Best Of

Kinda wild that the Rally wheels were only $56 extra.
I could've sworn my Mom said her '86 Monte Carlo was around $14,000, but I can't think of anything in it that would've made it THAT much more than your parents' '84, Uplander. According to my auto encyclopedia, the '86 V8 sport coupe started at $10,631. So, I guess that's about $1700 of it right there. But otherwise, it was nothing fancy. Crank windows, manual locks. Now it did have a nice stereo with a tape player and equalizer, so that might've been part of it. It also had a power antenna, and two tone paint...gray over silver. For some reason, I'm thinking it had 205-series tires as well, but I could be wrong on that. Or perhaps, it had 195 standard, but by the time Mom gave it to me, in 1998 with 179,000 miles on it, some 205's were put on. Oh, one other detail. Mom's had the 4-speed automatic, which I think was required with the 305 by '86. In '84, they gave you the option of the 3-speed or 4-speed.

That Monte was a nice car, although by the time I got it the paint was faded and the power antenna was broken. Thankfully, in the up position. And the knight hood ornament had broken off and was in the glovebox. I'm sure if it hadn't gotten T-boned, it would be long gone by now, though. I was delivering pizzas back then, and between that and my other running around, I put 13,000 miles on it in just three months.