The week I had photographed this week’s subject car, the temperatures were topping out in the mid-teens Fahrenheit in Chicago. The week before, my employer had granted a reprieve from having to report to the downtown office due to the cold weather, allowing us to work from home. The irony was that while that was gratefully welcomed, it had been about ten degrees warmer than it was the week I photographed this Monte Carlo in the same parking space as the C4 Corvette I had written about earlier this year.
No matter. I have embraced this season’s frigid temperatures for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that it has just felt normal. It hasn’t felt this much like a healthy, Midwestern winter since probably the 2010s. There’s also that part of me that enjoys staying indoors out of necessity. I’ll be ready to be so social by summer. I’ll try to keep that in mind as I look at the dirty snow and slush caked around the wheels of this final-year Chevrolet Monte Carlo.
February has also traditionally been one month when I have planned to get away, even if for just a few days. Sometimes I’ve chosen to get back to Michigan for the extended, three-day Presidents’ Day weekend, as had been referenced in a recent rerun of one of my old essays on an ’81 Buick Regal Indy 500 Pace Car. Last February had found me in Las Vegas. We’re now at the end of the second month of 2026, and I have chosen to go nowhere, and on the six-year anniversary (to the day) of my permanent breakup with alcohol, no less. Was my inertia by design? Not exactly. I’d like to be able to faux-complain and say that it had been so cold outside that it had hampered my vacation planning abilities, but the truth is that I’ve been content just to quietly recharge my proverbial batteries during the darkest, coldest season in the northern hemisphere.
It hadn’t even occurred to me when photographing this Monte Carlo, one year to the day of having returned from Las Vegas back to Chicago, that the former city, located in the Principality of Monaco, is also a big gambling center – a warm, sunny, exotic, affluent one. As I photographed this Chevy with my index finger being so cold that it could barely feel and push the shutter button on my Canon camera, I thought of how nice it would be to actually be in actual Monte Carlo right then and there. Standing on the salty slush in the middle of the street as the wind howled and with the dystopian, crunching sounds of a former hospital across the alley being demolished (see above), it occurred to me just how far I was from Monte Carlo, which was about as distant this car was from the aspirational nameplate attached to it.
I’m not down on the last Monte Carlo, to be clear. There are a few things I really like about it, especially within the context of what else was parked on the curb on this stretch of Kenmore Avenue. Even removed from the historical context of it being one of just under 11,000 Monte Carlos produced for its final model year of 2007 (peak sales of 411,000 were in ’77), this factory Dark Blossom Red example had appeared to be well kept, completely stock, and in great shape for a driver that’s close to twenty years old. It’s not even a racing-themed SS variant, but just your garden variety, midlevel LT model. It’s powered by a 211-horsepower 3.5 liter V6 mated to a four-speed automatic. It was originally built at Oshawa Assembly in Ontario, Canada. Ideally, it would have been been garaged (and perhaps it had been at some point), but the body was straight and mostly rust-free. It stood out at the curb first and foremost by being a coupe. That’s all it takes in 2026.
I was glad to have seen Chevrolet bring back “LT”, for Luxury Touring, as a trim level designation, as it seemed a throwback to the ’70s when I had first seen those letters on Camaros. I think “LT” worked on a second-generation Camaro since its default image was that of a car with a sporty leanings. Adding the “LT” or “Type LT” to Chevy’s ponycar made sense by calling attention to that submodel’s luxurious attributes that many may not have naturally associated with that type of car. Having a “Luxury Touring” version of a Monte Carlo, however, seems redundant. Isn’t a non-SS MC supposed to be somewhat luxurious by design? The luxury is supposed to be baked in, even for a frozen, salt-encrusted example that sits unceremoniously at the curb.
