I have had my years of hot rodding around - maybe they will come again when I retire, but for now I'm very content to sedately go to and from work and pick my kids up from school.
So I bought this thing, looking at the curb weight and looking at the HP and torque ratings, expecting a nice, boring, really not fun to drive, but long lived car. I had an 84 240GL in the mid nineties, and that's exactly what it was.
I am *amazed* at how much fun this thing is to drive around. I cannot believe that I've got the absolute base model, it's 16 years old, and yet it's this enjoyable.
In a straight line it goes down the highway comfortably. It merges without drama. It overtakes and passes *surprisingly easily* with such a flat seeming torque curve.
It corners - well pretty darn nicely! It certainly doesn't feel as long as it is, turn-in is much quicker than I expected, it corners flatter than I expected, and overall it far exceeds what I would have been happy with for a 16 year old full size wagon.
And while I am not one to push such an old car hard, it just naturally seems to want to open up and go in 2nd and 3rd. I hit the cruise control "resume" in 5th today after the guy front of me moved over, and was surprised at the solid, noticeable pull, on a pretty good hill, from about 65 to 80. This car has enough oomph that I have to admit I kinda enjoy those situations where I need to give it a little extra, but it still doesn't require me to rev to the stratosphere - even when doing a spirited merge I'm very rarely hitting beyond 4K RPMs. At one point I wondered if I'd missed a turbo under the hood.
(And might I point out - all the above is with mud and snow tires on it - because that's what it came with, and that's what's staying on it until spring)
I came from a late 90's Saturn. That car was an absolute miracle - I paid less than $700 for it 5 years ago, put maybe $1200 into it since then, and it got me to and from with no problems - if a careless neighbor hadn't totalled it while it sat in front of my house, I bet I'd have got 5 more years from it, easy.
I respected that car - that it was so reliable and got the job done after nearly 20 years. With what insurance gave me for it, I was very skeptical of finding the same thing again. And while the jury is out on my V70 as far as that kind of thing goes (through no fault of its own), I absolutely did not expect to find something I could actually enjoy for this amount of money. I have owned brand new cars (mid-range domestic brands) that weren't as much a joy to drive as this thing is.
Those of you with newer or higher performance models - well I can imagine that you skip down the sidewalk to get into them every day. I think I'm a Volvo convert now, and this will be my preferred brand going forward. (Though I don't think I'll ever buy one new, unless there's a big windfall in my future.)
Anyway - I really love this thing - and I didn't expect to. I hope everyone is enjoying theirs this much.
