For the Volvo Geeks

[Tim]

6 years after selling my '87 240 in a fit of stupidity during a cross-country transfer, I have finally located the vehicle again.

Funny how things go...the vehicle resides about 1/2 mile as the crow flies from where I lived when I bought the car new in 1987! I actually laid eyes on it tonight for the first time since '99. Hope to discuss a deal with the current owner (#4) soon.

I sold the car in '99 with 269,000 miles on it. It currently shows 103,500! Turns out the #3 owner replaced the broken gauge cluster with a junkyard replacement and didn't make any mention to the state. No wonder the CarFax had a bunch of exclamation points on it!!

I met with owner #3 yesterday. He gave me the original cluster showing 308,821. He also returned the hard cover log book that contained 269,000 miles worth of maintenance and diary entries for the vehicle. What a treasure that is!

Best I can tell, current mileage is about 320,000. The car is living outside on an unpaved driveway. The folks who own it don't appear to provide anything with much tender loving care. It has been hit in the rear and not repaired. Generally dirty and grungy. No telling how the oil changes have been kept up. All those short OCIs on Mobil 1 won't help it now!

I really need to get that car back....

 

[mormit]

Since the current owners are so lax in their upkeep, they probably are not BITOG'ers. Otherwise, they would know that you are motivated to get the car back.

Good luck. Sounds like a decent car that deserves not to be sent to an early death.

mormit

 

[PandaBear]

Tim, why did you sell it in the first place? Did all of a sudden you had a dream that the car is begging you to rescue it?

Good luck.

 

[Tim]

I was being transferred on short notice cross-country, I would be living in temporary quarters for at least 6 months without a place to park it, I was getting a company car, and a Volvo enthusiast at work really needed an extra car at the same time. I sold the car to him at about 1/3 market value, on the condition that he would contact me first if he ever decided to sell. He sold it 2 years later to someone else! He also refused to give me any feedback on who it was (what a buddy, eh?).

I decided about 3 months ago to try to track it down. My oldest is turning 16 next summer, and I thought it would be cool to teach her to drive with the car that brought her home from the hospital.

It has been difficult traking the car down. I was wandering through an apartment complex yesterday trying to communicate with folks who don't speak english as to the whereabouts of the Volvo that used to live there!

It is going to be a bit of a resto project if I do get it. I actually feel kinda bad that the baby I treated so well for 12 years is now getting neglected. I hope to speak with the owner today (through his daughter - she is bi-lingual). We'll see how it goes!

Tim

 

[PandaBear]

Good luck Tim, hope everything works out for you. I hate it when that happen too. You do your friend a favor and he/she turn around and sell your favor for profit.

 

[Stanley Rockafeller]

WoW talk about a dedicated Volvo owner!!! I don't think I've ever tried that hard in my life to get a girl back. I'm also a huge Volvo fan (esp the old 240 and 140 series), but I'd never consider going that far for any of my cars...unless I were to get on hard times and had to sell my 88 BMW.

I wish you all the best and hope it works out for ya!!! make sure to post some pics!!!

 

[Tim]

I am in mourning...

Got my first good look at the car in the daylight.

Un-repaired fender-benders front and rear. Lots of scratches (though still no door dings after 18 years!). Badly cracked windshield. Demolished door pockets (common), moulding missing and hanging off, but worst of all - under the hood...

Bone dry overflow, badly cracked fan shroud, missing vacuum hose on intake sucking raw unfiltered air (!), oil on the dipstick looked like it was from a old in-direct injection Mercedes diesel (gritty too), inside the oil fill cap was full of gritty sludge and the smell coming out of that cover almost made me hurl. The entire engine compartment was filthy. The first 269,000 miles you could eat off the engine.

Amazing what a little neglect can accomplish, especially with an older vehicle that is just waiting to run downhill if you let it.

A sad day for me. I am bumming...

I need to find a new old Volvo to make me forget about the one I let get away.

 

[Pablo]

Kinda like women from the past. Better off pretending you never new them.

I know what you mean - the 85 245T at 260,000 miles is slowly approaching Alzheimer's. Yesterday I smelled melting plastic insulation in the cab....shoot I didn't even have the guts to seek the source. It is a love thing.

 

[Quattro Pete]

Tim, I feel sorry for your loss. Please accept my heart-felt sympathy.

I felt terrible giving up my A4 earlier this year. This car has done absolutely nothing wrong to me and it was my passion, yet I had to part with it. It was sitting at a used car dealer lot for some time, waiting for a new owner until my dad decided to buy it. While I know my dad will not take as good care of it as I did, I'm happy it stayed in the family and I'll know its whereabouts for a little longer. Maybe I'll buy it back some day, who knows...

And just to stay on the Volvo topic

, my mom has a V40 with a 2.0T engine - it's a quick little thing, but the torque steer is a bit annoying during hard acceleration.

