New girl on the block

Here you can talk about the joy owning a Volvo 480 brings. Non-technical discussions take place here, like what is the difference between an ES and a S version.

Moderators: jifflemon, coyote1980, Rachel

macaroni
Knows where Volvo is from
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Joined: Tue Apr 24, 2007 12:52 pm

Post by macaroni » Fri Jan 04, 2008 7:02 pm

Blimey, my turbo is that good and I wouldn't expect £900 for it!

It's still at £450 with 2 days left...

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Murf
Friend of Club 480 Europe
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Post by Murf » Sat Jan 05, 2008 8:52 pm

Welcome!
Just to contradict Sopie, ive had no probs at all with the 3 early turbos ive had and some large problems with the later 480's ive owned!
It all depends on luck and how the cars been treated, use common sense when buying and dont buy a ropey one!

My mates got a williams clio, its nice but i think a chipped 480 turbo would have it in a straight line :)

Here it is:
Image

PS, i HATE french cars!!
Kia Pro'ceed GT 1.6 Turbo
1992 480 Turbo
2007 Focus ST

Rachel
480 Is my middle name
Posts: 1567
Joined: Thu Feb 09, 2006 2:21 pm
Location: Bucks

Post by Rachel » Sat Jan 05, 2008 9:08 pm

Welcome MiniHaHa :hopping: Good luck with finding your new ride :D
'95 Storm Grey 323 Manual Turbo, Richmod
----------------------------------------------------------
'95 Flame Red Celeb, Nos.191, 2 litre, LPG, used to be Adams ;) SOLD
'95 Vase Green Turbo~ Vanessa~ 'Serendipity' manual, Richmod. RIP
'90 Light Blue 480 Turbo auto....RIP
'68 VW Type 3 1.6 auto Lotus White,Swedish import. SOLD
Audi 80 coupe Gold...pimp my ride! RIP
'76 Bug, Ocean Blue, lowered, Empi wheels.RIP
'72 Bay window VW Camper 1600 twinport. Sold

Sophie
480 Is my middle name
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Location: Somewhere over the rainbow

Post by Sophie » Sun Jan 06, 2008 2:10 am

Murf wrote:Welcome!
Just to contradict Sopie, ive had no probs at all with the 3 early turbos ive had and some large problems with the later 480's ive owned!
It all depends on luck and how the cars been treated, use common sense when buying and dont buy a ropey one!
I only said that because that's the general opinion here. My 88' is fantastic, 2 of the later ones I had, or at least one of them, was a pile of ****. I wouldn't swap my "granny" for any other 480.

As for french cars, after 3 205 GTi's, 1.6 115, 1.9 130, 1.9 rally car, a Renault 5 GTT, an AX, and borrowed AX Sport (weber carbs, not solex, great fun), I'm not too impressed...
480 Turbo > 1989 Graphite Grey
MR2 MK1 > 1989...
[img]http://membres.lycos.fr/cosworth/la_team-bordelaise/Sophie.gif[/img]

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chris1roll
Friend of Club 480 Europe
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Location: Using LOTS of petrol!

Post by chris1roll » Sun Jan 06, 2008 12:32 pm

That the newer cars are better is a myth. The newer ones, if anything seem to rust quicker!

E.g. my car,a 1989 F reg, for the past year it has been a bit of a swine, lots of random problems, but at the moment I have it down to just no high beams, no heated seats and a HUGE crack in the windscreen that I don't have insurance for. However, Its only just started showing rust on the arches, and the bottom of the doors - to a degree that in your typical e-bay listing it would still be declared as rust free. But I know its there....... and for the first four years of ownership it was absolutely brilliant reliability wise.

Hopefully this year, now the house is up together I can spend some time and effort on it getting it all back up to scratch again.

Oh, and having owned all the engine variants, including both the different 1.7 N/A's I would still go for the turbo every single time. I particularly dislike the 2.0 for its godawful tappet noise!


So, in short - choose the engine you want, don't worry at all about how old it is, just make sure there is NO rust on it - (trust me, it is ALWAYS worse than it looks, paint and underseal hide ever such a lot - never trust the ads or the sellers that say the only rust is just the size of a ten pence piece and "nothing to worry about"- yeah and once you've ground out all the rust your left with a hole the size of a ten pound note!), and that everything works - at least that way you can fix stuff as it breaks rather than starting with a car that you'll get fed up with before you experience what it can be like!
You may have to wait and be prepared to travel lfor the right one - there are still some out there.

Ah, just noticed you own a real mini - well, you don't need me to tell you about the powers of rust then.......

Welcome, BTW

Chris
2001 V70 XC 2.5T
1989 744 GL Auto

MiniHaHa
480 Newbie
Posts: 16
Joined: Wed Jan 02, 2008 12:37 pm
Location: Essex UK

Post by MiniHaHa » Sun Jan 06, 2008 12:49 pm

That was annoying just wrote a lengthy reply with photos of my cars to be told error I had not posted enough
aarrgghhh

anyway that 480 I like is up to £800 now so think it will go for what he wanted.

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Dan the 480 Man
480 Is my middle name
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Post by Dan the 480 Man » Sun Jan 06, 2008 7:05 pm

The whole arch thing can be very decieving, as i found out at the beginning of last year. From the outside, it was fine...

Image

But i unearthed a little a little bit of rust, and what started off as (to quote Chris) 'a piece the size of a 10p', a little poking around led it to this...

Image

...and in turn, led to this (pic taken from inside the rear arch):

Image.

