In the 80's they were the pinnacle of middle class dorkdom. You had your $30k a year job (yes, that was real money back then), your house in the suburbs and your Volvo wagon. If you were cool, you had a turbo wagon. If you were awesome (and it was the early 80s) you bought a turbo coupe. It hauled your kids, your dog and resided in the garage. You changed the oil, did the maintenance on time and drove the speed limit. As you got a little older and moved up the corporate ladder, you went out and bought a BMW or a Mercedes. The Volvo became the kids car and resided in the driveway. Because it wasn't cool (hey it was the 90's and grunge was king) they drove it, but didn't want to be caught dead in it by their friends. Later mom and dad finally sold it to some younger couple who needed a decent inexpensive car. They changed the oil somewhat less on time, but generally kept it running. Later they sold it for cheap to someone who never did anything to it but drive it till it broke down.

Then they sold it to me.

  For some reason, I love these cars. With a 240, no one expects it to be able to turn corners or go fast. The nice thing about these cars is that since the people who bought them took care of them (and the fact that Volvo ridiculously over designed the motors) , there are a bunch of them still on the road. Also, being in Seattle, there isn't salt on the roads so that they didn't die the slow death that they do back east. As a result, there are a plethora of them around to choose from. Convenient for me anyway.

  I like old cars. When I'm not spending time with my family, you can usually find me out in the shop fiddling with something automotive related (or fiddling with this website). I have three old Volvo 240s, a 69 Pontiac Firebird, a 66 Dodge Crewcab Powerwagon and a 97 Chevy Crewcab truck. In my spare time I work as an engineer designing air conditioning systems for Data Centers and Hardware Development Labs.

Feel free to drop me a line. You can reach me at Chris@yv1a.com

I run this website out of my own pocket. If I have helped you out, shoot me a couple of bucks!