Poppy the Celebration - 212/480!

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the_ape_man
480 Newbie
Posts: 2
Joined: Wed Feb 17, 2016 8:24 pm

Poppy the Celebration - 212/480!

Post by the_ape_man » Thu Feb 18, 2016 3:28 am

Hello everybody!

I'm the new owner of Poppy the Celebration - I've owned her since late October. Despite having a sticker advertising this very site on the windows of my car for the past 3 or 4 months, I've never actually been here before, so please bear with me.

You can see an old post by AcidicDavey about Poppy here: http://www.volvo-480-europe.org/forum/v ... 23&t=33213

Because I'd never actually been here prior to today, I never realised that Poppy is a bit of a celebrity around here. In fact, I never knew she was called Poppy until, by chance, I happened upon a post by AcidicDavey while looking at an old thread I found through Google. I think she's called Poppy because of the pop-up lights, but it also could be because her downpipe popped, or maybe even because she's red? Whichever it is, I think we can all agree that the name fits her very well.

I did include a link to some pictures here, but the spam filter says no, so I'll have to edit the post later.

Poppy is a 1995 Volvo 480 2.0ES Celebration with 101k miles. She is in great condition, though there are a few niggles. The heated seats don't work, the boot leaks a little bit, the rear wash system doesn't work, there is no windscreen washer nozzle on the passenger side, and the rear tyres, pads and discs have had it. The paint is also flaking a bit on the roof. Nothing at all major though, and I'll be replacing the discs, pads and tyres very soon.

That sounds pretty negative, but that's literally every issue with the car. Poppy is otherwise perfect, a shining example of a 480. All of the onboard computer systems work perfectly, the engine is rock solid and she's a blast to drive. She's quick when driven properly, with a lot of torque, yet also very comfortable and great for longer journeys. Everybody I know loves Poppy too - I often have kids asking me to show them the pop-up lights, I see people staring at her pretty often, and people (especially middle aged blokes) often stop and ask questions or offer compliments. My friends also love cruising in her, blasting 80s music with the windows down and pretending we're 80s guys. I know she's technically a 90s car, but still. Anyway, she's not as fuel efficient as a modern car, which is unsurprising, but she's definitely not as thirsty as you'd expect. I shift to second and third at 3000rpm in the city and shove it in 4th at 30mph, driving with no regard for fuel efficiency, and she gets just under 30mpg. On the motorway she'll sit at 80mph at about 3500rpm and get about 35mpg, which works out quite cheap. Definitely cheaper to run (for me, I do a fair bit of motorway driving) than my old Citroen C4 1.6 or my old Toyota Yaris 1.5, both of which were cheap in the city but got less than 15mpg at 80mph because they were at about 5k revs.

So, like I said, I bought Poppy from a nice bloke in Newcastle (I think he's a member of this forum too) last October. She cost me £1200, and I drove her back from Newcastle to Leeds. After getting her home, I thoroughly cleaned the interior and set about making a list of things that needed sorting out. Top priority was replacing the struts the hold the boot open, because the boot kept slamming on my head. I had the oil changed at a garage (I don't have an oil change tool) and also had the timing belt tensioner fixed, as it was squeaking a lot. I don't really have much more to tell than that, thankfully - the car has been very reliable.

Thanks for reading! I'll try and hang around tomorrow and keep you updated/answer questions, but I might forget.

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jamesy12345
480 Veteran
Posts: 753
Joined: Tue Apr 03, 2012 5:49 am
Location: Durham, England

Re: Poppy the Celebration - 212/480!

Post by jamesy12345 » Thu Feb 18, 2016 4:09 pm

Welcome mate, yes the car is well known around these parts

Michael mentioned he was selling it on - nice to see you on here
Current:
Volvo S60 '04
Renault 21 '91
Subaru Legacy '05
Mazda RX-7 '93
Renault 5 '84

Previous:
440 2 litre, 440 Turbo, 460 Turbo, 480 Turbo x2, 854 T-5R, S40 T4, V40 T4, S70 T5 & R, V70 R x2, S60 R

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dcwalker
480 Is my middle name
Posts: 1522
Joined: Sun Sep 16, 2012 12:30 pm
Location: York

Re: Poppy the Celebration - 212/480!

Post by dcwalker » Thu Feb 18, 2016 4:49 pm

Good to hear that Poppy is still going strong - I met her once when I had my Celebration (73) Morwenna.

Take care of her and I am sure she will look after you for a long time to come yet!

All the best

David
Current: 1994 480 GT, 1996 460 CD & 1997 440 LE with lots of optional extras & 2007 V50 SE Sport
Previous: Celebration 331 (re-homed with Richard S), Celebration 467 (returned to Martin Mc); Celebration 346 (re-homed with Alan480); Celebration 269 (scrapped abandoned project), Celebration 73 (sold on after 6 years), 1992 ES, 1988 ES - and numerous other non-480 Volvos!

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glasgowjim
480 Is my middle name
Posts: 4830
Joined: Sun Oct 01, 2006 5:28 pm
Location: GLASGOW SCOTLAND

Re: Poppy the Celebration - 212/480!

Post by glasgowjim » Thu Feb 18, 2016 6:19 pm

welcome :D

Norm57
Can tell where the 480 was built
Posts: 362
Joined: Wed Sep 30, 2015 5:08 pm
Location: Knaresborough

Re: Poppy the Celebration - 212/480!

Post by Norm57 » Thu Feb 18, 2016 7:27 pm

Hi welcome best of luck with Poppy,if you need anything there are at least two more of us in Leeds I live in Adel and there is another guy in west park cheers

Norm57

the_ape_man
480 Newbie
Posts: 2
Joined: Wed Feb 17, 2016 8:24 pm

Re: Poppy the Celebration - 212/480!

Post by the_ape_man » Sat Feb 20, 2016 4:06 pm

Thanks for the warm welcome!

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AcidicDavey
Can tell where the 480 was built
Posts: 316
Joined: Sun Mar 13, 2011 6:49 pm
Location: Hereford, England

Re: Poppy the Celebration - 212/480!

Post by AcidicDavey » Mon Feb 22, 2016 5:57 pm

Congrats!

You look after her now or you'll have me to answer to ;)

Dave
Poppy sold 2 year ago, sorely missed :(
Image

Now driving my 98 V70 AWD inherited 8 years ago!

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