(First posted 5/22/2012) This car, the Volvo 245, is the essence of Volvo. Whenever someone mentions Volvo, whether in mixed company or among fellow gearheads, this is most likely the image floating in everybody’s heads. This is Volvo distilled into its most functional form. Volvo has lost its way a bit in the last fifteen years. If it wants to get its mojo back, it could do worse than using the original 245DL as a template.
Now, the 240 was a boon for Volvo, and was incredibly long-lived, lasting from 1975 to 1993 with relatively minor changes, but it was certainly not an all-new car. The Volvo 140 Series, introduced in 1967 to eventually replace the venerable Amazon/120 Series, was the platform upon which the 240 built. Crumple zones, adapted from the Volvo VESC safety cars, were added to the 140 platform. The 240 Series also received a brand new front end, incorporating a new MacPherson strut suspension. Rack and pinion steering was also new, improving handling. All 1975 240s also received fuel injection, as featured in 1974 US bound 140 models.
Naturally, a five door wagon was available along with the 242 and 244 sedans. Wagons received vinyl upholstery instead of the sedans’ cloth trim for easier cleanup, whether hauling kids or provisions. All 240s were powered by the fuel injected B21F four cylinder engine, producing 104 hp at 5500 rpm and 114 lb ft of torque. A synchronized four speed manual was standard, with a three speed automatic available as an option.
In 1976, a 265DL joined the 245DL in the North American market. While it was not as luxurious as the top of the line 264GL sedan, it did receive the same PRV B27F light alloy V6 and the 264’s unique nose, albeit with a black grille instead of the 264’s chrome version. With its higher price and the PRV’s less than wonderful characteristics, you were better off with a 245.
My Dad apparently thought the same thing. When he started working for my grandfather in 1972 as an insurance investigator, he was told to go on down to Bob Neil Ford in Rock Island and pick out a company car – something practical.
As he had driven a ’65 Mustang convertible, Triumph TR4, ’70 Boss 302 and currently had a ’60 356 Roadster as a weekend car, he was rather restrained in picking out a 1973 Gran Torino sedan in metallic copper. To this day, I just can’t picture him driving a car like that. It is seen above in what is probably the only picture of it.
At any rate, in 1977 he got a 245DL wagon as a company car. My Mom was already driving the ’73 1800ES, so they became a two Volvo household. It was dark blue with a blue vinyl interior, and had optional integrated fog lights built into the grille. Except for the fog lights, it looked just like the one shown above.
His job took him all over the state of Illinois, investigating dram shop insurance claims. Generally that meant investigating bar fights and alcohol related car crashes – not the most fun thing to do. However, the Volvo carried him wherever he needed to go with no fuss or muss.
He didn’t have it long, at least as his car. My Mom was having a hard time driving the 1800ES with no power steering, and when Lundahl Motors was unable to fit a power steering unit onto it (no room in the engine compartment, for starters), he bought the 245 from the insurance company and gave it to Mom. He received a new company car, this time a silver-blue ’77 Monte Carlo. The 245, seen in the background in this photo from about 1986, just kept on running.
The Monte Carlo was driven until 1979, when it was replaced with a 1979 Pontiac Bonneville. My Dad was not sentimental about his company cars back then, so this photo he took for insurance purposes when it got crunched is just about the only picture of it.
The 245 was a very good car, and it was also the one I rode home from the hospital in. It must have made an impression, because in 1981 the Bonneville was replaced with a maroon 242DL, and my Dad never went back to Detroit iron, save for a Grand Cherokee Orvis edition in 1995.
As for the 245 itself, it was still in its early years in the late ’70s. The 265DL was a one-year wonder, replaced with a more luxurious 265GL wagon in 1977. In 1978, the 240’s flat hood, dual headlights and wide grille were replaced with the 260’s quad lights, domed hood and square grille.
