Volvo estate appreciation

Saw a few things come up today about old Volvos with engine swaps and thought of this thread. Seems the Toyota 2JZ is a popular mod but the below 2 cars got a V10 in each – 1 x BMW M5 motor and 1 x Lamborghini V10 🤯

http://www.speedhunters.com/2014/08/volvo-242-bmw-m5-v10-gatebil/

Savile grey

unfortunate colour name!

Not sure if this has been posted before but this guy is doing a great job in sorting out an old V70 R. It’s a really sympathetic repair/modification series and he really seems to understand the cars. Made me head off to autotrader but then remembered the chassis on his California car is probably in a way better state than anything over here. Also, he actually has the skills to sort these things out!

https://youtube.com/@wheelemverb?si=rLGysIg6XKK8PDY5

unfortunate colour name

And why the Car goes by the name ‘Jimmy’

Someone buy this

http://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/305024882597981/

I’m after a cheap bike transporter but I think I’m done with old cars.

Looks mint though. Am I right in thinking that the 940 is the one with the gearbox that fits the T5 engine? 5 cylinders and 300bhp would liven it up a little.

Edit: Scratch that T5 idea. I’ve just done some reading and refreshed my memory on how strong and tuneable the old red block is.

A couple of years ago we had a V90 lease. Was in Scotland visiting family and headed back home by myself, the family travelling later. I stopped of at glentress for a couple of trails in the afternoon, then early tea at the cafe.

Loaded up, audio book queued up on Bluetooth, I pointed it south and didn’t stop till Oxfordshire. Absolutely sublime and hopped without an ache and made last orders. Such an effortless way to drive distances.

I’ve owned a V90 D4 for over 4 years now. It’s been from Renfrewshire to as far afield as West Sussex, Shetland and Orkney. It’s an effortless, refined and comfortable long distance cruiser. It’s as least as well built and more reliable than German rivals for quite a bit less money. Boot size is merely average given the overall size of car and the auto gearbox is way too hesitant in eco mode but the many good points allow such details to be forgiven. Mrs particularly loves the heated seats. It’s averaged 46mpg overall and tops 50mpg on motorway runs. Won’t be changing it for a very long time.

I’ve had my V60 D4 since November 2018 – also Savile Grey! I guess the association they were trying for was Savile Row. Absolutely brilliant car. Comfortable, reliable, looks nice inside and out, economical, roomy, fast enough. So sad that they’ve dropped them.

Be still my beating heart

https://www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/features/swedens-greatest-hits-exploring-world-volvo-museum

@Elshalimo

My work colleague was in Volvo Gothenburg recently (we are developing something with Volvo/Polestar) and sent me a load of pics from the new museum as he knows I love my Volvo’s. My disappointment is that the 850 Rydell touring car isnt there! (it was in the original museum)

My V70 is still going strong from the original post in this thread.

My brother had a 3 door  353/345 like that in late 80s

That 145 looks like one my uncle had years ago. I still like the look of the 164 with it’s fancy headlights

I’m sad but I checked the MOT history of the 300 and it’s UK MOT’d till June this year! It’s only done 14k miles all its life!!!!!

I don’t know if I have posted on this thread before, and haven’t taken the time to go through each page to see if I did, so forgive me. But…

I have owned two Volvo estates (a 1988 740 GLE and a 1990 740 GLE) and now drive a 2004 XC90. The 1988 I had when I was living in Northern Canada.

I used to do all the work on it, as there were few mechanics around that would ‘work on a European car’, so I had to learn very quickly what I was doing, and it soon became a real hobby. I loved that thing, and spent much time on a forum called ‘brickboard’ that helped me navigate whatever jobs I was doing.

In any case, I used to browse one company’s website all the time, drooling over everything on it, and if you other Volvo estate afficianados don’t know about it yet, please pass my apologies on to your partner.

There are few sites in the world as fun for the Volvo lovers as this one. Unfortunately it’s USA-based, but it still has much inspiration to proffer.

What about this beaut of an 850? Looks immaculate https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202405280142649

…..and they’re back!

