Official

Chevrolet revives the Monza name with a midsize sedan

Set to debut at the Guangzhou Auto Show

Chevrolet is bringing the Monza name back for a midsize sedan with "dynamic design that inherits the brand's sporty DNA." This sedan is set to debut at the Guangzhou Auto Show in China, but Chevy dropped a teaser of the front end today.

Its styling speaks to the possible sporty nature of the car — though there's no shortage of boring-to-drive cars with aggressive looks, so that's no guarantee. The grille is huge and has a honeycomb design with an RS badge on it. Intricate-looking LED fixtures are being used to light the way ahead. This Monza's hood looks to be relatively muscular, helping feed into the sporty design. That's pretty much all we have to work on for now. Seeing the Monza name come back (its full name will be Monza RS) got us thinking of the original Monza, too.

Chevy built the two-door Monza for model years 1975-1980. It was derived from the Chevy Vega and only lived as the Monza for a short time. It had a sporty slant to the styling and came in a few different body styles: hatchback (fastback styling), coupe and station wagon. The Monza came to life in a terrible era for automobiles in general, though. Emissions standards forced anemic engines on everybody, and the slow Monza wasn't long for the world.

GM had used the Monza name even before the Chevrolet Monza model came out. You could have bought the rear-engine Chevrolet Corvair Monza in the 1960s. The Monza name was slapped on a mid-engine 1962 Chevrolet Corvair Monza GT concept car too. We included a gallery of past Chevys associated with the Monza name for you to reminisce on what was.

Chevrolet Monzas
Chevrolet Monzas
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We'll know what the new Monza looks like soon ( Malibu-like, maybe?), but it's still unclear who the car will be for. Its debut in China hints that it might stay far away from the U.S., especially when midsize sedan sales are being swallowed by crossovers.

Speaking of crossovers, Chevy is debuting a crossover concept in China called the FNR-CarryAll. It looks like a large Blazer, sporting the same Camaro-inspired front end design.

Chevrolet FNR-CarryAll

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