Well, the time has come. As many of you probably know, I am soon to be leaving the country.

Unfortunately, this means my faithful Volvo has to go.
I'd much rather it went to a deserving home to be looked after than taken to a junk yard (or used as practice for the Duxford fire crew, as they keep pestering me for!!), so... here it is!

-It's an 89 360 GLE, B200K engine.
-Approx 175000 miles
-Unleaded
-5spd manual
-5 door hatchback.
-Aftermarket cruise control
-Towbar with electrics
-Plastic floor trays!
-MOT till December

Now then. Condition. Erm... it's not going to win any shows in the near future. It is 'getting on a bit'. But it's still solid and reliable, and I'm sure has a good few miles left in it.

So here's the bad stuff:
-Small amounts of rust are starting to come through in various places. It doesn't look too pretty, but it's almost all surface rust which could be sorted fairly easily to make a super solid car.
-Sunroof had a serious episode with itself when I first got it, so has been sealed shut. Totally waterproof though.
-Electric front windows work but are noisy and occasionally temperamental.
-Heated seats have never worked while I've owned the car.
-Speedometer recently stopped working. It's probably the cable, but to be honest I haven't bothered to find out, because my speed camera detector has a digital speedo built in.
-One tyre needs replacing
-Front right wheel bearing is on the way to being worn
-A slight water leak, seems to be coming from the front of the water pump.

I think that's it, but watch this space for edits.

As for the price, I'm not entirely sure what it's worth - I don't want to rip anyone off, but every penny counts for the big trip. For a reasonably solid car with MOT, I'm thinking I'll throw in the cruise control and the 666 number plate (valued at £400) for ...£300? If you think I'm way off the mark here, make me an offer?

I took loads of pictures, to give you a realistic idea of the condition. However, my computer is being disobedient. Combine this with a steam-powered dial-up connection which means one picture takes about 25 minutes to upload and... well, I've frankly got the hump with it all. So here's the back and the right hand side, the rest will follow in a day or so when I've got to my girlfriend's where she has braodband.

















This is about the worst of the rust, the rear right door has copped the most of it.



















That's it so far, the rest to follow shortly.

PS, sorry for the massive post, especially if you have dial-up!

how tricky would it be to uninstall the cruise and sell it to me separately?

To be honest, I promised my dad that if I took the cruise control off he could have it for his van. We agreed that I could leave it on the car if it helps make a few more quid but if they go separately it's his. Sorry mate. There's still a few aftermarket sets on flea-bay though.

What I am willing to do, if no-one wants it like it is, is sell the number plate separately. If the car is wanted for spares it could go without a number plate, or if you wanted it on the road I could try and re-reg it with another F-plate.

Since the plate is worth a lot and the car isn't, I'd say without the number it would be about £100. Ideal for a cheap drifter or just a daily driver?

Not sure how many people would want a 666 plate

I just noticed, It's a Kastner car! Do you know where it originally came from? It may have seen ours at the dealership in Exeter when new

Ha ha! No, all I know about its history is the last 2 letters of the number plate put it in Exeter, and the girl I bought it off had it found for her by her dad, who at the time ran a garage. I don't know what that "Pollendines" sticker is all about, but I assumed that was the name of a dealership.

Maybe you should buy the car for some 'friends reunited' action with your car! They could talk about old times...

A quick Google search reveals that Pollendines is a Volvo specialist in Frinton-on-Sea, somewhere on the South-east coast.

Our 340 has a chrome Kastner badge in the same location as the Pollendines, presumably from new. Therefore I'd assume it was sold by Pollendines. That wouldn't explain the Exeter number plate though which suggests it was registered by Kastner due to their plate surround, which could of course have been added later...

I can only think that Kastner registered it, and added the plate surround, and then sold it onto Pollendines to clear it...

Or it was sold and registered by Pollendines, and someone bought the 666 plate at a later date. Then at some stage work was done by kastners, or sold second hand, and the plate surround added then...

Or maybe it came from Kastner's originally and was then sold on by Pollendines second hand, at which point they bunged their sticker on the back for a bit of free advertising.

I think Kastner's have a dealership in Barnstaple as well, so it might be from that one rather than Exeter, to further complicate matters.

Perhaps, but as I said, ours had a Kastner badge on where the Pollendines is, so unless they didn't put it on/Pollendines took it off...

Yes, Kasner do have other branches, but it was mentioned that it was an Exeter numberplate, and a check in Chesh's 'What your Number plate means' thed confirms this.

I guess really it dosn't matter

Any big MOT scares on it? Any mention of rust on sills/structural areas?

You're not thinking of buying a car you might actually drive are you MJ

when we went to clacton last year we went by Pollendines they had a couple of nice 960 estates in at the time iirc and I am sure they had a white 300 for sale ( think it went on Ebay in the end )

how spooky I just found this post




Posted: Wed Jul 13, 2005 6:24 am Post subject:

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this was an essex registered car infact I drove past the dealership which it came from and its still selling volvos , its at Frinton on sea, Hey Chris perhaps Kar is an Essex girl after all your always saying shes a bit of a goer and likes having her insides touched up (silver paint you sick minded lot )

Sorry Andy, not atm. Keep her in storage for a year and maybe

Andy's-Old-Beast wrote:Maybe you should buy the car for some 'friends reunited' action with your car! They could talk about old times...

uuurgh two 300's getting it on , get that image out of my mind

MJ wrote:
I guess really it dosn't matter

Any big MOT scares on it? Any mention of rust on sills/structural areas?

Indeed, although interesting, this number-plate tomfoolery is not getting my car sold!!

No major MOT issues, the only things I know it would need are one tyre and possibly the front right wheel bearing.

It's all fairly solid underneath, it's tricky to get pictures now I don't have the pit, but you can get some idea from these pics I took of the cruise control and towbar installation:









Anyhow, I've finally been able to post the rest of the pics, so to save enormous posts which would probably break the internet, they're on another post, "more of the Old Beast".

Cheers!