This 2007 Monte Carlo is the final iteration of Chevrolet’s popular-priced personal luxury coupe that had launched a slew of imitators upon its introduction for 1970. It was also one of the very last cars of its type still being sold at the time this one was new. As for my deferred vacation plans, why should I stick to “California Dreamin’” as the frosty winds off Lake Michigan are biting my face, while the French Riviera would be not only warmer but also an adventurous, world class destination for an occasional calculated-risk-taker like me? Actually, who am I kidding? Like this burgundy Chevy, I may talk a good game, but I’m much, much more down to earth than for anything the famous city of Monte Carlo could offer a guy like me. Maybe one day.
Edgewater, Chicago, Illinois.
Wednesday, January 28, 2026.
Click the following links for related reading on the final-generation Chevrolet Monte Carlo:
– From William Stopford; and
– From Jon Stephenson.
– Here’s also a link to one of my old essays on a ‘79 Monte Carlo in which I had explored the connotations of its name.
Joseph, congratulations on your sobriety and thanks for a great post to start my day. While I have no experience with this generation of Monte Carlos, my first car was a brand new 1987 Monte Carlo Luxury Sport. It was black with a gold landau, accent stripes, and wire wheels. It was a show stopper for sure. It continues to give me a soft spot for any luxury oriented Monte Carlo. This was much appreciated!
Thank you, David! And your ’87 sounds like it was a sharp car. I think that with the popularity of the G-body SS models, many tend to forget that the Monte Carlo had first and foremost been a luxury coupe.
I’ll also be that it would have been hard to predict when you had owned yours that the last Monte Carlo would be produced twenty years later.
After 25 years or so of production, this was the first Monte Carlo that I actually liked. Linda, who I worked with, had one for years until she traded it in for a Ford Fusion, the second generation.
I also liked the 2000 restyle. I feel like it had enough legacy styling cues without trying to look like a total throwback. I was sorry to see it go.
While I loved the 1st Gen and tolerated the 2nd Gen, I always thought these were an incongruent dish-mash of styling, a sad end to the once great GM styling under the regime of Irv Rybick, a poor replacement for Bill Mitchell. Probably a decent car dynamically, but imo a pretty lame car stylistically, no doubt due to Nascar requirements for aerodynamics since these cars did participate there.
Nice existing example here, not as offensive somehow now as when new.
What I like about this particular example is that it’s just an honest-to-goodness representation of an unadorned version of one of these cars. I also like that this edition had restored some of the traditional Monte Carlo flair compared to the two-door Lumina version that it had replaced. That was a nice enough looking coupe, but I liked this one better.
I’m one of perhaps few people who like this generation of Monte Carlo. Yes, I’m biased, I like Personal Luxury Coupes… I admit that. And to me, this version, especially in the non-SS variants, struck a good chord as far as PLCs go. Not too flashy, but stylish and unique looking. I’d have been happy to have owned one.
Another reason for my sentiments is that my wife and I rented a Monte Carlo on our honeymoon in 2005. So that’s always my first thought when I see one of these – the sight of one transports me back to a happy week in warm Florida.
As for winter in general, here in Virginia we’ve endured the harshest winter in decades. I’m done with it.
This winter has been pretty severe. I have family in Nashville – pretty far south – that had some cold weather things going on. I also have friends up in the northernmost part of Michigan’s lower peninsula where their front lawn and roads look basically like it’s still Christmas. Literally.
I like that this generation of MC brings back a fond memory for you like the one you described. I think sometimes that a positive association like that can go a long way.
I still think fondly of the Malibu Maxx five-door for being part of a happy memory, plus it was a very good rental despite the questionable styling. I still smile when I see one.
Yeah, I can’t get with the name “LT”. I mean what does that mean? Is it luxury, or is it touring? Doesn’t the modern meaning of “touring” already encompass luxury? Since the car does indeed have a fixed roof, I think Chevy is already leaning on the luxury part of the current understanding of “touring”, so in this case LT is more like LL. Redundant indeed.
