Whatever Happened to Honest Adverts?

[volvosneverdie]

Speak the truth brother.

[Edcase 300]

AMEN! none of the ford "built to last 10 years" hehe ours are all pushing 20 and 30 in some cases! and still beautiful and now retro!

[trabitom99]

Unfortunately, "Volvo for Life" is not quite so honest

Parts ?!?

Tom

[volvosneverdie]

Perhaps they were counting in dog years Tom.

Speaking of dead dogs, they certainly outlive modern pacific rim rubbish.
25 year old volvo or 5 year old daewoo?

I think i'd stick with the moose.

[Edcase 300]

I know what you mean about parts-its quite difficult to get certain things for the car The real shame is that the bodywork doesnt seem to stand up to rust nearly as well as the 700 series.Its not a complete failure though-the engines renault and volvo easily get over 150k miles without problems if maintain-250k should be a target for those who look after thiers.Plus the 300 series volvo really is a great car in many ways-trouble is cars like the old fords and vw had a lot of pr behind them and people buy into that-thats probably affected parts availability these days-more modding and resto rescources should start popping up as the 300 is undoubtably a classic car

[OapEM]

I've always looked at the 'Volvo for life' phrase as intending that once you buy your first you will keep coming back?

Shame about the parts availability given you can still get fairly late registered examples as far as 'old' cars go.

Take some solace from this though, the Vauxhall Nova/Corsa A, another fast appreciating modern classic was made up until 1992 and registered as late as 1993 yet parts are very hard to come by. Most dealers barely acknowledge the car, like they want to forget about it and move on it seems, same with mk3 Cavaliers (no chance with mk1 & 2) Yet ask for parts for your mk3 Astra - same era as the last Novas and they have the lot available.

Part of this may be down to the car running until 1997 and maybe it's the last of the 10 year service parts they have to legally provide?

It still surprises me that the manufactures don't see the gap in the market for providing decent OEM parts to those who like to keep their old cars going. I'm not saying they need to make more, but we all know there's loads lying around in dusty warehouses that could be put to very good use, and if there's sufficient demand then look into having them remade, don't need the tooling just work alongside Hadrian Panels, SEL Imperial etc. and turn out decent stuff.

I know for a fact that a certain blue oval manufacturer would make a killing with OEM classic panels lol.

[trabitom99]

What bugs me is that Volvo considers itself a "premium manufacturer". That means, you're paying more for a V50 than for a Ford Focus and should therefore be able to expect a little bit more from them.

I don't know what the "legal requirements" are but I know the arrangement Bosch has with companies they make parts for. They are bound to supply a certain part of theirs at a certain price for 15 years after the car has gone out of production. After that, the manufacturer can come back and ask for more, but then the price needs to be renegotiated. Some car makers will keep coming back (Mercedes) and pay the premium, others won't bother and just delete the part from their lists after 15 years.

Tom

[jtbo]

That is thing Mercedes does right, but don't know how long, maybe this current economical situation will end that, which would be really really sad