1975 Chevrolet Monza Towne Coupe - Weren't the 70s a Drag?



 

 

Having had the misfortune of being born in the mid 1960's, that meant I had to grow up in the 1970's - a decade that certainly had its challenges. Vietnam, Watergate, Nixon, two gas crisis, a double dip recession, Jimmy Carter, Iran, bell bottoms. Even the Yankees stunk for a good part of the decade. For the most part, 1970's cars were terrible too. Here's one of the 1970's more loathsome if forgettable bombs, a Chevrolet Monza. Our canary yellow subject here is a 1975.

 

  

The Chevrolet Monza of the 1970's, there was a Chevrolet Corvair Monza back in the 1960's, was a curious automobile in that it was derived from the notorious Chevrolet Vega. Apparently, despite numerous recalls with the Vega and scathing public sentiment against it, GM still felt compelled to give it not only a second act, but expand upon its role giving Oldsmobile, Buick and Pontiac versions of it as well. What's more, Chevrolet continued to sell the Vega along side the Monza through 1977. That's probably an observation that seems odder today than it did back then - the Monza was longer than the Vega and its styling different enough from it that it, perhaps, appeared to buyers back then as a totally different car. Nonetheless, Monza significantly outsold Vega those three model years when the two models were for sale on the same showroom floors.  

 

 

 

In it's day, Monza was heralded, if anything, as a styling success. John DeLoreon going so far as to call the swoopy 2+2 model an "Italian Vega" since it borrowed several design cues from the then current Ferrari 365 GTC/4. Our subject is the more conservatively styled "Town Coupe". If I was shopping for a new car in the mid 1970's I'd have skipped over both of these little crappers and bought a Camaro.

 

 

Were the Monza was decidedly not "Ferrari like" was under the hood. That's a "steel sleeved" version of the infamous aluminum, overhead cam, 2.3 liter  in line 4 cylinder Vega engine. This engine had been notorious for burning oil, shaking itself apart and head gasket failure but by 1975 Chevrolet had engineered most if not all of its issues out. Credit the steel sleeving of the cylinders for a lot of that. An optional 262 cubic inch V-8 was optional in 1975 and 1976 before it was replaced with new for 1976, Chevrolet 305. I know. A V-8 in a car this small but keep in mind this was the 1970's so those V-8's weren't that powerful. Also, these little cars weren't that light at 3,200 pounds fully loaded. The Vega 4 cylinder engine was replaced by the new, Pontiac built, 2.5 liter, "Iron Duke" 4 cylinder engine for 1977 through the end of the Monza's production run in 1980.  

 

In a day and age before the imports became as popular as they eventually did, when just the concept of cross over sport utility vehicles was still decades away and fuel economy ruled the buying decisions of many buyers looking for an inexpensive vehicle, the Chevrolet Monza did quite well. Chevrolet averaged approximately 150,000 of them sold each year from 1975-1980. Pretty decent. Couple those numbers with sales of the Monza's corporate cousins  the Oldsmobile Starfire, Pontiac Sunbird and Buick Skyhawk, and General Motors owned a size able share of the subcompact market in the 1970's. Which makes us recall John Lennon's quote shortly before he died, "weren't the 70's a drag?" Yes, John. They were.