Classic Volvos

starting to fall in love with cars from the 'drive it like you hate it' era

122s, 544s, p18000s...

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what can be said? Can't find too much info besides wiki.

My pops was a Volvo fanatic - and passed it on to me.

Drove a 122s two-door to high school, bought a 142s as my own car, and then had a 164E that only dies after I drove into the back of a dump truck. Awesome cars.

Guy in my neighborhood has a 142 he is wanting to send to a good home. Spare engines, doors, hood, transmissions, etc. Just need the money.

I regret selling our '67 122s to a co-worker. I'd just done an entire front end rebuild and rear axle bushing fix, plus the engine was a B20 out of a '72 142 that had 20K on it. That thing drove great, unstoppable.

Oh, my!

Always liked these....

sweet.

never seen one like that. bitchin mob car.



I had a 142. miss that pos. couldn't kill it with 200k on it. the wife got rear ended hard enough to roll it.
the emt's told her the car saved her from a loud fast ride in an ambulance.



and I still have a classic volvo, it's doing the dishes right now. oser

I've always liked these.

Although I like the wagon a little more...

I used to see this one in San Mateo while I was driving my stock '51 Merc.

Mine was orange with a pine green interior



The fender yer not seeing was blue.

Little brother had a 164, but he never could get it running.

M

Not mine, I had a white one but I miss it sometimes, a really solid feeling car, ate Corvettes on Ute pass.

It's nice looking but geeze, half of the fun of these cars was the surefooted traction and ground clearance. I took ours out on a rocky spit on the McKensie river that jeep owners would drive onto, blew a few minds with that car.

Roger Moore's car from "The Saint" in AACA Museum-Hershey Pa.

way cool

My family has had a lot of Volvos ...

Volvo 164
This was Dad's first Volvo. It met its end when it tangled with a semi. Dad was brand agnostic to that point, but the safety features and crush zones enabled all four to walk away.

Volvo 244
Not the "luxury" of the 164, but every bit the solid and reliable car. The car was Economics Professor beige - the dismal science. This replaced the totaled 164 and was driven to way over 200K miles. It was traded on a Volvo 850 (see below).

Volvo 145
After having a Ford Courier and a Jeep Wagoneer as a second car (camping, backpacking, firewood getter), Dad picked up a used white 145 wagon. This is the Volvo I wish I had now. It looked exactly like this picture.


Volvo 245
The 145 was getting long in the tooth (250K miles) and Dad had an opportunity to upgrade to a gently used 245 wagon - "hot chocolate w/ marshmallows brown." This car was donated to the "needy" when Dad moved to a Honda Odyssey mini-van in the 2000s. Coincidence that he abandon the brand, I think not.

Volvo 850
Dad still has this car (and a Honda van). It's bullet proof. He has over 220K miles and would not hesitate to take it on a long trip, and does.

Volvo 740
PaleRider's (wife) first Volvo. Solid, safe car, but you needed a sundial to time it from zero to sixty. Wife used it for kiddie duty when they were young. Traded up to a V70XC for the wagon room and FWD (740 anemic rear-driver not so good in Colorado).

Volvo V70XC
Last Volvo I'll own. This thing was a huge money suck. Not like all the cars above. I bought my first Japanese cars, ever, due to this POS.


Brother:
Volvo 244 (traded for mini van, family got "too big")
Volvo S60 (still owns)

that is a beautiful example

What sort of issues did you have? I have seen some reference to problems with the V70XC. I have a 1999 V70XC with about 100k miles that I've owned for 85k miles. The only issues I've had have been the ABS module which just needed the power connections resoldered and the throttle position sensor went bad which was replaced under a recall/service bulletin outside of the original warranty.

mine was a '99 as well ...

- leaks in the fwd/awd (front), at least 5+ trips to/from dealer, never really fixed
- engine gaskets continually needing replaced (2x) - less than 100K mi.
- electronics/computer: engine surge, sputter (eventual Volvo recall)

$4000+ in non-maintenance type repair, repairs you might find acceptable after many, many miles. Whole different car from the other ones listed.

My first car was a 122s. Great car- easy to work on, nice to drive, safe-ish. My wife had a 240 when we first started going out. We bought that car for $625, drove it for three years (nothing but oil changes), and sold it for $600 as soon as I put the ad up. I'd definitely own another rwd volvo. The trouble is it's impossible to find any of the newer volvos with a manual transmission. I'd kind of like a 740 turbo wagon with a stick shift, but they're as rare as hen's teeth.

Oh, and there used to be a site called "amazon journal" IIRC, that had some good info on the 122 series, and the swedish bricks forum had some great info too. I owned a P1800 for a while, but it was a project that never came to fruition. Someday I'll own another.

I had a 1956 PV-544, the ones that look like old fords. I actually liked it. It was reasonably peppy and handled well. It eventually became a problem finding 6volt parts though.