 

[Pablo]

Volvo FWD pretty much sucks. The mass mourning is for RWD Volvi.

 

[drm7]

There is a beautiful 80's era 240 wagon for sale near me. It looks in mint condition and has the turbo badge. My wife had an 850 that we sold to her parents but we both love the boxy 240s. I've been tempted to stop by and see what they are asking.

Are these old ones rear drive? How much can HP can you crank out of the turbos?

 

[Pablo]

245 T's were made 81-85. 84-85 interccooled. All oil cooled stock, but most have been converted to water cooled cartridges by now. Stock the 2.1LTi was about 160-170 hp with lots of torque. Easy to get 200+ hp out.

Check the car out. Get back with us. What year, miles, etc. How much $?

With old bushings, shocks, worn springs, etc the cars drive like crap. BUT for not that many dollars and extremely easy to work on - the suspension can be renewed, stiff anti-roll bars and upper/lower stiffening bars can be added...as like on my 1985 245Ti

 

[Tim]

Oh brother...guess what came in the mail today? The IPD catalog I ordered last Friday, in anticipation of needing to buy lots of Christmas presents for the old Volvo

Thanks for feeling my pain guys. It helps to know there are others out there as sick as me.

So now I'm thinking....maybe I should just pour all my automotive love into the '97 Cruiser (LX-450) - it is half way to 300,000 miles and is built much stouter than the Volvo. Maybe it is a better platform for attempting a 30 year 500,000 mile automotive relationship? Of course, I have not owned it since new like I did the 240 (sniff, sniff).


Tim (the loser who should learn to quit selling stuff)

 

[Tim]

Just an update on this nearly year old thread:

Last week I drove by to see if the old 240 was still around. It was parked in the mud off the end of the driveway, with construction debris between it and the street and a blue plastic tarp over it.

The owner's daughter (the only one in the house that speaks english) was on the porch, so I stopped, gave her a business card, and asked her to tell her dad I was still interested in buying the car.

I drove by again today and the car was on the drive, looking relative clean, and with no tarp. Maybe he is getting it ready for a sale???

I have never been able to get so much as a price out of him. I plan to have one of the Spanish speaking ladies at my office call over tomorrow to see if there is any hope of a deal.

I have resigned that if I do get it back, I will have to re-build the engine. I guess it would deserve it after what is now probably 325 - 330,000 miles.

 

[TheLoneRanger]

Hope you get it back, Tim. In a case like yours, you're not just buying a car, you're buying a piece of personal history.
Everyone needs a hobby.....

 

[Tim]

Quote:

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Hope you get it back, Tim. In a case like yours, you're not just buying a car, you're buying a piece of personal history.

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So true. 12 years of daily driving, family vacations, bringing two kids home from the hospital...

Then there is the note in the logbook (that owner #3 gave back to me after I tracked him down) from December 8, 1989. I was changing the brake pads in the garage (PBR dustless from IPD!) and my wife interrupted the job to tell me she just got a positive on a home pregnancy test!

Yes, you could say there is some history there!

 

[JeepZJ4.0]

Wow... I have a sort of attachment to a car like that Tim. My dad bought a 1977 Mercedes 280E in 1990 when we first moved to Houston. Right before I got my drivers permit, he donated it to the Salvation Army. I found it two years ago sadly, have no spending money to buy it and keep it again. We kept getting Impco catalogs after it was gone... I miss it. I was doing some research in our library and went down to the Microfische. I found a MotorTrend archive dating back to 1949. I found an article about the ol' Benz and have a copy of it sitting in my desk. The best bits were:
180 horsepower, 11 seconds to 60 and four wheel disks, and it was the 1977 Import Car of the Year.

Hope everything else is going well... oh, and you shouldn't stop selling stuff... where else would I have gotten my S7000?

 

[Tim]

Quote:

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Hope everything else is going well... oh, and you shouldn't stop selling stuff... where else would I have gotten my S7000?

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You still running that same oil?

I think I still have three quarts in the garage. Come and get it if you want it...my contribution to the future leaders of our country!

 

[JeepZJ4.0]

HAHA! Yeah... I've hit 30,000 miles since I started college but I'm only 2000 miles into my last of the S7000. The Jeep now has 30 inch BFGs, new Infinity speakers (i blew them... Journey believe or not...), new virtually new front suspension (short of an axle and tie rod), and this weekend, is getting new motor mounts and tranny mounts. It's been an absolutely fantastic vehicle. I am not driving it to Waco though... my mother is letting me borrow her Avalon so I can make there and back in on one tank (maybe..) PM me your address... I have something I'm going to mail to you..

 

[Mystic]

Have you seen that Volvo commercial-who would you give a Volvo to? I am still trying to figure out that one commerical.