Junkyard Find: 1979 Chevrolet Monza Wagon
When I first glimpsed this Malaise Era compact wagon in my local wrecking yard, I thought “Wow, I haven’t seen a Vega in a junkyard for years!” Then I saw the grille and realized that I was looking at an example of the very rare Monza wagon, which was a Monza snout grafted onto the discontinued-after-1977 Vega wagon. At the risk of enraging the small but very devoted Vega Jihad, I’m going to pronounce this thing The Most Terrible Station Wagon Detroit Ever Made.
This one has the 3.2 liter version of the venerable Buick V6 engine, which made a pretty-good-for-1979 105 horsepower. You could also get a ’79 Monza with a 130-horse, 305-cubic-inch V8, and one can only hope that a few of these were made with the V8 and the four-speed manual transmission.
The automatic transmission siphoned off much of that V6 power, unfortunately.
The Monza wagon listed at $3974, only 60 bucks more than the ’79 Chevette four-door. The Pinto Pony wagon could be had for $3,633. Meanwhile, the ’79 Honda Civic wagon was priced at $4,759.
I’m trying to dredge up some sadness that this car, which somehow managed to stay on the street for 32 years, is going to be eaten by The Crusher… but I just can’t do it. Next stop, Chinese steel factory!
Murilee Martin is the pen name of Phil Greden, a writer who has lived in Minnesota, California, Georgia and (now) Colorado. He has toiled at copywriting, technical writing, junkmail writing, fiction writing and now automotive writing. He has owned many terrible vehicles and some good ones. He spends a great deal of time in self-service junkyards. These days, he writes for publications including Autoweek, Autoblog, Hagerty, The Truth About Cars and Capital One.
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Here's a nicer example: http://dayton.craigslist.org/cto/2450080347.html
I chuckled when I saw this. Last summer I scored a rust-free '77 Monza 2+2 hatchback for $500. The young fellow I bought it from works at a nursing home and bought it from the family of an elderly female resident who owned it and passed away. He drove it for a couple years and then parked it. Being a lifelong gearhead and professional mechanic, and growing up in the 70's and 80's I'm well aware of these cars' many shortcomings. Nevertheless, I always liked their styling and their handling capabilities. Mine is a factory 305 / TH350 car. I intend to make it a street legal psudo-drag car with an all-aluminum small block or LS1 conversion, fiberglass front clip, Wilwood or Brembo brakes up front, and the S-10 five-lug axle / brake conversion in the rear. Due to So. Cal's draconian smog laws the factory 2-barrel carb must remain, but K&N makes a breathe-through air filter top that should feed it extra air just fine.