Mine was a '93 Turbo, but my Dad's is a '91 Turbo, and bodywise, his was far better. The whole car felt better to be honest-but this is an age old discussion! Fortunately, my arches were repaired, but as you can see, it was in pretty bad shape!

So if you go to have a butchers, make sure you poke around the arches (but not too hard!).
[size=75]My website: ::: [url=http://www.dcmoore.co.uk][color=black][b]dcmoore.co.uk[/b][/color][/url] :::[/size]

Rapid-R5
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Post by Rapid-R5 » Tue Jan 08, 2008 2:28 am

............or, you could buy a rotton 480 turbo (theres loads of them), pull the engine out and put it in a renault 5!!! :D

Then spank all ya mates in thier expensive cars.


steve
Renault 5, 1.7 volvo turbo engine, turbo technics turbo, lowered on koni, scorpion stainless exhaust, samco and stainless pipework, front mount intercooler, about 170 bhp.....more to come!

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JohnTurbo
Friend of Club 480 Europe
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Post by JohnTurbo » Tue Jan 08, 2008 8:40 am

Rapid-R5 wrote:............or, you could buy a rotton 480 turbo (theres loads of them), pull the engine out and put it in a renault 5!!! :D

Then spank all ya mates in thier expensive cars.


steve
You don't need a car to spank your mates, merely a whip!

:D :D
Past:
94 Turbo - Red
94 Turbo - Black (Converted from NA 2.0)
92 Turbo - Red
90 Turbo - Silver
Now:
00 Exige
15 GKD Legend
16 Skoda Superb

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VanDerGraaf
480 Is my middle name
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Post by VanDerGraaf » Tue Jan 08, 2008 9:58 am

Rapid-R5 wrote:Then spank all ya mates in thier expensive cars.
John is right- surely the bedroom is the right place for that (more space)?

;)


Erm, Hi Jaine, since you like cars with a bit of go, get a 480 Turbo, chip it, and run that around- lots of fun and as Murf says probably a bit quicker than the Williams for outright speed! If found mine to be quite economical when driven carefully.
Welcome to this rotting steel ark of life's waifs and strays that we call the 480 Club Europe!


Rohan :)
08 Renault Laguna III Sport Tourer 2.0T 4 wheel steering madness
00 Citroën XM ES9 V6 incredible

Previously:
00 W210 Mercedes E430 V8 estate LPG .....wünderbar!
00 W210 Mercedes E320cdi estate dead, eaten alive
95 Citroën XM 2.5 TD estate dead
95 Citroën XM 2.1 TD stolen/dead
'97 Saab 9000 Aero gone
Vase Green '94 Twin Pipe 480 Turbo
"Scar", Vase Green '94 Turbo dead
"Green Goblin" '93 Turbo Auto PITA, dead
Grey '88 ES dead
Steel Grey '93 480 Turbo sold and believed dead

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VanDerGraaf
480 Is my middle name
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Joined: Thu Apr 15, 2004 9:06 pm

Post by VanDerGraaf » Tue Jan 08, 2008 10:00 am

JohnTurbo wrote:
Rapid-R5 wrote:............or, you could buy a rotton 480 turbo (theres loads of them), pull the engine out and put it in a renault 5!!! :D

Then spank all ya mates in thier expensive cars.


steve
You don't need a car to spank your mates, merely a whip!

:D :D
John, you were far too forthcoming there.
And why have I been left out? Too far away? :cry:


;)
08 Renault Laguna III Sport Tourer 2.0T 4 wheel steering madness
00 Citroën XM ES9 V6 incredible

Previously:
00 W210 Mercedes E430 V8 estate LPG .....wünderbar!
00 W210 Mercedes E320cdi estate dead, eaten alive
95 Citroën XM 2.5 TD estate dead
95 Citroën XM 2.1 TD stolen/dead
'97 Saab 9000 Aero gone
Vase Green '94 Twin Pipe 480 Turbo
"Scar", Vase Green '94 Turbo dead
"Green Goblin" '93 Turbo Auto PITA, dead
Grey '88 ES dead
Steel Grey '93 480 Turbo sold and believed dead

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JohnTurbo
Friend of Club 480 Europe
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Post by JohnTurbo » Tue Jan 08, 2008 10:51 am

Yes! My spanking radius is narrow of diameter.

I'll be sure to beat all hell out of you next time our paths cross!
Past:
94 Turbo - Red
94 Turbo - Black (Converted from NA 2.0)
92 Turbo - Red
90 Turbo - Silver
Now:
00 Exige
15 GKD Legend
16 Skoda Superb

Wanderer
Started learning about 480
Posts: 55
Joined: Fri Nov 23, 2007 10:41 pm
Location: Shrewsbury, Shropshire

thread

Post by Wanderer » Fri Jan 11, 2008 6:42 pm

Nice to see another thread getting totally out of hand. just to add my twopennies worth .i've got a bog standard 480S and on my runs between Banbury and Oswestry I get 42.8 mpg and it's quick enough in it's standard form. I've got a Camaro if i want to go fast :hopping:
1995 Celebration 332

MiniHaHa
480 Newbie
Posts: 16
Joined: Wed Jan 02, 2008 12:37 pm
Location: Essex UK

Post by MiniHaHa » Sat Jan 12, 2008 8:28 am

Well that one on ebay went for £800 so it did get good money. Wait till I sell the Mini then have a look around, the choice is still between a 480 or a Pulsar gt-i. ooh yes please.
hope it is ok to stay now even if I am not a 480 owner (yet).
Jaine x
Clio Williams fast, fun & fabulous
Mini Cooper slow, fun & fabulous

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