Volvo 480 Club Europe

Afternoon All,

I am looking for a new owner for my 1993 Volvo 480 ES LTD Edition, two-tone turquoise and silver paint job (link to photos below).
I bought the car earlier this year from the FIRST owner, yes that's FIRST owner. She owned the vehicle from new and it was used as her daily car for 25+ years. She looked after the car very well and I have a big pile of receipts and invoices from her time owning the vehicle. From looking through the receipts I can see the car was given a new engine from Volvo at 70k miles and now has 93k on the clock.
I purchased the car for a bit of fun and to get me between selling my personal car and my new car which I now have. The car was given a new MOT and a service from an Indy garage before I purchased it in May and has driven faultlessly for me over the last few months. I have to say I have fallen in love with the quirkiness of this car and have really enjoyed using it daily these past few months although my heavily pregnant partner and young son have different opinions!
The car is in great condition for its age and most of the features all still work perfectly but their are a few issues I need to mention;
I cant get the radio to do anything but there is definitely power going to it, the screen is just blank?
The passenger door has dropped which I have been told is a common issue. Unfortunately, the opening of the dropped door has caused the door to catch and dent the front wing panel.
- The plastic door pocket on the passenger side has cracked and someone has attempted a bad superglue repair of it.
- The whole glovebox is loose and can be removed by pulling it out.
- The seatbelt holders are broken.
- The 'LIMIT' from the 'LIMITED EDITION' badge has fallen off and I don't have it.
- The struts on the boot have gone so I have been using a piece of wood to prop it open when needed.

Other than those things and as far as I've noticed everything works as it should including the pop up headlights, electric windows & sunroof, pop up aerial & heated seats!

Link to photos is here - https://ibb.co/album/QXrK0x
I have the original mats but they were still drying from being washed when I took the photos.

Car is located in Croydon and can be viewed almost anytime.

I believe this car will be perfect for someone with the right experience to bring it back to its dazzling best and I am open to offers on it.

Look forward to hearing from you all.

Hello there,

You'll probably need to post a link to an external pic hosting site, as per the Celebration ad also live at the moment.

I'm guessing it is a two-tone turquoise and silver paint job (it doesn't say in your 'ad') but it would be good to know - also it is likely to be a 1.7 fuel injected engine I think? Happy to be contradicted, so as we know

I'm sure we have wedgieficionados in the Croydon area, so you might even blag one of us to come and take a peek (but be careful, as we are sometimes a bit finicky!) (well I am). Sadly I'm in Lancashire so won't be able to pop round..

Good luck with the sale - I hope someone brilliant takes her on

Cheers!

Martin

Hi Martin,

Thanks for the advice, I tried to post a link to the photo but couldn't work out if I had done it or not.

Yes its a two-tone turquoise and silver paint job but I believe its a 2.0 rather than a 1.7 - feel free to correct me though.

Took me a while to understand the term 'wedgieficionados' but I think I'm with you now. Would be lovely to have someone with some knowledge come and have a look even if they are not interested in purchasing!

Thanks for your help!

Oliver

Hello Oliver,

I enjoyed the photos - the cars do scrub up well, even though the youngest (like mine) is now over 26 years old!

Am sure someone will give you the benefit of their experience, possibly even come to see the car too - they'll all say the same things like, "headlining has dropped at the rear, seatbelt holders goosed, pop-up motors need sorting (from the pics), electric aerial looks stuck up" and so on Just grin and reply with, "rear arches are sound, no creaking drop-links, paintwork original and lustrous, super clean interior, full MOT"

If you can bear to put a value on it, you could chance your arm too on Car & Classic (www.carandclassic.co.uk) which I've used very successfully to sell wedgies in the past and which is free to use - your photos would be an asset indeed on that site, and are easy to upload. There are a few cars on there at the moment, but you'll get an idea what yours is worth (even if some sky pilots are looking at daft dosh). Price it well and someone will snap it up

Good luck!

Martin

It will be a 2 litre - given away by the engine change at 70k. Volvo's fix for the oil consuming red dipstick engine was to swap it for a green dipstick one. Thankfully my 2litre escaped that fate, must have belonged to someone like me who prefers performance, but yours will have a much cleaner exhaust.
The 1.7 engine went in the 1992 two tones, followed by the 2 litre in 1993. Not many 2 litres have survived, so this is quite a rare example.

Just for the benefit of everyone else:

That looks nice!

Nothing you have mentioned or that I can see from the photos is any more than "standard 480 issues"; the most major job for someone is sorting out that wing - they are easily removed and replaced so just a question of paintwork on the replacement (unless you're really lucky...). And as has been mentioned, the later 2.0i two-tones were considerably rarer (the original idea of the two-tone, certainly in the UK, was that they help run-out the remaining 1.7 engines, but they proved popular enough for Volvo to keep producing them for a short while after that, so of course the later examples got the 2.0).

Good luck with finding a nice new home for her!

All the best

David

Thank you all for your advice and help with photos.

Yes the wing is disappointing, I may look into repairing it prior to selling if it becomes too much of an obstacle.

I will try and post on www.carandclassic.co.uk once I have a bit better idea of the price to put it up for.

May be worth checking that the wing damage hasn't been caused by a failed check strap in the passenger door.