For me it was a bike accident, totally my fault - lost grip when braking and dragged myself 50 yards along the floor (desperately grinding my elbow into the ground keeping the tank from grinding),
Gave up the idea of being a speedy motorcyclist.. having put 50 miles on the clock before my first whole life flashback .

Sooo... I got the first 340.. never looked back, then a Jaguar (still a safe car, statistically for its time it was a bloody safe car) then this slightly newer slightly better 340 with a bit more engine -
I like them purely for safely, simplicity and longevity - Twice I have got going after a breakdown with a butter-knife.

was brought up with volvos, dads specialized in them for 25 years.
my dad drove my mum to the hospital when she was going into labor with me in a gold mk2 360 and thats was the first ever car i went in on the way home ha
ive got a photo album and theres a few pictures where every car on my drive is a 300, mk1's, 2's and 3's i wish it was still like that. if we ever have a meet i will bring them up

A bad man with a knife when I was about 8.

for me, it was partly the drift scene, and partly because I just liked them. Just like AE86's when i was a kid, They were uber cheap to buy, run and insure. That and they were RWD. Just so happened that the AE86 scene took off, driving things into proper expensive stuff, and the the 300 series was the next best thing. I think theyre great looking cars, and its afforable, simple rear wheel drive fun. So much potential.

volvosneverdie wrote:A bad man with a knife when I was about 8.

hahahahaha!

My family's had them for ages and after being dissapointed in my every-breaking-down peugeot 206, i thourght why not get a volvo, plus the RWD factor and retro cool...

I always fancied myself some shite, had a Ford Sierra (pov spec pre 87 model with the grille) and a Citroen BX in mind, but in the end settled for the 340. Because I had to do lots of motorway in it, I ignored the variomatics and found, at long last, a green GL Special with a 5 speed. It was a sorry battered heap with an interior that looked like it was used to haul small livestock or something. In the end I bought a 460 GL 1.8i I as my first car. For €700 it was TREMENDOUS value for money, being quite nicely specced with semi-leather, central locking, electric windows and mirrors and the 460 Turbo alloys. Did 30.000 km in 10 months and never serviced the damn thing

Later I bought a variomatic as a hobby car. That was almost four years ago and I still have that same car. I wonder if I ever come to sell it really.

My mate had a 245 torslanda. I was riding mountain bike very slowly up a very steep and wet hill and he drove past, pulled up and said hello, he then drove off with a sexy rasp of a b200e "i thought id rather be in that than on this bike, and he paid the same for it" here it is



then he got a 244 glt



I have alot of memories of been a passenger while you hooned the shit out of it.

I wanted rwd, i wanted something different so I looked at volvos, I looked at 300s, I looked at 360s and eventualy fell for a 360 glt. So I rang my insurers and got a quote. To my suprise it was cheaper than my corsa, that put the nail in the coffin and I bought my 360 glt.

Weirdly enough, I actually saw them about when I was younger and thought they were cool In my mind as a kid, they were straight lines and 90 degree angles, exactly what cars should look like One of my good friends had a red mk2 in their family for 25 years which I always thought was cool. Then one day I was bored at work in 2009 I thought I'd go see if I could get insured on one. Found this forum and saw that the atmosphere was good. There just happened to be a nice tidy saloon on ebay at the time which I naively bought without viewing, ended up stepping out onto a tiny platform in the middle of east anglia. Walked 4 miles through brilliant countryside on the first warm day of the year and found this farm I'd memorised from google maps. It's been an adventure every day since

^ cool story bro, but im not being sarcy lol! sounded a proper adventure

haha I know, used to people taking the piss anyway Those were the days, blowing my student loan on crazy cross-country adventures. Couldn't dream of doing that now!

Another thing is, I don't believe in destiny but I'm so glad I went and got that car. I feel like I made the world just that little bit better (on V3M at least)

nvdw wrote:Because I had to do lots of motorway in it, I ignored the variomatics and found

...then saw the light

nvdw wrote:Later I bought a variomatic as a hobby car. That was almost four years ago and I still have that same car. I wonder if I ever come to sell it really.

An Uncle of mine had a 300 series car, but I don't remember much about it.

In the immediate family, my dad had a 1972 Volvo 144DL saloon (the second and last of cars bought brand new) and after a few other cars bought a 1985 240DL auto estate in 1988. I was given that car in 1999. Other than that I remember my mum had a 1970 DAF 55 coupe some time around 1980. I got my first DAF in 2004 (a 1973 66SL saloon) and the first Volvo (1982 343DL auto) in 2009 just before getting married.

To date I've had 12 manual cars and 9 autos. Doesn't really bother me either way.

What made you get into Volvos?

Simples. They're the only make of car I've had that didn't try and bankrupt me

Lets see...

Volvo 740GL - 5 years trouble free.
Scorpio 4x4 - money pit
Seirra - rotbox money pit
Cortina - BIGGER rotbox
SIII Landrover - ok, maybe the one exception
Volvo 740SE - 2 years trouble free
Range-Rover V8 - not so much resembling a money pit, more a yawning chasm somewhat akin to Katie Price's clunge.
Rover 214i - Head gasket issues, good when sorted though.
Discovery - See above.
Volvo S40 - no problems!
Volvo 360GLT - Far far more reliable than expected, pretty much unkillable. Various bits break or drop off, but the essential Volvo-ness is still going strong

Cheap,strong and cheap.
Oh and they're cheap.

Now I've come to my senses I run a 4ltr waftomatic with leather armchairs.

If I ever get another it'll be mk2 variomatic if such a thing exists

sven360 wrote:If I ever get another it'll be mk2 variomatic if such a thing exists

Of course they do.

^
Dibs if you ever choose ti ship Abby Rich.
Sexy, sexy car.