4 Monkees Drive Away in 1967 GTO And Create TV History

The Monkeemobile’s $360,000 sale in 2008 wasn’t the whole story — it was proof of how valuable a documented TV car had become. Customizer George Barris restored the surviving GTO-based car before it crossed the auction block, while tribute replicas built to the same spec have separately sold for over $200,000. Here’s what happened after the cameras stopped rolling.

Back in the TV days of yesteryear a 1967 GTO was called upon to transport a group of Monkees and be the spokes car for a wacky group known as The Monkees.
Still popular today, The band and the car have an almost cult like following.
The Monkeemobile is a modified Pontiac GTO that was designed and built by designer Dean Jeffries for The Monkees, a pop-rock band and television program. The car features a tilted forward split two-piece windshield, a touring car convertible top, modified rear quarter panels and front fenders, exaggerated tail lamps, set of four bucket seats and an extra third row bench where there was originally a trunk, a rear-mounted parachute and a GTO emblem on the front grille.[wiki]
Two cars were contracted, one for the television program and the other as a promotional car, for touring car shows around the United States. Both cars would be built in the span of four weeks. The first version originally featured a 6-71 supercharged engine, a solid mounted rear axle (no springs) and extra rear end weight. This was to enable the car to “pop wheelies.” Because the car had too much power and was difficult to drive, the original blower set up was removed and a dummy blower was fitted. The second car was used as a touring car for auto shows and promotional events. Before its transformation into the Monkeemobile, the second car was first seen on TV as Major Nelson’s GTO in “I Dream of Jeannie”. Both were used on The Monkees TV series, one during the first season and both throughout the second season.[wiki]
In related news: SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. – January 22, 2008,The iconic “Monkeemobile†incited a bidding frenzy and sold for $360,000
Looks like the buyer went”bananas” for the Monkeemobile

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The $360,000 sale in 2008 wasn’t actually the end of the Monkeemobile story — it just proved how much bigger that story had become. Because the car crossing that Barrett-Jackson stage wasn’t simply a modified GTO. It was a specific piece of Detroit iron that had been rescued, restored, and turned into one of the most valuable television vehicles ever sold at public auction. What happened to it — and to its lesser-known siblings — says as much about collector car culture as it does about a 1960s sitcom.

One Restoration, Two Decades in the Making

George Barris — the customizer better known for the Batmobile — is the one who tracked down and restored the surviving Monkeemobile before it went to auction, turning a piece of forgotten TV memorabilia into a documented, sale-ready collector car. That restoration work is a big part of why the 2008 sale hit $360,000: buyers weren’t just paying for a customized GTO, they were paying for a verified link back to Dean Jeffries’ original build and a fully authenticated restoration trail.

A Market for Cars That Were Never Meant to Survive

The Monkeemobile’s afterlife also created its own collector niche: tribute and replica versions, built to the same Dean Jeffries specifications but without the original TV provenance, have themselves sold for well over $200,000, and a European touring version built for the band’s UK promotional tour sold separately for $127,000 in 2014. That gap between an original and a faithful tribute — still six figures, but a fraction of the real thing — is a pattern seen across TV and movie car collecting generally, where documented screen use is worth more than build quality alone.

Not Every Monkeemobile Had the Same Ending

Not every Monkeemobile got the Barris treatment. Two donor cars were built for the show and its promotional tour, and after production wrapped, both were offered back to Dean Jeffries for as little as $1,000 apiece — an offer he turned down because building new ones from scratch was cheaper than buying back the originals. One of the two cars was left behind in Australia in 1968 following a touring stop, resurfaced years later as a hotel courtesy car in Puerto Rico, and eventually sold at a government auction for just $5,000 — a reminder of how close this now six-figure piece of TV history came to being forgotten entirely.

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