Anyone see the '05 SS monte? Saw one at my local GM dealer last night. I'm not the biggest fan of the new monte bodystyle, has a pretty nice interior and of course, the 303hp 5.3L. Ironic how GM finally makes a 300 hp V8 monte SS and it's a FWD:hick:
What you call Irony, I call pure pain. :(
I saw one. To mee it looked like they just changed the front fenders and nose and left everything from the doors back the same as the old one.
Ha, looks to me like they just went back to the old "bubble car" front end from the mid-90's and just changed it a little, the rest of the car does look the same though.
I have yet to see one. I HAVE seen a lot of Impala SS's on the road. Seems like a good family hauler. A decent amount of stuff comes standard on the SS model for a reasonable price. It shocks me to say it but, it's on the list of prospective new vehicles for the wife along with the Mercury Milan and the Dodge Charger. If we went Charger it would be a V6 as the Hemi STARTS at 30K without options..... The Impala SS with a couple of extra options is the ceiling we have set as far as price (we are staying under 30K).
So far the Milan seems to be the frontrunner due to its price even with every available option.
An Impala pic for reference:
I haven't seen one on the road yet. Like Pauly, I have seen the Impala's SS on the street. I think the Impala's look better than the Monte Carlo's.
I thought the Impala SS was around $32K?
I've seen a couple montes on the road. I think they look good. The rear is pretty much the same but there are some slight differences. I haven't really looked at them and compared. I was behind one the other day and I thought the rear looked a little off compared to how I've seen every other monte. When I passed him and saw the front, then I knew why.
Appreciation for an Impala and Monte on a Ford board?
This is why I love this board.
Yeah, the monte SS that I looked at (black/black) had a pretty good amout of features (moonroof, cd changer, hell even XM!) and was just under 30K. Not bad. Almost makes me want to trade my GTO . . . Almost.
Looks to me like they just did the same thing they have done to everything else the past few years.
"Hey this front end looks ok, lets put it on the front of everything else?!"
I actually thought the Impala SS was a very nice lookin car considering the horrible design it has had the past few years IMHO. until I seen a Monte Carlo. To me it looks exactly the same from the front doors back with a Impala front clip with very slight differences.(Bumper Cover)
Now, the Malibu, Monte Carlo, Impala, and Cobalt all pretty much look like they have the same front with minor grill changes and of course some might be smaller than the others. Given the fact the Malibu and Cobalt are smaller cars.
The Avalanche was a good idea but the front end was horrible, whats chevy do, put it on the front of all of their trucks. I used to love Chevy trucks now I would take a clean mid to early 90's Silverado before any of their new ones. Colorado looks horrible, Canyon looks horrible. HHR looks like a cross between a liberty and a PT Cruiser but does look pretty cool on the road.
COME ON CHEVY, WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?! FIRE THE WACKED OUT ENGINEERS ON DRUGS YOU GOT AND BRING IN A WHOLE NEW REGIME!
Say one in the parking lot at work. Looks like a Cobalt front end on the thing.
I heard GM is killing the SSR after this year (good idea).
I can't really say there's anything GM makes right now that I even like much. The GTO is kinda neat, but overpriced with blah styling. A couple of those new RWD Caddies they're making are pretty cool though.
I'm wonderin what's gonna happen to GM, what with all the huge losses they're posting these days.
The idea of making their cars look about the same is not something new though. I think all manufacturers do it to an extent to help make all of their cars look like they are from the same family. Honda, Hyundai, Toyota, Dodge and even Ford all do it. Have you noticed that the front of the Ford trucks no matter if it's an Escape or a full size truck look about the same in the front? Or that about every Dodge has the cross hair grill? They've done this since cars started being designed and manufacturers wanted to distinguish themselves from one another.
Nothing is wrong with the monte looking like the Impala. Remember when they brought the monte back and the lumina looked about identicle with the exception of 4-doors. It allows an owner with a family have the sleek looks of the two door in a family oriented 4-door sedan. Nothing wrong with that in my book.
I definately agree that the HHR is a waste. They wanted it to be their pt cruiser so they got a pt cruiser/Liberty. I heard that the designer of the pt cruiser did the HHR. I don't care if that is true or not that was just a stupid move on GM's part.
The Camaro and Firebird (from their beginning to current)
Late 70's: Oldsmobile Regency and Caddy Coupe DeVille
Early 80's: Chevy Caprice and Pontiac Parisienne
......and the list goes on and on....Case in point OUR CARS;)
It looks like arse....
Spoken by someone who has never driven one, obviously. ;)
Actually I always thought the Camaro and Firebird were pretty different looking over the years, for cars that both shared the exact same platform. On the last generation, the only thing between the two cars that was really exactly the same was the roofline :dunno:
And no, I haven't driven a GTO, but they still look way too much like a Grand Prix. I've also seen the concept sketches of the next generation GTO, which looks like a mitsubishi galant :bs:
I don't if it was you who posted this in another thread, but those weren't pontiac concept sketches. They were illustrations (and shoddy, poor quality, hack skill ones at that) made by a magazine on what they think the next GTO could look like. I'd put as much stock in that as I would an icebox company in the arctic circle.
Most cars now don't really appeal to me. I think that some of the last good designs to come out of Detroit were the aero Fox Birds and Cougars. There are still some nice cars being made (ie 300C, Mustang, Fusion, Charger) but most of the cars that come out just suck in the styling department. Of course I think that the late 60's-early 70's cars were some of the best designs to come out of Detroit. I'm only 20 and I couldn't give a rats ass about most of the cars that come out today. Mabey I'm just old fashioned;)
But then you look at the cobalt a econo can of a car then look at the monte a nice car this in my mind brings down the value of the monte and brings up the value of the cobalt.
Say you walk into the dealer and see them sitting side by side. Why pay for the style of the monte when the cobalt looks like it only smaller.
But thats the way I see it.
I see that. I got you. The same applies to say a Ford Five Hundred and a Focus along with a ton of others.
I am not impressed with any new car on the road right now. Not one. Well the new mustangs are nice.