New Volvos

[trabitom99]

My way more than 2 pence worth!

What a post, Pete!

... and as Tom said in another thread, people think you mean V40 instead of 340.

I daren't take the credit for that, I think it was Cornholio ... Very true though.

The other thing that annoys me is if you ever stop anywhere and check under the bonnet, people always make comments like, oh the oold banger gone wrong again, what's broken now etc. It's called maintenance ...

+1 It's one of the major reasons why I dislike doing any kind of servicing out in the road. You always get someone making some kind of comment along those lines. If possible I park somewhere where there're no houses, or put the car in a friend's driveway. A couple of years ago I replaced a radiator on my GLi, and I had people queueing up to tell me how bad I was being to the environment! (Mind you, they were probably right, I'd had a bit of a "mishap" with the coolant.)

No it isn't - it's a hyped up, impractical pile of junk that was made to fill a non existant gap in the so called market.

You're so right! And the car is a total flop, which will make it interesting (well, for me anyway) as a future classic in 20 - 30 years' time when we'll be complaining about the new XC90 - a re-badged Kia Sorento ...

300 sure has bit smaller trunk

380 litres! That's not so bad for its class ...

Tom

[Ronnie]

To me, buying new indicates deep-seated personal insecurity

Well put. It's all about status. On the Serengeti a man proves his worth by how many cows he owns, even if they are malnourished and diseased. In the UK it's how new his car is - even if it's a mass produced piece of junk with obsolescence built in at 100,000 miles. For this privilege folk pay out anywhere between 200 and 500 pound per month, not including deposit, and this is often more than they can afford. My car is lucky if it gets this much spent on it per year. It's a lot of cash to spend to buy into some advertising industry fostered concept of self worth and identity.

It's real though. 5 years or so ago I was rear ended (by an 850) and my car was written off. The insurers provided me with a brand new diesel Vectra. Lovely engine, awful car. I was amazed by all the looks I got driving it around. Many people thought a man in a brand new Vectra deserved a second look... The world is a bizarre place.

[ajdubas]

A woman in a brand old volvo 300 definitely deserves a second look and a phone number.

The whole status implication of driving a new car actually puts me off buying anything new; I don't want or need a flash car to make up for my lack of personality or manhood.

Admittedly, my volvo 340 has been my most unreliable car and it has broken down more; but no other car have I been able to singlehandedly fix at the roadside and get going again when it has broken.

And as far as maintenance goes; I'm not the shmuck who forks out ridiculous amounts of money for a main dealer service when it's easy enough to do it yourself and more likely to get decent results. The amount I hear of some people forking out for an oil and filter change is just obscene.