The first time I saw a 480, I must have been about 16 or 17, I was out walking down a road near my house, as I was walking past a house, the car on the driveway caught my eye. It was an unusual looking car that kind of reminded me of the DeLorean off Back To The Future. As I got nearer and saw the badge on the back of the car, I seen the very familiar Volvo logo. I thought it was an unusual style of car for Volvo. I kept on walking to wherever it was I was going, and thought no more of it. I don't remember seeing one for a long while after that. I do remember seeing a Honda aerodeck and thinking, hmmm that looks kind of like that Volvo I saw, exept the Volvo looked better.
A few years later, My car at the time was a Rover 25.
Despite the numourus faults, I put up with the Rover for about a year and half, then I decided enough was enough, too many faults, Rover had just gone bust, the Rover has to go. I was browsing at some other cars, when I remembered that Volvo. I searched various websites trying to find what it was called. It wasn't long before I found it and was reading about the spec, then I REALLY wanted one!. I got an insurance quote for a 2.0 480. It was £200 cheaper than my 1.4 Rover!! So that was the decider, my next car would finaly be a 480. I spent weeks on ebay waiting for one to come up at a good price, but in good condition. Finaly, in October 2006 a White K reg 480 ES came up at £475 Buy It Now, in reasonable condition and good history, 95k miles. The car was near Ludlow, Shropshire. I asked the seller some questions regarding electics etc, and apart from the sunroof not closing properly, everything worked. So I clicked the Buy It Now button, and that weekend me and my Dad drove over to Shropshire in the Rover. We met the guy who was selling it and he shown me around the car. I was so surprised at the extra little things I didn't know about, like the glowing key hole and the Info Centre. I was so exited driving it home, I said to myself "I finaly have a 480.....and IT'S FANTASTIC!!" When I got home, I got straight to work on cleaning the inside and out. Then I read through the manual and learned some other stuff, like how you can close the windows and sunroof from the door key hole. A few days later I put her in for MOT, passed no problem.
Througout the winter the slightly rusty wheel arches were slowly getting worse. In April 2007 I got a quote off a body worker for £400 for all 4 arches. So I had that done a few weeks later, and what a difference it made to the look of the whole car! She looked so much better.
Other than the wheel arches, there hasn't been too many expensive repairs that needed doing, apart from a complete exhaust system and a new wheel bearing. Other than that she's drove like a dream.
If driven casually, I find the 480 surprisingly good on fuel. In August I filled the tank up, drove 100 miles to Skegness, did plenty of miles driving around up there throughout the week and drove 100 miles back all on the same tank of petrol and I still had 1/4 tank left.
I have had 2 breakdowns, both with the same problem. Part of the distributor cap melted and was stopping fuel getting into the engine. I had the cap and a rotor arm replaced, so far, no more problems there.
In the past week I have discovered the greatness of this forum. I actually registered back in May but totally forgot until now. I have seen some fantastic dash styling and loads of other things I want to get done on my 480. So I'll probably be posting more very soon.
, and in black!).
