1975-1978 Chevrolet Monza V8
Actually, although the Monza was arguably a decently styled vehicle, it was an engineering abortion.......particularly in the V8 configuration. With the optional V8 engine, you were required to loosten the front engine mounts and jack the entire engine assembly up about three inches in order to change the rear two spark plugs in each bank.
Due to the reduced frontal air intake area, the V8 version was nearly impossible to keep from overheating in warmer climates like Florida and Arizona, and the thermostatically controlled booster fans that were installed as a retrofit solution were so noisy that you could not hear the radio when they were running.
Then there was the body torque problem. With any early manual transmission version, the unibody was so poorly designed that a hard shift would torque the body to the extent that the doors would not open. This was resolved by welding stringers under the transmission and engine to strengthen the body, but they further reduced an already minimal ground clearance by about an inch, meaning that the car would drag its undercarriage on most "speed bumps".
Then there was the rust.......mostly built in the same plant as the Vega (Lordstown, Ohio), they suffered from the same poor bare metal rustproofing problems that plagued the Vega, until about mid-production, when the phosphatising dip tanks were replaced, and better quality steel was utilized in the body fabrication. All at an increased cost of course. Toward the end of the production run, the vehicle had become so expensive to produce that its end cost, and retail price, rivaled a base model Camaro, which was a far better overall vehicle, from the point of view of quality, and value. It died an ignomatic death at the hands of the accountants, and none too soon......
doc
