So while I live the high life of a Brit in Canada escaping our beloved bankrupt rock, I’ve stumbled on a new problem: Car ownership in Canada.

Canadian insurance…is…expensive. That’s a lie. It’s eye-wateringly unbelievably expensive. Even with a full ‘G’ Canadian licence, no claims, letter of UK no claims, living in a nice area…and so on…expect to see atleast $3000 on 1998 Honda Civic/Toyota Corolla….at aged 25.

Hence…I need to be thrifty, I have a new job lined up in Waterloo, Ontario but it will mean I will need a car, the transport links in the city I’m moving to aren’t great and I want to have transport for getting up to Northern Ontario and out to the West Coast on amusing roadtrips anyway (as well as cramming work related gear into it, I get paid a ridiculous milage rate so that will pay for most running costs)

Mercedes W123 and W124’s are rare as cheese, not to mention unbelievably overpriced. A manual diesel is like finding unicorn poo. (what i wanted originally)

However, Volvos, and old ones at that, are seemingly everywhere, and they built them here (in Halifax), which makes them alot easier to come by, alot cheaper, and frankly less hassle. However, I’ve never owned a moose hauling brick of Swedish steel so I am hoping you guys can tell me about them, give me some advice on what to look for and in particular the best engine/gear box/year suggestions?

Many thanks in advance. For the record, I’m after one, as they’re cheap here and pretty bulletproof mechanically – something I’m after.

any help or advice gladly received 🙂

p.s. i should add, i’m going for a bangeromics approach here, unfortunately there isn’t anything awesome, light, diesel and french here and most of the ‘native’ brands…well…less said the better

i’m going for a bangeromics approach

Wouldn’t a bangernomics approach start off with buying something common as piss and cheap to fix instead of esoteric and imported?

“they built them here (in Halifax” – konabunny, they’re built in Canada…

I do apologise, I completely missed that detail.

I remember 2 things about mine: it appeared virtually indestructible to the point it could be used as an armoured personnel carrier; the fuel guage seemed to descend at about the same rate as the speedo went up.

If theres lots about then keeping it running on second hand parts should be easy.

Can’t go wrong there. Any rwd volvo will be pretty much bullet proof

Very good cars providing you don’t drive it flat out everywhere. Good carrying capacity in estate version and pretty reliable.

I think they were all 2.3 litre engines…my dad had several and they were all that size. I think the older versions had a teamed engine of some sort but these cars were never driven fast so I don’t know what the tweak was.

So the new job is an 80s antiques dealer?

Had an old 240 estate (2.0l) for a couple of years. Paid peanuts for it and did nothing to it. The wife demolished a small wall with it, which scuffed the bumper a little but other than that, no problems. Fuel consumption was the only downside – 30mpg on a good day if you were very lucky but usually low to mid 20’s. Mind you, it had done 150k miles so was probably not in the rudest of health. Great car though and tremedously spacious/versatile.

Often fancied modifying a 240 and shoving a V8 in it, like what those crazy Swedes do.

glacially slow

Old Ovlovs are indeed bomboroof. See if you can find and old 9 series, though. Luxury car ride for peanuts. Oh, and the biggest boot of any car i’ve seen!

W123 spec are a delight. The extra money may well trade off in that they’re even more bombproof than a Volbo!

First car I had was an old 240. It had done 175000 miles and was still going strong. Drank fuel like nothing else and the engine was a bit gutless, but thats only because of how old it was. Huge boot, comfy (for an old car) and pretty bomb proof.

I had an Amazon which predated the 200 series. Most of the mechanicals were shared. So in essence they are 1950s bombproof.

Great cars, but thirsty.