Our featured CC, shot in front of an oh-so-Eugene home by Paul a while back, has the restyled front end so it is at least a 1978, but could also be a ’79 or ’80. 1981 DL models received another mild facelift, including rectangular headlights, flush wraparound tail lights and new hubcaps.
It’s funny that this example has sheepskin seat covers, as our ’77 had them too. I’m not sure if the seams started to split or it was just the fact that the dark blue vinyl got really hot in the summer. Our DL lasted all the way to 1986, when the 1800ES was traded in on a new cream yellow ’86 240DL wagon. That color is the hue my Dad picked for the ’51 356 Cabriolet when it was being restored, as can be seen in the photos further up. As for the 245, it was sold to a friend of my Dad’s who was notoriously hard on cars. True to form, that poor wagon got driven into the ground, although I think it took him a little longer than usual to wear it out.
When the 245 came out, I’m sure even Volvo didn’t know just how long it would endure. With the exception of another freshening in 1986 and a driver’s side airbag added in 1990, the 240 carried along all the way to 1993. It was THE Volvo, and whenever someone mentions how tough and reliable a Volvo is, I bet they’re thinking of one of these. So, Volvo, how about a retro 240 for 2012? I would be among the first in line.
There are only two bad lines on this car. First, the droop in the rear upper door. I understand this one, because it is just a manufacturing tradeoff to allow use of sedan doors on the wagon. The second is the rear wheel opening. It may be an optical illusion, but the shape of it seems somehow off. Other than these two niggling points, this is a brilliantly styled car. Almost timeless.
When my son was looking for a car last fall, I came across a later model 240 wagon that had been owned by a Volvo enthusiast. It was a little pricey, but was a beautiful car. Jimmy couldn’t get past the wagon thing (wagon-love must have skipped a generation). If I had not just bought the Kia minivan, I may have gone to look at it myself.
It is also interesting that your Dad’s Volvos always seemed to be in the background of photos of other more desirable cars. That was the (now missing) essence of Volvo to me – an ultra-competent car that was content to stay in the background. A Volvo had no ego, it was all about taking care of business. The modern Volvos seem to have lost this spirit. Now they are all about calling attention to themselves by their great looks while costing their owners great wads of repair cash at regular intervals.
i can’t agree. the rear door droop, as you call it, adds character. sort of like the cindy crawford’s mole
The problem with the rear side upper door droop could have been easily solved by reducing the height of the cargo side windows so they match up . That would have made it less noticeable. Slightly less visibility out of those cargo side windows, but not much. It might have given it a sleeker look, more like an American wagon.
Here’s an example of how Rambler took care of that rear door droop, or in this case, a drip rail droop. They just simply reduced the height of the side cargo windows to meet the droop !! Works pretty good, I think.. Volvo could have done the same thing with their wagon.
Tom, speaking of the 1800ES, I met a very nice young lady this past weekend at the Import National Show in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. She had with her a 1972 ES that she had purchased a few months ago. She is all of 23 years old and knows her way around cars, as she knew that vintage Volvo in and out. Needless to say I was impressed with her knowledge!
The quad-round headlight 240s from the late 70’s are an absolute favorite of mine.
Parents had two 240’s – a ’76 wagon and an ’81 2-door sedan before moving on to a 700-series and a 900-series. They blew fuses more often than was reasonable and chomped through overdrive relays, but were otherwise pretty durable and both were driven to well over 100k miles and gave generally reliable service.
My brother drove a 240 sedan, dark blue with a dark blue cloth interior, for years, from 1987 until 2003. Solid as a rock, never missed a beat. He cared for it well, it still looked showroom fresh when he finally traded it on an XC-70, which, btw, he is still driving today. The ultimate plain as vanilla vehicle, I don’t recall that he ever had anything major go wrong. Detroit should have taken notice. You couldn’t miss the droop in the rear door frame on the wagons, obviously a transplant from the sedan, your eye would catch that little fillip right away.
I’m still trying to figure out why we never had a Volvo wagon; if I could re-write history, it would include at least one or two.
