Last year, I bought a Chevrolet Cruze. I had a small windfall of money come in, decided that a fuel-efficient car was a smart call considering how much I drive around the country each year, and got the nod of approval from my wife. In theory, the six-speed Cruze Eco should have been perfect. When it was running right, it was…at least 38 MPG on the highway if not better, great interior room for a car that size, a trunk only just smaller than the one on Angry Grandpa, and it would run fine for day-to-day driving. It wasn’t fast and it wasn’t sporty, but it was competent. It was also an expensive pain in my ass that had more issues than Playboy, and was sold off unceremoniously earlier this year.

Right about the time that the Cruze was becoming a festering thorn in my side, I came across a very familiar flavor of car on a dealership’s used lot, in the form of a Chevrolet Monte Carlo SS Supercharged. I don’t remember if it was a 2004 or 2005 model, it doesn’t matter. The poor car was beat, and reeked of “military used car” in my eyes: bad stickers, random excess badging, and enough chemical scent devices inside that I had to open both windows and the sunroof so I could properly breathe. Why was I interested in a $3,500 throwaway coupe? Two reasons: a 2001 Buick Regal GS Joseph Abboud Edition and a 2006 Chevrolet Monte Carlo SS, past cars of mine that I enjoyed the hell out of during my tenure of ownership. The Regal was a stealthy moneymaker and the Monte SS is still the standard for a grand touring car in my eyes. Don’t choke on that thought…in 2009, I put 7,700 miles on that car in less than a month, including some time at Bonneville, a 100-MPH dash across Utah during a firestorm, and a banzai run from Wendover back to Fort Lewis, Washington after some genius cut my leave short and insisted that I be at work the next day.

The GM W-body isn’t something to sing the virtues of, but it’s not a car worth trashing either. GM built a competent front-driver, and in supercharged V6 form, they were potent. They weren’t musclecars, they weren’t that sporty, and they drive like you have half a ton of weight over the nose. But even this ragged-out, well-worn Monte could haze the tires off through first and second when booted properly and outside of the plastic interior parts, didn’t have any wayward squeaks or jiggles. Had I not bought the Cruze, I would’ve bought this instead, seriously. Had some moron not let his cargo van give my wife’s truck a nose job later that night, I might have traded the Cruze in on the Monte. At least the W-body wouldn’t require a $3,000+ clutch job in a couple of months…

Regular Car Reviews recently got to take on one of the many Monte Carlo/NASCAR combinations offered up in the 6th generation body, and Mr. Regular is looking at it as a “collector car” that should not be. He’s absolutely right. The “Pace Cars”, the driver-badged special editions…those were just cash grabs from NASCAR’s heights. Using the “Intimidator” as a model trim right after Dale Earnhardt, Sr.’s death seemed wrong then and in retrospect, absolutely callous. But as a car…trim level, name and everything else aside…it’s competent. Not collectible. Not overly exciting. But solid and just lively enough to live with. Or, from a BangShifter’s perspective, a solid daily driver kind of car.