Aero Convex Passenger Side Mirror

All I know is in 1990 when I had 2 kids and didn’t have a pot to piss in I would have killed for this $19k 240DL. It was the ultimate safe, comfortable family mobile. I’d go to the Volvo dealership on Sundays and drool over it. Later in our marriage my wife got an XC90 SUV. Drove it for 100k miles and never did anything but change the oil and tires. But it was just a tool. I was so frustrated with our BMW 4.8L V8 X5 I decided to get something that I knew would be completely reliable. It was but it was a tool. But much better than that X5 POS. Last new BMW I ever bought.

I believe someone said it above.  My 30-mile weekday commute takes between 2.5-3 hours due to traffic.  It's the sole reason I sought out a vehicle that is comfortable and reliable.  I may not be the biggest Tesla advocate, but I get it.  When I look over at the commuters next to me and they have their autopilot on as they are reading or watching Netflix, I get it.  Traffic sucks.  There's really no passion in driving when you are riding the brake for 2.5 hours.

But......that is the reason I own the speedster.  For the times I want to be one with the car.  No electronic assists.  I feel what the car feels.  I smell what the car smells (or provides).  I feel the temperature of the air the car feels (which in itself is funny how we both have similar levels of distain for the extreme heat or cold).

@550 Phil posted:

All I know is in 1990 when I had 2 kids and didn’t have a pot to piss in I would have killed for this $19k 240DL. It was the ultimate safe, comfortable family mobile. I’d go to the Volvo dealership on Sundays and drool over it. Later in our marriage my wife got an XC90 SUV. Drove it for 100k miles and never did anything but change the oil and tires. But it was just a tool. I was so frustrated with our BMW 4.8L V8 X5 I decided to get something that I knew would be completely reliable. It was but it was a tool. But much better than that X5 POS. Last new BMW I ever bought.

I had a 1987 535 for ten years that was the last one

.

I must be getting old.

When someone says 'classic Volvo', this is what comes to mind:

OK, this may have come up here before, but it's very possible the late 1960s were a sort of high water mark in car design. Even the Volvos looked good. Granted, they may have been, uh, 'inspired' by the Alfa Coupe, but that wasn't necessarily a bad thing.

When it came time for 'bold, new styling' maybe they let the engineers have a little too much say in things. The new thing was lower, longer, wider and must have had more leg, shoulder, and hip room as well, right? But at what cost? I do remember at least one auto writer at the time saying the 144 looked like the box the 122 came in.

The whole 'safety' thing may have been some ad man's attempt to nail down a new market niche that no other maker thought worth going after. I remember Volvos being pitched mainly as surviving salty winters better than anything Detroit or British Leyland was stamping out at the time.

They told us that, in Sweden, "90 per cent of all Volvos sold in the past eleven years are still on the road." And we all chimed in, "The rest made it home OK."

At the time, my dad was having some health issues and suddenly decided to stop driving and pass on the job of family chauffeur to me. At nineteen, I would have the privilege of getting a brand new car of my choosing. The only downside was that it had to have four seats. The MGB was off the list. As was anything at the Ferrari dealer, four seats or no.

I came damned close to getting one of these. It was kind of cool in a metrosexual kind of way. It may have gotten a reputation for toughness because Swedish rally drivers could bounce them off of trees and, somehow, keep going like the Eveready bunny.

So, I came damned close.

But it was 1968 and a little motorcycle company in Bavaria had just started to import another small sedan that was even cooler looking and had a way better suspension.

And it was getting some amazing reviews in all the magazines.

.

I found Volvos from their rally prowess. I couldn’t have cared less about safety. I’d venture a guess that I put 15,000-20,000 miles on my green 145 off road. All over Utah, NV, CO, and WY camping in the middle of nowhere. At least 5 passes of the Burr Trail before it was paved.
Loaded up most of a band I was working with’s gear for gigs in Moab, Jackson, Ketchum. Drove home from eastern Wyoming in a whiteout snowstorm for Christmas in 83. Loaded everything I owned into it and drove to Denver through a couple more storms in 91.

My green 145 was where I discovered Vredestein Sprints. Just as good in snow and dirt as they were on dry pavement.

I’d probably have one still if a buddy had never told me about a $600 BMW 2002 that needed a head gasket. I did BMWs for about 10 years then a riding buddy insisted I buy his 911SC because no one would give him more that $10K in trade for it when he moved to San Diego and bought a 330i convertible.