We should have bought one instead of the Cherokee in 1985; I’d still be driving it today, and quite happily (even with the automatic). It would have made the perfect replacement to the Peugeot 404 wagon, which was giving Stephanie carpal tunnel syndrome because of its non-assisted steering.
Just thinking of all the money we’d have saved…….
It’s not too late, Paul. Scope out a really nice one then put the XBox on Craigslist!
“Volvo has lost its way a bit in the last fifteen years. If it wants to get its mojo back, it could do worse than using the original 245DL as a template.”
Couldn’t agree more. I would definitely buy one of these.
THEY DON’T EVEN SELL A WAGON.
What a damning thing, to abandon the essence of a brand, the THING you stand for.
Volvo: Have fun flailing around with Lincoln in brand limbo 🙁
That error has since been corrected. The current V60 is actually a good-looking machine, though it’s not cheap. ($35K starting price, can easily be optioned to about $55K.)
They also evidently *still* sell the XC70, if you’re counting that. Uses the older V70 body which has since been replaced by the V60 in the non-XC wagon department.
Totally agree, Vance. I would love for someone to come out with a station wagon. I went to a car show a few years back and asked a Toyota salesman if they were ever going to release another Camry wagon. He said ” I wish they would because I can’t believe how many people have asked me that”.
They did make a Camry wagon. They just called it the Venza and marketed it as a crossover, but it was really a wagon IMO. It didn’t sell well, which confuses me as on paper it seemed like a winner.
The wagon thing really does depress me as well. A few years back it seemed like we might be in the midst of a wagon resurgence, then most of them got dropped again. Unless I’m forgetting one, the only wagons available in the US market right now are:
-Audi A3 Sportback (debatable)
-Audi Allroad
-BMW 328 sports wagon
-Mercedes E-class wagon
-Volvo V60
-Volvo XC70
-VW Golf Sportwagen
Rather paltry selection–nothing American or Japanese, two of them occupying that wagon-crossover gray area, the A3 sportback somewhere in between a wagon and a hatchback. Only one of the bunch under $30k starting.
Damn crossovers.
+1. These used to be the car your mind pictured when you thought of Volvo. And they were everywhere. Does anyone even think of Volvo these days? From the number of new ones I see, you could be excused for thinking they’d gone belly-up.
Not all 240’s were powered by the B21F; in ’75, North America only, the 240’s had the B20F pushrod engine. Volvo wanted to keep the OHC engine out of the N/A markets until it’s durability was proven closer to home. I had a ’75 245 myself, B20F powered.
The 240s with the B20 were something of a slug.
Yes they were but IPD helped me cure that!
I want one. In fact, I’ll take four…one for every member of the family.
Here’s our baby. While it’s not a 70’s brick its an amazingly serene, comfortable and tank-like ride. We’ve had it for 3+ years with 65k on the ODO but the AWD does take a massive bite of your wallet.
After 2 yrs ago when I was doing a quick scan of used autos for a 150 mile commute, i was looking at a 70s brick as I’d always loved their sensibility, like a comfortable shoe. However, I could not locate one in my $3k wheelhouse at the time.
Too bad & not too bad.
That 5 month commute might have killed that car and I was able to find a true gem in my 93 Corolla– a true ‘under the radar’ mobile.
Finally, my car on Curbside Classics. Mine is a ’79 actually, but its the same generation of the 240- the ‘chrome’ models. I honestly cannot think of any other 30+ year old car that is capable of 20K annual mileage, and still allows owner servicing. Mine is very durable- not always reliable, but it has always given me a few days notice of a failure. They tend to break the same ways- fuse connections, alternators, oil leaks, heater cores, speedometers, but once you know the foibles, you keep spares on hand and get adept at swapping parts.
These Volvos are resolutely average in every way except longevity. European models are even better, as we got carbs which eliminated many of the wiring issues.