“Volvo confirmed the decision to revive estate sales in a statement to Autocar: “We removed the V60 and V90 from sale in the UK last August amid falling appetite for estate cars. While this remains a long-term trend, we have seen a resurgence for our estate products in recent months and have decided to reintroduce the V60 and V90 to our UK portfolio in response to this. We will begin taking orders next month.”

Hurrah! Though my V90 is a long way from replacement,  at least I (might) have a Volvo flavoured choice.

I just sold my C30 15 minutes ago after owning it 11 years. Sad.

I’ll console myself with my V40 and V90.

And brilliant news on estates. SUV’s make no sense to my engineers brain and I won’t have one.

Oooh, hurrah.

A colleague gave me a lift in a newish V60 tonight and I really, really want a Volvo back….

Been looking at phase 3 V70s . Mondeo floorpan, with a D5 engine. 2010 vintage
Rust , rust and more rust. Orange underneath with surface corrosion showing everywhere.
Is this normal for these , or have I been unlucky?

I think you’re unlucky. I had a 2010 V70 until three years ago and it had no corrosion issues, and that’s up in the Highlands where there is more road salting in winter.

Mind you surface corrosion wouldn’t be unusual on any used 14 year old car. I’d look at a few more examples to calibrate your expectations. When I buy cars I tend to invest a bit of time looking at a few examples until I find one that sticks out as better than most.

OK so this is kind of OT but when I replaced my mondeo, what I mostly wanted was less rust- it wasn’t ruined, it was just absolutely terrible to work on, every job required fire and hammers and rust in the eyes.

So I shopped around for ages, could never find anything at a good price, til I looked at japanese/jdm imports. People say “Japan doesn’t use salt”, that’s not quite true but nobody imports rusty normal cars, it’s just not worth it, therefore everything midpriced that comes into the UK is pretty much rust-free. So I bought a 15 year old JDM subaru, that was literally in the same condition you’d expect of a 3 year old UK car- it’d been in the UK a couple of years and that was probably when it all happened. Even after 5 years of Scottish winters it’s absolutely uncanny, you think “oh no, I need to change a wheel bearing” and an hour later it’s done, no bolt extractors, no gas axe, no tears, the bolts actually came out.

And, quite a few japanese volvos end up in the UK. Not as many as, say, Alpgards and Elgrands and Legacies and Stageas and such, things that were unobtainable here in the first place, but still quite a few. There are downsides- it can be more epensive to insure (not so much that the prices are higher but the cheapest places sometimes just won’t quote) and they often lack stamped train weights so they’re not useful for towing (the rules changed on this at some point, now if it’s not physically on the VIN plate, no matter what the manufacturer or manual says you can’t tow with it- applies to classics too. Towing with normal cars just isn’t really a thing in Japan so they often don’t bother rating them even when the car is identical)

Also you might accidentally buy a Subaru instead of a Volvo.

“Been looking at phase 3 V70s . Mondeo floorpan”

There’s the reason why – Ford!

P2 are the last of the ‘proper’ Gothenburg/Belgium made Volvo’s with fully galvanized body’s. They finished around 2006/7. XC90’s continued the old school build quality until 2013.

P3 V70/XC70 have Ford meddling and cost cutting, thankfully the D5 engine continued in them.

But!….as per above, a 14 year old Volvo will have rust. My 2010 project XC90 rebuild was rusty on the rear end and subframe. I’m rebuilding it so have shot blasted everything and it’s getting epoxy mastic coating but they are not infallible even with Volvo Gothenburg build quality.

As per Northwinds comment – I’ve seen a few nice P2 Ocean Race XC70’s that have been imported from Japan.

