[unruhjonny]

I have a real sweet spot for 78-80 Monte Carlos and Grand Prix's - and to a lesser degree the 81+ cars...

My the neighbor of a high school friend (graduated in 95) had a SUPER mint 1978 GP SJ;
Even though I was a Firebird guy, I LOVED that car.

Also for a good spell of my growing up, my mom's car was a 1981 Monte Carlo;
She received it brand new from her father, and he replaced it in 1994 with a Sunbird - so it was around from when I was four through to seventeen years old...
It was a two tone blue Landau model with a 305/4bbl - complete with blue cloth interior with front bucket seats and a console.

Last night I picked up the December 2024 issue of Collectible Automobile because it had an article on the 1981-1988 Monte Carlo;
I was shocked to read that the 1982-1985 Monte Carlos ALL had a front bench seat with column shift - including the SS.
I found a typo (because it just reads wrong), but figured it was a MAJOR blunder;

Not much changed for '82 ... Surprisingly maybe for a lack of interest, the semi-sporty interior option with bucket seats and a console was no longer unavailable.

The "un" in "unavailable" is the error;
When I read on it was apparent that it should have read as follows:

Not much changed for '82 ... Surprisingly maybe for a lack of interest, the semi-sporty interior option with bucket seats and a console was no longer available.

Did the GP have the same interior seating limitation between 1982 & 1985?

This might serve to explain why so many of the GP's I have seen over the years had a bench seat...

Growing up, I generally associated 1978+ Malibu coupes with bucket seats, 1978+ Malibu sedans & wagons with bench seats, 1978+ Monte Carlos with bucket seats, 1978-1980 GP's with bucket seats and 1981+ GP's with bench seats...