I get my Volvo oil filter at the same family run garage every 4000 miles. The salesman always asks when I’ll buy another, and my answer still is that it will be when they bring back the 240. Sadly, I doubt that there are enough people like me to create a market.
sorry if this insults anyone…and I know it will but….
these things are turds!
Reliable, sturdy, bricks…whatever it is you want to call them but they never seemed much better than driving a truck to me. These and Saab 900’s were the “thing” to have in my High School back then…I never ever understood it. Needless to say my Fiero GT and GP SE didn’t really mesh with cars the “cool kids” got from their parents to drive….ugg
Maybe so , but slow reliable truck-like but way cheaper than a truck bought used and totally disposable when used up. Oh and cargo stays dry..LOL!!
I snapped this pic, last summer…
Volvo doing what Volvo used to do best.
Try doing THIS with a Prius.
(N)
??
in reply to fastback – i agree. as an owner of a 2002 v70xc, i have to say that although it’n no brick, it’s a solid ride.
Among these auto-makers, making “car revivals”; Mini, Bettle, Mustang, Fiat 500….
Why don’t a Volvo 200 series????
Refreshed, modern engines, modern technologies, but with the flavour of a ” Real Volvo”
btw, i love that the 240 series had overdrive on both the 4 spd. manual and on the 3 spd. automatic. i remember being confused and thinking it only affected the ratio of the final gear and not understanding why they didn’t just add a gear! it’s a much simpler and more elegant solution then the crazy 7 and 8 spd. automatics on the market today.
As I’ve mentioned before, I had an ’80 Volvo 242DL (2-door sedan) from 1982-2003. It was definitely durable, but there were things that had to be repaired or replaced from time to time. Junkyards were great for replacing plastic interior and trunk trim bits. The tin worm and electrical issues got to it at the end, but I was able to sell it for a small amount of cash. It had about 245K miles when I parted with it (estimated because of intermittent odometer failure toward the end).
BTW, the 2-doors kept the single headlights, flat hood, and wide grille in 1978-80, after the 4-doors and wagons went to the quads and upright grille. My year was indeed the last for the chrome trim around the window frames.
I’m now working on a new long-term keeper: a basic 1998 Nissan Frontier pickup that will soon pass the 14-year mark under my watch.
The 240 series cars are the ultimate Volvo in my eyes. I’m 90% ’60’s – 90’s GM freak but having been around these a lot in the past (ex-boss, ex-girlfriend, ex-best-friend) I’ve really grown fond of them.
I particularly like the slash grille, boxy styling, and nerdy dash layout. There are so many variations of gauge clusters in these cars. The center dash with all the rectangular switches exactly the same size just does it for me. I wonder if there was ever a 240-series car that actually used up ALL the available switch pods…
Oh yeah, I like the fact that they painted those 4-cylinder engines red. Looks cool. They must have fluid filled motor mounts or something because the engines shake like mad while they’re cranking.
You say that I’m a dreamer. But I’m not the only one. LOL. My ’79 Trans Am has the exact same sticker on the rear window, applied by one of the previous owners. The 245 pictured above is the only other vehicle I’ve seen wearing one of these.
Thanks for writing that up Tom, quintessential or perhaps even archetypal indeed.
I have owned 7 Volvos, going back to 1969. Started with a new 122S red 2 door Volvo Canadian (should have never sold it); then a powder blue 142 which I sold to buy my first of 3 240s. Bought a new ’76 244 and drove it until 1999….put 325,000 km on it. Finally, I picked up a 1980 245 very similar to the one pictured above and a 1982 244, which now has 345,000 km on it. Tanks…. every one of them with excellent heaters. My 2 latest Volvos are a 1996 850…a girlie car….. and a 1988 744,which introduces a whole new level of “tankdom” to Volvos.
