What was your first Volvo ride?

Post by **volvolugnut** » 02 Dec 2022, 07:29

A bit of play on words in the title. Two questions here.

What was the first Volvo you owned?

What was the first Volvo you rode in or drove?

volvolugnut

Post by **BlackBart** » 02 Dec 2022, 08:55

Oo, good question!

I was about to say they were the same car, but I think I drove a couple before picking ours. We had a new little human arrive, and the child seat didn’t fit in a Scirocco. I had been reading my old Road & Tracks about Volvo wagons, and a comparo of the 240 turbo, the Audi 5000 wagon with that fastback hatch, and one other I forget...Peugeot 504? I was already a Volvo fan, and they wrote that the 240 was more akin to a 60s sports car with RWD. That was all the justification I needed, plus the safety and the functional shape!

I wanted the last 245T, ‘84, with the smaller bumpers and the intercooler. There were no manuals to be found. There was a nice chocolate brown one I drove, but without the intercooler. Another dealer made me sit and wait while someone else drove and bought the car I had asked to see (I asked for records, HA! Troublemaker)

We found our grey ‘84 245T on a consignment lot and took it home. That would have been 1990.

Post by **volvolugnut** » 02 Dec 2022, 09:31

My first Volvo car and ride was after buying 1975 245 from a coworker in about 1989. It had about 113K miles, 4 speed manual, bright orange paint, and ratty cloth seats. Price was very reasonable at $400.
I changed fluids, filters and serviced the brakes. Then we drove it everywhere. Kansas, Colorado, Texas, New Mexico, Arkansas. It got around. By about 2000 it was getting tired with about 210K miles and I found a 1983 245 automatic.

EDIT:
Just remembered the first Volvo ride I had. My first year of college (1974) I was a member of the Kansas State Sports Car Club. They had a small autocross and I got a ride in another members Volvo. I think it was a PV544.

volvolugnut

Post by **MoVolvos** » 02 Dec 2022, 10:46

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First Volvo I rode in and drove was this 68 I believe, same color. Belonged to HS classmate's dad. Talk about steering play / slop and felt like there was no brake assist.
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: 68 Volvo.png (226.44 KiB) Viewed 605 times

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The second Volvo again was same friend's family 84 240 4D Turbo. After his first wreck Lawrence Volvo in Walnut Creek installed the Euro headlights from IPD besides suspension and intercooler but he paid the difference. Looked like this one.

http://classicvehicleslist.com/volvo/23 ... black.html

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The 3rd Volvo was my brother's 93 850.

In terms of ownership:

88 240 Wagon, 98 S70 T5, 2008 C30 T5 M66, 03 S80 T6, 00 S70 NA and 07 S60 2.5T.
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Post by **abscate** » 15 Dec 2022, 04:35

I vaguely remember riding in them in the 60s. Dad was an aerospace engineer so those types bought cars that were...engineered.

My thesis advisor was a huge Volvo fan, fitting into his near Red Socialist tendencies, so I drove home to conferences in his 740 and 940 as he couldn’t see. I bought a battered old 145 in a ITHACA but the traction was awful and I sold it pretty quickly.

Twins came in 1999 and we had to up our car game , we scored the 99 T5M56 off a dealer lot on a returned lease with low miles. Since then , they have bred proliferously.