The real 'last Monaro' is finally sold

[csv8]

DRIVE The real 'last Monaro' is finally sold
Joshua Dowling
April 5, 2012 - 1:03PM

Six years after production ceased, the last Holden coupe is officially off the books.

The last Holden Monaro ever made was sold at auction six years ago for $188,000 to raise money for charity.

But the last brand-new Monaro in dealer stock was sold only last month for about half the price, almost six years after the car went out of production.

The burnt orange HSV GTO Coupe – build number 739 and with just 17km on the clock – was kept by Holden dealer Alan Mance as a collector’s piece.

But the dealership in the Melbourne suburb of Footscray was urged by Holden to get the car “off the books” because it was old stock.

The official VFACTS sales figures for March 2012 showed the sale of one Monaro – even though the model had not been listed for at least four years.

Phillip Mance, the 47-year-old son of Alan Mance and 25-year veteran of the car business, told Drive: “I haven’t even driven it. I reckon it’s a collector’s item. There’s never going to be another two-door coupe made in Australia. Those days are gone. It’s a piece of Australian history.”

Mance junior has no plans to drive the car and will not register it. “It’ll stay in the family,” he says.

The HSV GTO Coupe had a recommended retail price of about $88,000 when new, but being a Holden dealer the cost of this example is likely to be a little less than that.


The Monaro has only done 17km.
Alan Mance has been a Holden dealer since 1978. The company also has the last of the Kingswood-based Statesman sedans in its collection.

The Last Holden Monaro CV8-Z was built on December 13, 2005 but was resprayed a unique colour and then auctioned for charity on e-Bay in February 2006.

That car was bought by a Ford fanatic and collector, Queensland-based Darryl Mattingley.

However, after the last Monaro-badged vehicle was made, Holden's Adelaide factory continued to build the two-door coupe in various guises for HSV and for export until 9.37pm on June 14, 2006.

Mance’s HSV GTO Coupe has a build date stamp of June 16, 2006 as the date it left Holden Special Vehicles.

The last Pontiac versions of the Monaro were exported to North America in a final batch a few days later.

Unlike the fanfare surrounding the last Monaro, which was unveiled at the Melbourne motor show and featured in the mainstream media, Holden's final coupe rolled off the production line with no fanfare.

A group of nightshift workers gathered around the car and one of their colleagues snapped some photos. The last red coupe was sold as if it were any other Pontiac GTO.

At the time, the owner of the last Monaro told Drive he was still happy with his purchase. “Mine is still the last Monaro,” Mattingley said.

[BHDOGS]

i see these drive around all the time god they have aged

[nstg8a]

id own one, still a nice car imo.

[vanman_75]

Lad at work just sold his for 27 , didn't hold the value like he thought it would . Nice car though .
Good stuff that they are keeping a low k example for the future ...it will be worth a bit in time , though I agree with above - didn't age well :/

[Iggypoppin']

I think they look great, I'd own one for sure. A nice car, badge aside and all that.

[mik]

it`s a holden i`d own also , much nicer than the current models.

[chrisfpv]

Originally Posted by Iggypoppin'

I think they look great, I'd own one for sure. A nice car, badge aside and all that.

The standard Monaros are pretty meh, but the HSV GTOs are pure porn.

[flooded one]

Originally Posted by chrisfpv

The standard Monaros are pretty meh, but the HSV GTOs are pure porn.

yep the GTO and GTS coupes look way nicer then the standard Monaros. the front ends look heaps better

[Buntz]

I like the Monaro I'll admit. without all the bodykit extra's and such.

But the Efijy is the only Holden I lust for.

[flooded one]

my favorite holden i would one day love to own is the old HK-HG Broughams. love the **** end and tail lights on those things. that would look nice sitting next to an XW GT! I can only dream

[Dave R]

Originally Posted by BHDOGS

i see these drive around all the time god they have aged

Rubbish, CV8-Zs still look great to this day.

[b2tf]

Originally Posted by Adrenaline

Rubbish, CV8-Zs still look great to this day.

Agreed. Welcome in my garage any day.