None of these cars has ever let me down…..Never had an engine, transmission, or major power train issue with any of them. And you can work on them…..Only serious problem with the 240 is the heater fan motor burns out and is a nightmare to change out. The 122 and 142 were prone to rusting and had finicky dual SU carburettors and a pain in the butt to tune. Although gutless on the highway, they are excellent around town; get decent gas mileage, and what workhorses!!….
If Volvo is listening, bring back a retro 240 with the 2.3L four banger……I’d buy one tomorrow….
I am looking to purchase a 240s Volvo with a manual transmission. I know these car were made over a period of years. I am not so informed and trying to be before I buy. Which year(s) were the best for these Volvos – not looking for the sedan/station wagon – but the 4 door Volvo, like the bright green one in your picture. I live in NYC and am wondering if you or others on this chain know if these cars can be serviced in NYC – parts, etc.? Am I just being nostalgic and this would be a terrible buy?
The USA versions always look odd to me with their round headlights. We had pretty much exactly this car in this colour, but with a bit more rust. Unequivocally a good car that served us well, and I’d have one again.
These seemed quite well made cars something thats missing from newer models it appears, A friend bought a 02 I think 2.0 Volvo wagon assunimg it was made like Volvos of old unfortunately it isnt and now after a year on the gravel road she lives on its coming apart the steering collumn froze and had to be replaced now there are ominous loud clanks coming from the front suspension but having just bought a Toyota Caldina maybe the Volvo will get palmed off onto someone else before it gives up altogether, I thought they were still tough.
Very nice article. I’m a fan of older Volvos but also the newer models – I have an 2012 C30 bought new that has given me zero problems, and it still has that solid Volvo feel.
In talking to a variety of Volvo service personnel, the Ford owned years were not good ones for Volvo – Ford essentially starved the company of cash, and the penny pinching resulted in some cheap components; electrics, transmissions, etc. Ford also leveraged anything from Volvo they could. The fact that Ford’s D3 platform (a version of the Volvo P2 platform) still underpins one of Ford most lucrative models (the Explorer) says quite a bit.
Geely has taken the opposite approach – they started writing checks. In turn, we’ll see a variety of new Volvos over the next 4 years. And the recent acquisition of Polestar means we’ll be see seeing more performance models too.
We had an orange 1975 245 and it was an awful car.
In 1978, my Mom had a blue 1972 Montego (that she loved) but it was totaled in a wreck. My parents had modest salaries in those years and we needed a good cheap car quick. Some acquaintance of ours (a neighbor maybe?) had the Volvo for sale and my Mom bought it. I was 5 in 1978 and I remember spending more time at the shop getting that car fixed than I remember riding in it. The air conditioner didn’t work, it used to stall a lot, and I remember at least one family vacation being aborted about 100 miles in due mechanical problems (which I later found out to be fuel injection-related) and the Volvo came home on a wrecker. At the time, my father had a solid and reliable gold 1971 Satellite sedan and that car probably formed the base for my Mopar leanings since I knew that if we were in that car, we were probably going to get where we were going, plus the 318 in the Satellite sounded a lot cooler than the tractor-like 4 cylinder in the Volvo.
In 1982, my Mom got a good government job making enough dough to get a new car and the Volvo was happily replaced with a pretty new burgandy Delta 88 coupe.
Dad bought the last year 145 new. So there I was stuck in the back of that looking at all these modern-looking slant nose versions. Tough childhood.
I like the 245 and my wife had a V90 and later a V70 during our recently ended child raising years so I understand the draw of Volvo. It just could not happen today. Car platforms are just too complex. You can’t just leave a platform in production for 25 years and have it be adoptable to the required changes. What drew many people to Volvo was the sensible design of designers a generation before adopting even older designs for specific Swedish conditions. The design appealed and modest production numbers were achieved with much foreign exchange revenue for Sweden. None of this could happen today. Up front costs are high enough that the mass world market has to be the aim.
My V90 serves me well, and it is a huge improvement over the 240 wagon I owned briefly. I am amazed at how many 240s are still running around. I sense that it’s more than half wagons, the rest mainly sedans, but I see 2 262c Bertone coupes…one is pristine, and has been for sale on CL for months, the other has a 5.0 Ford in it and is a rat rod of sorts.
