The redwood tree can live to be well over two thousand years old. Its closest automotive relative is the Volvo 240 series, which has some catching up to do, but is well on its way to being the longest-lived car that is still in common use; around here, anyway. I have bestowed it the honor of the Official CC of Eugene, due to its longevity and commonness, and when I found this one parked in front of a redwood, I had to document it, despite the fact that this particular tree is still very much a youngster.
There are six of these trees here on two sides of the corner of Lawrence St. and 10th Ave. in Eugene, just a few blocks from the downtown core. As big as their trunks are already, I don’t think these trees are any older than the apartment building they front, and from its architecture, that’s from the late 1930s or 1940s. Yes, trees grow really fast here in Oregon, and I’ve seen cedars and firs almost as big as these that are only some 50-60 years old.
By the way, redwoods are not native to Oregon, except for the very southern tip of the coast. The coast redwoods (Sequoia sempervirens) grow almost exclusively on the Northern California coastal areas, and the thicker-trunked but shorter giant redwood (Sequoiadendron giganteum) grows only in a few areas of the western flanks of the California Sierra Nevada mountains. Googling “drive through redwood tree” brings up many larger trees than this rather skinny one, but then that’s a Tatra 87, not exactly what I was expecting.
That’s more like it; a giant sequoia with a ’56 Chevy. If these redwoods on Lawrence street keep growing as quickly as they have been, they’re eventually going to spill out into the street, and maybe in 500 years from, now, traffic will have to go through them. Oh wait; there won’t be any traffic in 500 years from now. No one will ever need to leave their virtual reality cocoon for anything.
With all this talk of redwood trees, I’ve neglected this nice old Volvo. Well, what can I say about it that hasn’t been said here so many times? If you have anything new to add, please do so.
Those wheels are much too nice for that car. The tree is OK too.
I run a Volvo 240 Estate. It is in daily use and carries loads as well as people Its a 1991 and has 325000 miles (English) on it. I wouldn’t be without it, it throws the odd tantrum but is usually very well behaved, I still get about 30 m.p.g. (English gallons) from it. Best car I have ever had.
Family had an ’89 244 DL 5 speed for a few years. Good car, and easy to work on. Biggest problem was oil leaks around valve cover that resisted my efforts to reseal, until I finally figured out a plugged up flame trap was causing the crankcase to build up so much pressure oil was being forced out past the seal. Worst problem were the front driveshaft bolts falling out, bending up the shift linkage in the process, and a worn out clutch. Had 270k miles on it when sold, and still running well. Pretty slow, not that great on gas. But it was a good car. The car loved to burn out tail lamp sockets, so I always kept a couple of spares in the car.
I had a ’75 245. North America only got the B20 pushrod engine, rest of world got B21 OHC. I had IPD springs and anti-sway bars on it. KYB shocks and struts. Handled like a slot car, and best car I have driven in bad weather. Heater you could cook your dinner on. Did have some minor fuel injection issues I never got sorted, despite being a professional mechanic, and having the genuine factory service manual for the car. And that heated seat thing just might catch on.
I’m pretty sure the first year 240’s were all B20-equipped. In Scandinavia all ’75’s I have seen sported the B20. I believe the B21 OHC engine was not available until ’76.
A fun fact is that in Sweden there is some kind of restriction on the amount of modifications you can do to a car built after ’75, so all first year 240’s have been heavily modified. Virtually every heavily modified Swedish 240 you see – and there are MANY – are from 1975.
A neighbor has one near me – maroon with tan velveteen seats and a sunroof. Almost immaculate save for some missing trim. Indestructible. How do these do on the used car market??
I don’t know what kind of materials they used to build it, many Volvo 240s I see driving around in metro Detroit are in pristine condition. Many others are beaten up with trim missing and dents, but there is barely any rust. I wonder if it has something to do with swedish iron mine.
Going back to my childhood in the seventies, Volvo and Mercedes were the only brands that could cope with our maritime climate really well. Don’t know about Saab, too thin on the ground. Volkswagen, Opel and German Fords did reasonably well too, especially since the second half of the seventies. Cars like the Opel Ascona B and the Ford Taunus TC2/TC3.
The worst factory rust-proofing: anything from the UK, Southern Europe and Japan. It was way into the eighties before thing started to improve.
My boss had a 240 Volvo years ago think it was given to him Ithink it had a million
miles on it I drove it and it seemed like a great car however it was rusted to
pieces I don’t think I have seen one so rusty I bet this ran like a champ right
into the jaws of the crusher!
