I went for a short visit in the Netherlands recently. Five days in a rental Ford Fiesta . I tried to keep my eyes open and saw all kinds of nice classic cars among the daily runners. Several Volvo Amazons, even one P1800. Too many 200-series to count, although the car population in general was much newer than in Finland. It took a long long time to see the first 300 though. It was a 360GLi saloon parked on a street in Amsterdam, with a residential parking permit. But the scary thing was, that was also the only 300 I ever saw. Come to think of it, didn't see that many 400's either, although I didn't look that hard.

Is the situation really getting this bad or did I just have bad luck?

And yes I also visited the DAF museum, with its one, carefully ruined Volvo 340...

yes, the situation is that bad

only 350 360's are left on the road. idk how many 340's there are on the road, but not as much as some years ago

Bump!

Yesterday I had a short peep through the Netherlands (was actually headed for Antwerpen). Crossed the German/Dutch border at about 15:40, and a short time after that I saw a yellow 343 on the road (A67 I think). I remarked to my wife, this is what we missed on the last trip, a 300-series Volvo on the road. But then as I came closer I saw it had Polish plates. I thought, is it really atroch? What a coincidence it would be... Unfortunately I didn't have the time to find out as I had to continue my journey. And really the only way to find out would have been to follow the car until it stops somewhere.

this one?





with dark blue licent plates?

Nope Mark,

nomead wrote:I saw it had Polish plates.

the '77 of Alex doesn't have polish plates

i have to admit, i regulary drive long ends through the netherlands but i rarely spot another 300. some people of V3C seem to spot them every week and some even every day; they're definatly out there but a bit harder to find especcially around Nijmegen it is very likely that you'll spot one.

Well... although it was a mk1, the rear had the newer style lettering for "343". And now I checked the page

http://volvo.atroszko.pl/

and it seems that the registration plate indeed matches what I saw. So, caught in action.

nomead wrote:and it seems that the registration plate indeed matches what I saw. So, caught in action.

At first I thought you might have confused old Polish plates with old Dutch ones (they're both black) but that really is a coincidence Pity you weren't driving a 300, atroch would have been most confused seeing an excited Fiesta driver waving his hands about

volvodspec wrote:... especcially around Nijmegen it is very likely that you'll spot one.

Why's that, Anjo? Does Nijmegen have a reputation for having, erm, elderly owners? Or maybe it's Holland's secret drift capital ?

Tom

naa Holland is very different. the V3C-known "drifters" are me, Frits and Erik, then there's 2 pro's (Wim Lemmers and Mark Vissers) of wich Wim will probably start the next season in a Soarer.. let there be 10 or 20 other people in the whole country that drift a 300 and that's the dutch 300-driftscene .

our statistics show than most V3C members are from around Nijmegen/Eindhoven etc, so you're most likely to run into one around that area don't have a clue why it's crowded there. there's a map in one of the Volvoice's but can't find it right now..

i took the 340Turbo to the boulevard at Scheveningen a while ago (when it was drivable ) and i got a load of faces like wtf, what kind of car is that. especcially after i did a few launchcontrol pullups and stuff like that.. parked along the beach there and when i kept an eye on it i saw people stopping, even some taking pictures etc. but then that could be just the car, i found out that especcially the sparco's draw a lot of attention we get a similar responce with the 343, but then it's "what a cool looking oldtimer"

trabitom99 wrote: At first I thought you might have confused old Polish plates with old Dutch ones (they're both black) but that really is a coincidence
Tom

@ Anjo: that's the reason why I thought it could have been Alex...

Where I live (Born, the home town), I see them also everyday. There are still a lot of older people who drive them around!

trabitom99 wrote:Pity you weren't driving a 300, atroch would have been most confused seeing an excited Fiesta driver waving his hands about

This (second) time around I was driving a red Volvo S40 with Finnish plates, though that is still quite inconspicuous in the busy traffic.