SAAB did a very similar development process with the classic 900…started with the old 99 series, added a longer nose and other developments, and built the 900 until the early 90s.
My only “bad” Volvo so far is my wife’s C70 convertible…it is bedeviled with electrical gremlins, and is sitting in the garage now, mocking me for my inability to repair it for any length of time.
I have owned 2 of the 245 wagons, one blue with blue, the other in safety orange with brown interior (ugly but cheap to buy). Both were indestructible with the exception of blower motors going bad on both, no reverse the blue, and the tendency of the orange to blow fuses in the rain due to the wiring in the tailgate hinge. Both had the great advantage of huge cargo area. If someone was to remove the steering wheel and flip the seat of a riding mower it would fit back there….just saying. These were dreadfully slow and I am sure this is what led me to tire of them after a while as I tend to want more power.
I came to this party late. buying an 89 wagon in 00. Was at the local dealership for parts, the infamous blower motor needed replacing, and asked a sales guy why they weren’t still making them. Roughly, the subtly-exasperated answer was, “For years we couldn’t sell them and now that we stop making them everyone wants one.”
Katherine, the late 80’s are years to avoid in all Euro makes that use Bosch parts. I was told that Bosch were ramping up a new Mexican factory and were using bad solder or perhaps were converting to lead-free and not using correct techniques. My 89 was fixed more than once by taking components apart and resoldering them, mostly relays but also the instruments. Sadly, I didn’t get to the ECU in time and had to find one used.
So I’d either look for 91 and up or early-mid 80’s, but those had the eco-friendly wire insulation that self-destructed so make sure the harness was replaced or it might start itself or conflagrate. And finding a manual shift 240 in the US is not necessarily easy.
I still the like the single round headlight the best. It’s what Mrs. Robinson probably drove, sigh.
Heh. I have a 1991 240 4-door. When I bought it in 2009 I was looking for a cheap but solid car to replace an Audi A4 that was going off-lease. I was tired of lease payments with nothing to show at the end and my commute at the time was two blocks, so I only needed something to go grocery shopping and into Boston to see friends. I wanted a wagon but couldn’t find one with a 5-speed that wasn’t trashed. It had 132K miles at the time and I’ve put about 40,000 more on it with next to zero repairs once I sorted out the stuff the second owner had neglected.
I bought a BMW 335i last year and sold a Camry I’d gotten from my mom, but I still drive the 240 regularly, more so since I fixed the AC (I live in Atlanta now and no AC in the summer here is impossible). The AC in 240s is pretty weak and being converted to R134 makes it even weaker, and the heater will roast your feet. The OEM heater valve is NLA and mine is binary: full blast or nothing, so in colder weather it’s either a blessing or a curse.
Otherwise it’s solid. If anyone is looking for a 240 I would strongly recommend a car from 1990-1993. Late 80s models had wiring issues. 1993 cars used R134 from the factory so no AC conversion is needed. In salt country cars there will be rust; mine was a Boston car from new and the bottoms of the rear doors are rusting through, the leading edge of the hood is starting to bubble and most of the fasteners under-hood are corroded but so far none have frozen (PB Blaster is your friend). I need to repair the exhaust because it bangs into the floorpan and it needs a good general servicing as I haven’t done anything to it in the last few years. The thing that will eventually kill this car is the rust; even though I don’t live in salt country anymore, the rust will not, uh, sleep. But there are enough rust-free southern cars around here in good shape if I ever decide to get another one.
Between 2003 and 2008 I had 4 BMW E28 body cars…3 528e and a 535i…they were cheap and plentiful, and seemingly all over the place. Try finding one now. I am afraid that the same thing will happen with Volvo 240s…I am tempted to buy one, just to have it for the inevitable day when they are extinct on the street. SAAB 900s are largely extinct around here, and that happened in the past couple of years. These cars are tough but not completely unbreakable, and I have seen some rusty ones, so they are not immune to that either.
