles..yet. I use Dielectric grease on the weather seals.
The 200-4R is fine when a billet center support and hardened sun shell is added. It has better gear spacing than the 700 does. I have a 9 inch Ford rear in the works to replace the weak 7.5 stock rear.
Will end up with more money in it than its worth, but I like it so much I kept the SS and sold my Vette!
still love the Monte’s ,, I ordered mine new in ’84 and still have it! yes low miles cars are still around, mines in the low 20’s also, i have the original tires and wheels w nubs :) Ronal R-9’S per Miami Vice haha..
Looks great!
Lost your website. All vehicle notifications. Dec. Accidentally deleted somehow. Melvin Burwell.
Well, surprise, surprise, I think this one is legit as well, from what we see. I highly doubt someone would take apart a dash, just to put a low mile speedo in there, these American units rarely failed ( and no, you can’t turn them back without the #’s getting out of line, I always wondered if the mfr’s did that for a reason) If anything, the cable was disconnected for a while, because someone knew this was a collectible car, and kept the mileage low. Regardless, try and find something as nice today for double the money, and while the price seems high on these (we don’t know what they actually sell for) I’d say throw an offer. They might take it. Very nice car.
Alot of dough…for not alot of go…mostly for show…high ho,high ho
I would ???? any low mileage old car with a Speedo that can be tampered with, 10 minutes and I’ll have it showing
0 miles with no misalignments on the speedo.
back in the day, my thing was to repair that type of Speedo!!!!
Leave it sit. The owner wants too much for it. I’m seeing these in the he same shape simar milage at half the price. Fact is I had an 86 with 111k on it and my interiror looked less beat that that car, so the mileage may be wrong. I picked mine up for 500 put a ZZ-3 in place of the 305, beefed up the trans, had the car painted with new carpet and headliner. It was then the car GM should have built, until the wife managed to get hit by 6 trucks on I-95@ Md exit 80 going 85-90. She was fine but the car didn’t have a straight panel left on it. Shame too. Ins payed out 5500, as we were able to produce receipts. I miss that car. Regarding T-Tops, you don’t want them in a G body. They leak, creak and rattle like the damned. Not to mention wind noise, and I’m an EX GM truck, I know how to make body adjustments. Once in a while they work well but not often enough to take a chance on. Even with a body on full frame it weakens the car.
I have a story about a Monte, but I don’t have to type it right now.
It was from when I wasn’t a respectable citizen.
I made good money doing graphic sets for these and a couple Hurst Olds of same vintage back in the 00’s when I had a graphics shop and they were all over he used car lots. Love em. All of em, the MCSS, H/O, GN and GNX, GPs. Other thant he aerocoupe, did Pontiac have a similar “performance” package?
Yes, they were underpowered compared to there ancestors. But still, some cool packaging.
To save confusion in the future I’ll change my posting name. Too many Ricks!
Pull the engine and sell it for scrap, get a crate engine in it ASAP.
It’s likely that its low miles were due to these were boring cars to drive – a smogged out 305 automatic -ZZZzzzzz. I am sure it was a fine highway cruiser, but like most 80’s GM offerings these never offered any kind of personality.
Agree, I got really excited when a neighbor offered to sell me his 12k mile (documented) ’87 Cutlass, beautiful car, handling pkg, gauge pkg, buckets/console…took it for a ride – no personality describes it perfectly…I passed.
This was my first brand new car same color buckets & posi the only options 83 & early 84’s only came with a TH350C trans January of 84 the 200r4 became available but they were junk until mid 85 mine had 36,300 miles it had a built 327 worked over TH350C & 4.10 posi unfortunately it & another car & all my tools were lost in a garage fire a year & half ago the 1 st 12 sec. car I’ve had in nearly 40 years. owned it for 31 years really miss it
Woodgrain dash and accents? Was this a thing on the early SS cars? Looks weird.
Later SS cars had black plastic, at least mine did. If you even looked at it wrong it would leave a scratch.
Black plastic came in for the 86 model year. Prior was woodgrain just like you see it.
There were several aftermarket wood kits available for these, it could even be a dealer installed option. Most were just black plastic.
The primary reason there are few of these left is that many (most) of them were converted into stock cars for the local dirt track. They were too heavy and under-powered to drag race, but they were nice cruisers. A ZZ6 350 or ZZ383 and 4L60E from Chevrolet Performance will make a new car out of it! The last of the full-framed mid-sized A-bodies from GM
Nice car, only worth about $9500 tops.
This car will never sell for anywhere near the asking price. Sorry.