To quote Marshall Sam Gerard, from the great Chicago-based film The Fugitive, “I don’t want you guys usin’ words around me that ain’t got no meaning…”
Other than that, Monte Carlo sounds like as good a place as any to escape a winter that has definitely over-stayed its welcome.
Haha! Jeff, I am not familiar with that show (perhaps I should be), but I love a good pop culture reference – especially one that has something to do with Chicago.
I don’t know. I suppose the opposite of Luxury Touring might be Poverty Touring, like the Greyhound bus of driving (and I love a bus lines adventure), but there was no way Chevrolet was going to use “PV” or “Type PV” as their entry-level trim.
Wow. 6 years sober. Congratulations.
Alcohol got my dad when he was serving in India during WW2. My mom, the wisest person I ever knew, told me once that I might have alcoholic tendencies, and suggested this line if I were offered any,
“Alcoholism runs in my family. I chose not to drink because I don’t want to find out if it’ll effect me.”
As to the MC- A lifetime friend leased a new one of these when the SS with the 3800 came out. It was a really beautiful car with every option. And he takes such good care of his cars that his current daily is a 2000 Accord with 355,000 miles! However, his MC was a quality nightmare with all kinds of electrical issues and the transmission was clocking out by the lease end. Until I started reading and now occasionally writing for CC, I drank gallons of the GM juice. Now we drive a Nissan Rogue (lifetime power train warranty!) and I drive a 2017 Ford Explorer.
Thanks, Chip! The years and numbers are hard for me to believe sometimes, even when I look at how long I’ve been here at CC – over a decade now. How did that happen?
The interesting thing about addiction is that it can be pretty much with anything, even with shopping or for a specific type of thing to buy for that hit of dopamine, even if it doesn’t physically harm us. Many of us just have to be careful – a lesson I’m glad I learned when and how I did.
It sounds like a good thing that your friend’s Monte Carlo was a lease and not a purchase. Maybe it’s telling that the MC’s lease on life had ended not long before GM had filed for bankruptcy. I think the GM of the 2000s was more interesting than the GM of the ’90s, with more differentiated designs and some risks taken. It’s a shame the quality wasn’t always there.
Congrats on your break-up anniversary Joe!
Thanks, Dave! In many contexts, sometimes an ending can signal a great, new beginning. I had fun until I didn’t.
“Chevrolet’s popular-priced personal luxury coupe that had launched a slew of imitators upon its introduction for 1970.”
I tend to disagree with that sentence. The Monte Carlo was the last of GM’s 5 divisions to introduce a personal luxury hardtop; the first, being the Buick Riviera in 1963, and then Oldsmobile with the Toronado in 1966. Even though the Grand Prix and Eldorado names were used on top-line Pontiac and Cadillac hardtop & convertibles, it wasn’t until 1967, the Eldorado and 1969 when the Grand Prix got the characteristic, ‘long-hood; short-deck; no-rear seat room’ requirements to make them into personal luxury cars. Ford introduced the Lincoln Mark III, based on the Thunderbird 2-door in mid-1968, and it took Chrysler until 1975 to introduced their personal luxury Cordoba, five years after the Monte Carlo was introduced.
The key to understanding my intent with that sentence is “popular priced”. There were many upscale or upper scale PLCs going back to arguably the ’50s, but even the ’69 Grand Prix was significantly more expensive than other midsize coupes. The first MC was not.
Studebaker tried that ‘low-priced luxury’ effort 8 years earlier with their redesigned G.T. Hawk. Problem was, it couldn’t be made “luxury” enough as options buyers in that market expected on it were never available, including a full-length console, power windows, power seats, extra courtesy lights, etc. Don’t get me wrong, the Monte Carlo was a nice, entry-level personal-luxury car that was in keeping with Alfred Sloan’s mandate for Chevrolet Division, though one must keep in mind, the MC had an enormous list of options that would have priced it into Grand Prix territory had a buyer specified enough options and accessories. And the first-generation Monte Carlos are still my all-time favorite of any of them.