I'm Pete, I'm 19 and an apprentice mechanic. This is how I became a 340 owner.

For my first car I bought a top spec Metro with no engine and built an engine for it, but although it is a good little car, and it sounds great, the noise gets a bit much on long journeys, there's no rear seat belts and not a lot of room.

I've always had a a bit of a soft spot for Volvos, and in my line of work I get to drive a lot of different cars, so I knew to replace the Metro I wanted either a 940/960 or 850/70 with air con, so in April this year I bought a 1994 Volvo 850 T-5 Auto. Unfortunately I can't use the T-5 until August when I can swap the insurance.

All this time, a mate of mine who owns another garage has a 1990 Volvo 340 1.7 GL up for sale for £295 on his forecourt, he'd bought it for a courtesy car for a customer to use while he did a big job on their car and then had no use for it. He comes in to work one day on other business and says he's going to scrap the 340 as nobody is interested and he really needs the space in his yard.

I felt that this poor car had to be saved, I have always quite liked the 340 and I had mooched around this one and it didn't look too bad.

Once I had decided to sell the Metro I didn't want to drive it, because if I got a puncture or a chip in the windscreen or anything like that, I'd have to fork out cash for a car I was getting rid of. Strange I know, but that's the way my mind works.

So I go home, do an insurance quote, check with Mrs Disgusted (we are saving for a flat so I wanted her to agree before spending any money). Turns out she is all for it and the quote is reasonable, so I offer Mark £100 for the car (the same as he'd get at the scrapyard), and he's pleased to see it go to a good home. That way I have a car I can use until the T-5 is ready. The car has two months tax and no MoT, so I put it on for an MoT, thinking if it needs anything big I can scrap it and not loose anything. Turns out it doesn't need anything, not even a bulb.

So that evening Mrs Disgusted sees the car and she was, well, disgusted!

First drive of the car, and I am shocked at how well it goes compared to my expectations. The door bins are huge, the space in front of the gear lever is great, and the car drives really nicely. I can completely honestly say that if I tried one before I'd have bought one ages ago, and remember I drive a lot of different cars.

I've had a bit of a play in a gravel car park as well, and it's great fun After a couple of journeys, Mrs Disgusted is very impressed as well and she's going to have it as her first car as she is learning to drive, so it won't have to go when I start using the T-5, so I will have both- yay

Sorry to ramble on, here are some pictures:

Any plans for the car or is it just going to be ya daily runner untill you can drive your T5?

I'd like to get everything working (electric mirrors, sunroof, etc don't work) and maybe a few modifications (alloy wheels and central locking for example) but keep it mostly original.

I loved taking the Metro to shows as you really feel part of something, so it'd be nice to do the same with the 340 as it's arguably already a classic. It'll also be my "daily driver" (I cycle to work so not daily as such but it'll be my main transport) and toy (great fun on a loose surface) and I'd like to meet up with other owners.

If anyone is into Metros, you can see mine here.

Forgot to post this, with 239k on the clock:



That is the pic on Autotrader before I got it as I haven't had a chance to get pics.

No problem with rambling, it's always interesting to here how people start with 300's.

Sounds like you got a bargain, enjoy! And the T5 looks tasty as well

Great story! I'm glad Mrs D has come around to it. That looks like a nice car. I'm sure you'll have lots of fun with it. I know exactly what you mean about there being 'something' about these cars.

That 850 has an 'R' (850 T5-R or 850 R) front bumper on it. It looks sooooo much better than the standard one. A nice bonus!

That Metro is sweet, too. I'm not a huge fan of them myself (in that I probably wouldn't own one), but it's good that people are still interested in them, as they're more or less disappeared from the roads. They were everywhere (especially in Torbay, where I grew up...a popular retirement area!) when I was a kid.

cheers

James

Good to read that! Looks like a nice car and being a late 1.7 is probably one of the nicer models to own. It should have central locking already but it's common that they no longer work at this age Start by checking the actuator in the drivers door. Bargain, though!

Nice buy, glad you like your "new" car! A set of GLE / GLT Volvo alloys can be had relatively cheaply and go well with the rear spoiler ...

It's definitely a good car for the Missus to learn in too - RWD and a lack of PAS, ABS, traction control etc. all help develop those instincts of car control which can be really useful when things get hairy.

The sunroof might be a difficult one to fix - if it doesn't leak and doesn't develop too much wind noise it's probably better to keep it shut

Can you hear the electric mirror motors working or are they completely dead?

Tom

Perhaps we should ask government for a law that every 300 series car should have warning sticker about V300 effect

These cars have weird effect on some individuals, they drive a car and kind of fell in love, for some it is hate they stumble upon. It seems bit more uncommon to see neutral impressions

Sounds like you got a good deal, congrats

Thanks for all the replies.

trabitom99 wrote:The sunroof might be a difficult one to fix - if it doesn't leak and doesn't develop too much wind noise it's probably better to keep it shut

Can you hear the electric mirror motors working or are they completely dead?

The LH one makes a clicking noise as if it has a broken tooth but there's nothing from the driver's one so I'll investigate whether it's got a power to it. As for the sunroof I agree with you, although there is a small leak on the driver's side.

Disgusted wrote:The LH one makes a clicking noise as if it has a broken tooth but there's nothing from the driver's one so I'll investigate whether it's got a power to it. As for the sunroof I agree with you, although there is a small leak on the driver's side.

I had that problem on one of my electric mirrors when I bought my GLT - one of the plastic toothed runners was broken, which meant the adjustment only went up and down, and no longer left & right:



The parts man at the Volvo dealers' gave me a spare V40 mirror motor to swap the runners over, but my mum managed to smash the mirror against a concrete post in an underground car park before I got round to attempting the repair, so I ended up swapping the whole mirror assembly over ...

Might be an idea to swap the switches over on the dead one, might just be a dodgy connection.

As for the sunroof, if you do attempt a repair (brave man!) the seal from a Mk1 Golf fits the 300 sunroof. Volvo ones are NLA ...

Tom

On Saturday it was my girlfriend's birthday so I gave her the car, but only after I had fitted some alloys, given it a full service and new cambelt and alternator belt, fitted the plastic cover in the bumper (Cheers Jay), taken all the stickers out from previous owners and given it a very good clean. I tried to get the central locking working as well but the new actuator is still in the post.

It has come up really nicely so I thought I'd post up a picture (compare it to the earlier ones):

That is impressive, quite a difference from state it was when you got it. It looks now almost new

Looking very, very nice! Did you do anything to the bumpers?

Tom

I used tyre shine on pretty much everything black on the car, i.e. tyres, mudflaps, bumpers, rubbing strips, mirrors, spoiler, petrol cap and grille.