Gary Labate

When I bought the Montreal in 1979, it was pretty faded on the inside, and through the San Jose phone book, I called a bunch of places and finally found an upholstery shop that was brave enough to take it on. The engine was fine. I had an Alfetta GT and I was driving it every day from my home in Los Banos about 80 miles each way to San Jose, so I wasn't worried about that.

When I first drove it, before I decided to buy it, the Montreal was really nice. When you got it out on the freeway, it tracked beautifully, and really wanted to run, just a really satisfying car. Some people say how many problems there are with the SPICA fuel injection, but the only thing I've done is change the fuel-injection filter, check the pump cam timing and adjust it every once in a while, and I've had no problems yet.

The other big thing, maintenance-wise, is probably the steering box, which has a tendency to crack. It came from an English company that used a very thin wall casting, but I haven't had any problems there, either.

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