Son has rejoined the ranks of Volvo ownership. Way back when he was a student he had a V50 and loved it. It was a 1.6diesel so was cheap to buy and insure. His work and essential accommodation on remote Scottish hillsides has meant the last few things he drove were pickups. He’s just got a new job on a highland estate and a company 4×4 to go with it so he started looking for a V60 Cross Country as a family car. He’s now the proud owner of a 2016 V60 Cross Country Lux Nav with a scant 54K on the clock and a full service history. I found it for him and went for a test drive. I suppose I hadn’t really read up on them but it’s an incredible beast with the 5 cyl 2.4 turbodiesel.  It feels really solid, a great family car and well set up given that they’re about to get married and move to Nairn

The 2 I looked at were shocking underneath. Every nut and bolt looked like it had been submersed in salt water. Ok , the first one spent it’s life in Brighton but the second one was near Reading.
One had a hooky MOT , failed on inoperable door handle last MOT , passed recent MOT with the door handle still inoperable.

Nice looking cars , great seats , good ergonomics but changing anything that required a socket set would require a big window of no car commuting as you would be using plusgas , wire brushes and map gas on each bolt. Then probably replacing them.
Along with the associated skinned knuckles as spanners slip, rust in eyes , swearing, jumping on the road bike to sprint the 6 miles to the factors to buy more bits that you shouldn’t need to as your just changing the brake pads ….

I’m dumping a 12 plate Passat as that looks really smart up top , but start to work on it and it’s got tin worm in random places that I suspect will start to cause issues, like the tx bolts on the underside that rounded out when I went to do a service, ditto the tx bolts on the airbox.

@singletrackmind

The 2010 XC90 I mentioned above has had its F&R suspension stripped and the rear subframe completely disassembled. The car has 215k miles on it – not a single snapped bolt. I’ve only ever snapped one bolt on our ’04 plate V70.

The quality of Volvo materials is high, I’d say my Porsche has slightly better corrosion resistant ‘blue’ fasteners but both are a million miles better than the cheese bolt fest that was my utterly hated Transit van. The Volvo’s are a joy to work on.

I know.
150,000 miles put onto 2 phase 2 53 plate and 54 plate v70s .
Every thing just unscrewed as described.
Then I went mercedes, still good for anti corrosion. Changed an air spring no bother , egr clean , pvc valve etc all came apart and went back together.
Within 10 mins of spanners on a Passat I had stripped the inside of a tx fitting , and I was using the correct tools.cheese metal.

TBH, i think it’s just not looking after them that does the damage.

We’ve got thousands of EuCD based Volvos around here, most of them just keep on going. Did my neighbours 11MY XC70 brakes and front suspension last summer. Everything was still good, just needed a quick spray to clean the cack off the bolts and they all came undone as designed, that’s done near enough 300000 km now, 150000 as a dog transporter (for shows). Ex has a 14My V70 that’s on 200000 km and just gets serviced as needed.

Indeed our old 2013 mk3 V70 (aka The Ford model) with 174k on clock was fine underneath and was still workable on.

That said, it needed *so* much doing the estimate was enough to pay for 30% of a new car with half the miles on….Plus new car was ULEZ compliant. (I still regret selling it).

https://www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/features/scrap-man-keeping-uks-aging-volvos-alive

V60 back!  Almost bought one last year. Tested a V90 and it drove well (little different to an 3 series estate) and was hard to dislike.  In the event I went for something older and more Porschey (Macan diesel). But that V60 ticked all the boxes other than the obvious one. I didn’t want another SUV until I drove the Macan. But next time will likely be a  newer V60. MIL is still driving around in an older Volvo estate. She really needs a Smart Car, but I can’t convince her to change.

my best friend just scrapped his XC90. One owner from new but 14 Scottish winters meant the corrosion killed it. He’s bought another new one. Just taken delivery.

it’s an incredible beast with the 5 cyl 2.4 turbodiesel.  It feels really solid, a great family car and well set up given that they’re about to get married and move to Nairn

I’m sure Volvos are nice but marrying any car just seems excessive tbh

Much to Bruce’s chagrin – here’s another car thread bumped to the first page.

And the reason being that our 20year old V70 estate mentioned in the first post on this thread has just passed another years MOT at zero cost.

2004 (it has its 20th birthday in a few days) , 208k miles, 1 advisory for a ball joint. Awesome car.

MrsRNP loves it (it’s hers) and is used weekly for her community kitchen for collecting the food donations, wholesalers trips and taking under privileged people on holidays that wouldn’t otherwise have. Not all cars are evil.