My dad had a couple wagon versions of these about 10 years ago. His did a lot of pick up truck duty and hauled lots of tools and trim bits for his woodworking company. He had good luck with them and they were bought used on the cheap and driven into the ground. I used to like to run errands with them on a snow covered Alberta day and plod along passing many spun out and stuck late model SUV’s…
The big bumpers, black-out trim around the side windows, white reflectors under the headlights, and DL nameplate identify this one as a 1982 model. Volvos of this vintage have disappeared from central VA, but I still see the ’86 and later ones with the “TV screen” headlights.
I bought a 1980 DL base model 2-door used in 1982 with 31,000 miles (4-speed manual, no overdrive). This had the flat hood and single round headlights. It was pressed into duty as our primary family car until we bought a new Mercury Sable in 1990. We kept the Volvo until 2003, by which time it had accumulated about 245K miles (estimated because of broken odometer gears toward the end). The car was very durable but did develop rear quarter panel rust fairly early on (despite regular washings); electrical issues are why we sold it.
Still the Sable was gone 3 years before the decade-older Volvo because of all the usual maladies for the first-gen Taurus twin (other than lucking out with the Vulcan V6, which didn’t eat head gaskets like the star-crossed 3.8 liter).
Old school Volvos are not very common in Dixie, but I have not been to Austin.
Those trees sure do drop a lot of stuff on the ground.
Not real sure Austin is in Dixie. YMMV.
I seem to recollect reading decades ago how the 140 series volvo, and by extension the 240 series, as its an evolution of the same, was designed with inspiration from the valiant. This included the slanted engine, but also a heavy duty type build. In fact I remember from the old volvoparts catalogue, some parts, like lightbulbs, were supplied as regular, to compete with no name or aftermarket brands, or as oem “long life”.
Additionally it was initially conceived to be built with a v8 engine, which volvo later decided against developing. So all of this together made for a pretty beefy build, for the performance it had. In Scandinavia, this is perhaps the most popular v8 retrofit vehicle there is, as volvo themselves would supply dmv accepted paperwork allowing the 240 be modified to have chevy smallblock engines.
Value on these vehicles in Scandinavia was pretty good, used examples.could command a premium, and it was well known for being a premium build quality vehicle.
Case in point, I personally had a 1981 2 door version, which is uncommon, and after owning it for 6 years, back in the 90’s, sold it for the same as I bought it for.
I was frequently hit up with offers to sell it over those years.
Also common over here in Scandinavia is the swap to the 3.5 Buick/Rover engine. It’s aluminum, so the weight distribution is pretty decent and not long ago there were still enough BL cars on the roads (and leaving them to be scrapped) from which to salvage the engines.
With some 130-ish horsepower and more torque it really suits the car well.
To be clear; it was a well known “fact”, that these volvos had a far longer life expectancy, and was built for up to 3 times the milage of regular asian or french/german cars.
These old Volvos had honest-to-goodness 10mph bumpers on them. If you hit anything at 10mph with a modern car, the damage will cost thousands to repair.
My friend owned a 1980 242GT that had close to 400K miles on it (hard to say for sure, as he drove it for at least 100K miles with the broken odometer stuck at 189K miles until he finally had it fixed) when he had it towed away – something in the disintegrating wiring harness kept sucking the battery dead. The engine still ran great.
About those bumpers, they were quite beefy with huge shock absorbers, thick aluminum, and real rubber rubstrips that stuck out maybe half an inch. I also like how they wrapped around the corners of the car.
I was rear-ended while stopped maybe 3 or 4 times in that car, not at 10 mph but likely closer to 5 mph or so, and there was never any damage.
I bought a used 82 DL in the late 80s. Having such a great reputation for reliability made this a no brainer, except that mine was perfectly hideous. It had 70-something thousand miles when I bought it, and maybe 120 thousand when I sold it to a relative, who drove the wheels off the damn thing. It was nice in many ways, awkwardly tall, but solid. To be fair it had been abused by past owners and seemed to take this abuse out on me. I swore it was my first and last Volvo.
It wasn’t my last. I bought a 95 960 when my daughter started driving and that was quite a decent car. It survived two teenage drivers and all of the miles we could put on it. It was pretty beaten when I gave it to my son to trade in on a new car, but was still rock solid and the engine was absolutely perfect.
Today, my second car is a 06 XC70 Cross Country. I have had it for about six months and while it has some items to address it is quite a nice car for the use that I bought it for.
A college roommate had an ’82 DL 2-door , the same color green as the featured Volvo. It had over 300K miles; the rocker panels were quite rusty, but it still ran just fine (after a replacement radiator).
Richmond is absolutely full of 240’s, but most are of the final composite-headlamp era. Still a few of these quad-rectangle variants around though.
As much as I like the 240, if the title is “longest-lived car still in regular use” the W123 Mercedes Diesel would have to be in the conversation. They’re still quite common here too, and older on average since the majority of the Volvos I see are of the ’86-’93 era.