Background:
As I would imagine to be the case for most people on here, I've always liked Volvo cars for some reason. The first car that I can remember is my dad's 340, which was a particularly unpleasant shade of green, and was composed primarily of rust. I recall pushing my fingers through the front wheel arches, which would have been somewhere around eye level at the time, and watching chunks rust crumbling away. There was an old oven tray on the floor of the garage to collect the oil that would drip out from the engine, emptied once a week or as necessary, and a trickle charger permanently hooked up during the winter months. Looking back on it, I'm not sure why that would make anyone inclined to buy another car of the same marque, but there we go. My mother had an Austin Metro, and I seem to remember being able to see the road through a hole in the floor, so relative to that, maybe a few spots of rust and a leaky engine weren't so bad after all.
Once the 340 finally fell apart, we got a brand new 440 in white. Big improvement of the 340, but it didn't last long as it was a manual, and shortly after acquiring it my dad's knee joint ceased to function as a knee joint should, rendering him unable to operate the clutch. Fortunately, the local main dealer had a fully-loaded maroon 440 demonstrator (possibly a GLT?) with an automatic transition that they were getting rid of, so the white one was part-ex'd for it. It had a spoiler, which as far as I was concerned basically made it a Ferrari. How much difference it actually made to the handling is probably up for debate. It was around this time that I became aware of the 480 - whenever the 440 went to the main dealer for services and MOTs there would always be a few of them either in the showroom or in the car park, and it goes without saying that they were without question the most exciting car I'd ever seen. I'm pretty sure that I decided at that point that as and when I got round to owning my own car it would be a 480. Much later, I discovered that my dad also held ambitions of owning one, but my mother decided that it was not a suitable family car to transport me and my younger sister. Such is life.
After that, we looked at either a late 850 or a first-gen V70 2.5T, and ended up with the latter. It was, and probably still is, the most comfortable car I've ever been in. No idea why they don't make them like that any more, although I suspect that it has something to do with cost, and probably being owned by Ford and subsequently the Chinese (for further evidence to support this theory, go and drive a few Saabs). My folks currently have a Ford/Volvo V40, and I have absolutely no qualms in saying that it is a thoroughly boring vehicle, although it does get them from A to B with enough room for whatever they want to transport plus a couple of dogs in the boot.
Some car history:
Having learnt to drive, there was of course only one car that I wanted to own, particularly when all my friends were getting old Polos, Fiestas, Clios, and the like.
I ended up buying this rather beautiful car from a nice chap on a farm for £850:
I absolutely loved that car. One of my friends christened it 'Rhynor' (reasons unkown), so that's what it became known as. I had some great adventures with it, and it was a great companion for all the things that young people do with their cars. Believe me, it saw a thing or two.
To cut a long story short, I didn't look after it like I should have done, and eventually it became unsustainable and I had to let it go. To say that I have regrets about that is an understatement, but you live and learn. I won't be making the same mistakes with my current car.
After several of years of not owning a car (living in the middle of a city, being a student etc.) I acquired a Seat Ibiza. Very dull, and although it was a far cry from the Volvo, it got the job done. I have to give it credit for being (touch wood) un-killable. I have used it as a makeshift agricultural vehicle at times, dragging fence posts through fields and woodland, and it still runs (just). I even put it on its side in a ditch, removed it with a JCB, and it carried on like nothing happened, albeit minus a fair amount of trim, which was nothing eBay couldn't fix. I still have it (at least for now), and it gets used primarily as a dog transporter and general utility vehicle.
My current daily driver is a Saab 9-3 SE convertible, which (and I hesitate to say this on a Volvo forum) is a brilliant car. I bought it for £650 with 150,000 miles on the clock, but in absolutely mint condition and with a 100% clean MOT. It spent most of its life as a BT fleet car, and I can only assume that they took their maintenance seriously. It recently got me to the south of France and back without skipping a beat, although it did drink a fair amount of petrol in the process... It's got a 2.0l turbo engine, and I will admit that there are times when I wish I had that in the 480 (so Ade I completely understand where you're coming from if you are reading this!). It would absolutely destroy the 480 in a straight line, although it doesn't like corners very much, so that engine on a 480 chassis would be great fun indeed.
My current car:
Despite spending nearly six years without a 480, I never forgot about them. It was more a case of having the money, the space, the inclination to get back into what is often a potential well (to use some extreme engineering terminology) of finance, willpower, emotion, and most importantly the right car. I kept an eye on Car and Classic, Pistonheads, Autotrader etc. and found the occasional car from time to time, but none seemed quite right. I decided that having done the ES I wanted either a Celeb or a GT (I might have settled for a turbo, but I wanted as many optional extras as possible, in particular AC because the VEM looks cool), and after going through numerous adverts I found a red celeb that was undergoing restoration in about March 2016. No sooner had I done so than I noticed a green GT up for sale not too far from my office in what looked like excellent condition, so I gave the owner a ring, took a three-hour lunch break to go and have a look at it, and ended up buying it on the spot. Luckily, no-one at the office noted my absence.
Here it is:
So, having learnt a lot from my first car, and with somewhat more knowledge in general (not to mention space, time and money) than the first time around, the goal is to keep this one in the best condition possible externally and internally, making repairs and alterations where necessary, and making additions where appropriate. Unlike my first one, this one is not a daily driver, and thus it doesn't matter if it has to spend weeks at a time in a non-driving condition while things happen to it, as long as it spends more time working than not working!
A few of the things that have happened so far, mostly minor:
- Rear badge fell off and was re-attached.
- Pop-ups stopped working, then all rear lights and one DRL stopped working, ended up with a replacement pop-up relay thanks to James (I also fixed the old one and kept as spare) and a re-worked relay box courtesy of my local auto electrician.
- Replaced interior and number plate bulbs with LEDs, the number plate bulb holders having melted.
- New anti-roll bars.
- Replaced front and rear paper speakers with modern JBLs. Can almost hear the radio now.
So basically nothing particularly major. It was a very straight car when I bought it so my main job is just keeping it clean and running smoothly with the usual maintenance. I've probably done a few other odd jobs here and there but forgotten about them for now.
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