The 700,900,S90/V90 cars A/C system is nothing to write home about either…the A/C on my V90 is working to spec, but on 90 degree + days, that black wagon doesn’t cool as well as I would like…I wonder if a light-colored sedan would cool better, with a smaller air space to cool, and less heat being soaked up by the lighter colored paint. Makes me wish I had an old Cadillac on really hot days…best climate control in the industry.
240’s? Extinct on the street? Not in central Virginia they’re not, and not anytime soon, judging by the number that are left. (Then again we’ve still got E28’s too.) We don’t see enough road salt here for rust to be a major issue though.
I remember the Volvo 240 series cars. Although no one in my family ever owned one, I’ve seen enough of them to miss them when Volvo discontinued the series of cars. I loved its boxy, dated look.
One of the greatest cars of all time, IMO. It is not stigmatizing to be seen in one today in some upscale neighborhood, provided there’s no visible rust showing. Few non-exotic cars of yesteryear can boast that. Make mine with the quad headlights and a station wagon, of course.
Livefast, I agree that old Volvos are OK in upscale areas as long as they are well-kept. When I started talking about buying an older car as a daily driver, my wife pointed out a very clean 240 and said that as long as it was something cool and classic like that she would be OK with it, just don’t bring home a tacky old Cadillac or Lincoln or somesuch. I think she said “no ghetto cruisers or pimpmobiles”.
Buy a ’76 Mercury Cougar. Tint the windows and put 22″ wheels on it! 🙂
So did you? (bring that 240 home) 😀
I have always liked these, esp. the later models with the big bumpers and large rectangular headlights. So how close are the 140 and 240 series? Well, the doors from one with fit the other! The slight misfit of the rear door on the wagons never really bothered me much, and looked even better with blackout trim.
But please, wagons need cloth seats too! My Ford focus wagon has them and they are wearing very well. As Ringo Starr might say, “No vinyl for me, it only makes me sneeze!”
And then it makes it hard to find the door.
Volvo hasn’t lost its way. The V70 and specially the XC70s are more than adequate heirs to the Volvo-Feo ©®TM. The SUVs, and I’m looking at the XC90, are beatufully rounded vehicles.
The sweet spot is the second gen V70 XC / XC70. Built like a tank (literally), with super comfy seats, an inviting interior and a HUGE boot. It comes with the ‘crossover’ ride height and look that these times demand.
I had a last of the line ’93 240 wagon Torslanda edition, bought in 2011 with 200k miles on the clock. For sure, with a. 2.0 4 pot it wasn’t exactly fast, but would do 100 if you persevered and did 30mpg on my daily commute. Basic in the extreme, it even had manual crank windows. But the appeal with these is that really do feel solid, back in the day the phrase used to describe it was “hewn from solid granite” and that’s what they feel like. Not sporty,fast or good handling, they just keep doing what they do for a very long time. The only thing I ever had to fix was the fuel pump relay (a common fault) and the fuse holders would appreciate a clean now and then. It didn’t use a drop of oil between services and the oil even stayed amber colour the whole time it was in the engine.
Somebody kicked a rear passenger door in when it was parked making a sizeable dent. Fixing it was a matter of slamming the door, which popped the dent out without even breaking the paint. In the winter when finishing work, I’d have to scrape the ice off the windows before driving home. This is the only car that despite the temperature being in the minuses, I’d find myself turning the heater down within ten minutes of a cold start because it got uncomfortably hot. What a machine. The heater is like a nuclear reactor.
I sold it for no other reason than I had found a rather nice Volvo 940 turbo diesel (these are very rare and I know from experience how brilliant they are) so the 240 was sold to a mate who had been lusting after it the whole time I owned it. He is under strict instructions to give me first refusal if he ever sells it or (god forbid) wants to scrap it.