@El Frazoo posted:

Had '70 145 B20B automatic. The fam wagon. Worked -- barely. It ate a cam lobe after a while, reportedly not uncommon due to some bad metallurgy somewhere. Actually on the lifters -- they were over hardened,  too brittle. Long story.  Rebuilt that engine, stock, using parts from a shop somewhere in Wash state that was totally in to Volvos -- probably still are.  After my rebuild and swapping SUs for Strombergs (not much improvement)  car worked more or less as intended.  Then eldest son got his dr lic and I figured safety-first.  How much trouble could he get in to? slush-O-matic that could hardly get out of its own way. He spun it out three hours after he got his adult Lic.  Hopped a curb sideways on a wet road, blew out two tires, no other damage.  Taught him a good lesson, no incidents since then, some 40 years later.

IPD. I knew it well.  They’re still around, but it’s more of Volvo boutique than a performance shop like BITD. (Harder to customized computerized cars)

Not too long ago, the owner sold his personal 242 and company test mule on BaT. IIRC, it went for about $30K.

The weirdest thing about my 145s was that because the factories were rebuilt by the US after WWII, they had a mix of metric and SAE fasteners. IIRC, the engine and the body were metric and all the chassis/suspension were SAE. I never had to work on my 71 164 so I don’t know if that was similar.

Yes IPD.  Could not recall the name earlier. They were very helpful, had to buy a new cam, lifters, valves and timing gear amongst many other things. Being the family carrier, I had to really hustle.

"In 20 years who is really going to be interested in a 1950s replica. I just don’t know."

I could add that if you want to understand some true madness concerning old analog cars from not just years ago, but actual eras ago, take in the Great Race one summer.  See if it comes anywhere near you, then go watch them come in for lunch or dinner.  Some of these cars go back to the aughts, and a "new" car would be one from the 60s. Just sayin', I guess what Stan said " there will always be . . ." And the Great Race has  an award category for Novices; there were some teens involved.  I recently attended the semi-annual gathering in Ocean City MD (mostly hot rods, but really all sorts of stuff) and while there are plenty of old guys with grey hair riding around in their well loved rods, there were plenty of yougun's there too.  I came away thinking this sort of silliness may go on for ever.

I had a 145 in the 70s and an 850 waggon in 1997 One of my uncles, had many many Volvos

I have to say that when I had that 97 waggon full leather, it was a nice car, family car but I remember getting home after two weeks away and hopping into my 1987 535 and as I was going down the road …. just saying ahh…now this is a car.

the Volvo was new and it did everything well but certainly was not an exciting car to drive and it had issue with the light switch that would just choose to not function, AC would lose the Freon regularly.

I once test drove a 242gt  with recaro style seats and Very Stiff suspension around 1978 ish you had to enjoy the boxy top heavy vehicle, but to make it performed they had to stiffen up the suspension so much. I felt like my kidneys were taking a beating

@El Frazoo posted:

Yes IPD.  Could not recall the name earlier. They were very helpful, had to buy a new cam, lifters, valves and timing gear amongst many other things. Being the family carrier, I had to really hustle.

IPD is where I learned how expensive factory boxes were. Front wheel bearing in a Volvo box = $21.95. Same exact SKF bearing (made in Sweden, back when they did) in an SKF box from Kamen Bearing = $8.95.

@El Frazoo posted:

"In 20 years who is really going to be interested in a 1950s replica. I just don’t know."

I could add that if you want to understand some true madness concerning old analog cars from not just years ago, but actual eras ago, take in the Great Race one summer.  See if it comes anywhere near you, then go watch them come in for lunch or dinner.  Some of these cars go back to the aughts, and a "new" car would be one from the 60s. Just sayin', I guess what Stan said " there will always be . . ." And the Great Race has  an award category for Novices; there were some teens involved.  I recently attended the semi-annual gathering in Ocean City MD (mostly hot rods, but really all sorts of stuff) and while there are plenty of old guys with grey hair riding around in their well loved rods, there were plenty of yougun's there too.  I came away thinking this sort of silliness may go on for ever.

I'll second this suggestion.  They came through Charleston a few years back and the cars and associated pageantry were incredible.

They've been through New England three in the past 15 or so years.  Once through Bennington, Vermont years back (Bennington has the publishing offices of Hemmings Motor News ), once through Rhode Island (overnighting in Warwick), and again this year stopping in Providence, RI.   Catching them at their lunch or overnight stop can be a very cool experience.  The cars and teams are nothing short of amazing.

About 5 years ago my newly licensed son couldn't stop on a rain slickened highway and plowed into the back of a guys heavy duty work truck. Probably 30 mph at contact.

Totaled our XC90 and barely dinged the truck. The crumple zone allowed the radiator to be pushed back and become part of the block.

My son was fine, but shaken up.

The guy in the truck hardly noticed he had been hit until he saw an attorney.

3 years later the insurance company settled with the moke 3 days before the trial was to start.