[Danny]

Originally Posted by Adrenaline

Rubbish, CV8-Zs still look great to this day.

+2

They really are a special vehicle. I really really like them.

[Struggo]

Originally Posted by Adrenaline

Rubbish, CV8-Zs still look great to this day.

Spot on, CV8-Zs = sexy time

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3Zg5Ws-dCQ

[Smoke Pursuit]

Yeh id have one!! Just not in that dated bloody Tiger Mica colour!!

[MrZ]

So that brings the total number registered in Australia to 13,905.

Originally Posted by DASH GT

Yeh id have one!! Just not in that dated bloody Tiger Mica colour!!

It's a little odd that someone would remember that colour considering it's from 2001. I remember on a family trip to QLD we had a Tiger Mica VX Commodore rental car. It was quite a unique colour at the time, and always made it easy to find our car again when we parked it (unlike say, a white Commodore).

[Chopped]

These WILL be collectable. No doubts about it.

Give them twenty years and watch the prices copy what happened to all of the seventies muscle (remember that no one wanted them either in the late eighties / early nineties).

Cashed up, fifty year old Gen Ys will be reminiscing hard about the Good ol days of the first decade and wanting to re-live it......just like the baby boomers did !

(We are currently in the twilight of this muscle period, 2016 is the end of it :( )

[Trevor 57]

2 door Commodore, nothing more, nothing less

[nstg8a]

Originally Posted by Big Trev

2 door Commodore, nothing more, nothing less

same as an old school monaro is 'just' a two door kingswood... or a falcon hardtop is 'just' a 2 door falcon...

[Trevor 57]

Originally Posted by nstg8a

or a falcon hardtop is 'just' a 2 door falcon...

I have one of them and that is exactly what I call it

[Crazy Dazz]

If I was ever going to return to the darkside, it would be for a 2-door Monaro.
Either the original HK-T-G, or the latter.
I would probably rebadge it as a Pontiac though.

[FG50T]

VZ model monaros were and still are great!

[flappist]

It is interesting that they consider a GTO a Monaro because it is directly related with almost the same options and components even though it did not have the actual Monaro badge or compliance plate details.

Using the same logic there are a large number of Phase IV GTHOs (RPO83) getting about........

[LightningStrike]

Sorry to be a nerd, but the cv8z monaro gold isn't tiger mica, but Fusion Gold. The colours are close, but fusion has more yellow to it. Compare it to a Vt SS and tiger looks more orange, fusion more yellow. I'd search myself but I'm typing with hands covered in waterproofing compound, gotta get back to work!

(Yes, definetly welcome in my garage too, make mine a 297kw Fusion Gold GTO please, clunky manual of course! Sure, in reality they are a two door SS, but cars aren't all about logical decisions now are they?)

[Nikked]

Originally Posted by Big Trev

2 door Commodore, nothing more, nothing less

Nice brain fart....

[Trevor 57]

Originally Posted by Nikked

Nice brain fart....

Thanks

[gtxb67]

Originally Posted by nstg8a

same as an old school monaro is 'just' a two door kingswood... or a falcon hardtop is 'just' a 2 door falcon...

old school 2 door monaro's (hq-hx at least) were just 4 door monaro's with the rear doors welded shut
all 2 door versions of the said vehicle were called monaro's, but the gts was also made in 4 door versions too

[Stefan]

Holden fans got the Monaro and we got the AU..

Great looking car.....considering "large coupes" have always failed to be profitable in OZ it's amazing this car actually happened....

[BroncosXR8]

Id have one too, but I reckon the Monaro looks HEAPS better than the GTO/GTS... can anyone say the 'new' plastic pig?!

Actually I think the best looker was the 427 HRT example that never got of the ground, was so clean and simple.

[DJM83]

Originally Posted by Adrenaline

Rubbish, CV8-Zs still look great to this day.

Agreed even the first CV8 Monaro in my eyes looks stunning to this day.

Ill never forget, my ex g/fs is a motoring journo and we were returning a test monaro to Melb and we were followed down the hume highway by a bloody helicopter for about 10kms