Volvos & French Cars

I stand corrected then. Sounds like they are best to steer clear of. I remember going to the Central coast to a Euro mechanic. I cant recall his name but he was "old and sinical" about Renaults. It was the time when I was going to buy another car after selling my 12. The mechanic shook his head when I asked about the nice looking auto 25 in the shop just coverered in dust. He said son, "steer clear of late model frenchies and go with a volvo and a saab". When I thought about it and asked David collier about that comment he couldnt understand it. This guy was a Renault Mechanic.
"Renowreck" at Tuggerah on the Central Coast. I have also been told similar things by a guy at Renauli Enterprises but Im banned from there.....
 
Hi Daniel,

I wouldn't avoid any car because just one persons had problems with 'em. Hell if that was the case, holden & ford should've been outa bussiness years ago. Basicly all car manufacturers will have a 'lemon' every now & then. That's why you buy 3-5 year old cars. Doesn't matter what a shit of a car it was new, it'll more than likely have had all the problems sorted (probably at great expense) by this age :p :p

seeya,
Shane L.
 
I think it's fair to say that most manufacturers have their odd Friday car, some more than others.

But I'd still say that Volvos would be overall more reliable than French cars. The number of old 200 Series still rolling around is testament to that. I can't say I've heard of Volvos with doors falling off :)

I haven't come across a study/survey (say what you like about there being lies, damn lies & bloody statistics) that has placed a French car above Volvo. What Car? places Volvo as the second most reliable European car behind Mercedes. The Belgian Gent plant won a European Quality Award of some type.

Volvo has had some less reliable years, but they're doing quite well now. Most problems in recent years, seem to be related to computerisation & multiplexing.

You pay more for a Volvo, so you'd expect better reliability. Read some Volvo forums and a French car forum and you'll see what I mean. You have fewer problems, and what I've noticed is that the French car forum members seem to be more tolerant of various failures.

Cheers,

Justin
 
"Read some Volvo forums and a French car forum and you'll see what I mean. You have fewer problems, and what I've noticed is that the French car forum members seem to be more tolerant of various failures"
Maybe by the time you graduate to the white towelling hat, you've gone past the stage of bothering :rolleyes: :D :D :p sleepy sleepy

Alan S evil
 
Hahah,

Still a while to go :) Just remember, I'm driving a Pug now :)

Cheers,

Justin
 
without a doubt, as ugly as they are, the 240 series would have to be one of the best cars ever made. economical, reliable, actually "brisk" and comfortable. someone said something about a 740 being a bit of a bunger i would have to say that all i have heard is quite the contrary. and as for saabs... 900s = good. 9000s = bad. we had a 9000 turbo whjen they were new, with traction conttrol, top of the range alll the good stuff, and i dont think i've ever seen a car with as many problems. electrical, turbo, general engine, interior = general all round piece of bollocks.
 
Have to mention the best Volvo of all - the Amazon. Still people using them as daily drivers, still one of the most popular classic rally cars, with the excellent old B series engine lasting forever. Lovely old bus.

Stuey
 
Isnt that the one on the Ad on tv for Freedom furniture??
 
danielsydney:
Isnt that the one on the Ad on tv for Freedom furniture??
Click to expand...
Nope, that one is a P1800 or an 1800S (can't remember which front bumper the TV car has). Mechanically it is similar to the 120 Series Volvo's though.
 
Volvo Amazon

<img src="http://www.teli.stadia.fi/~tpetays/amzn.gif" alt=" - " />

<img src="http://www.teli.stadia.fi/~tpetays/amzn2.gif" alt=" - " />

Nice and all, but personally I think 404s are a much better drive.

Gee, all these glowing thoughts of 240s (2 series in general) ?
240s are a better car than their reputation would suggest, they can be quite tough and reliable but they have plenty of problems of their own......just ask anyone who owned an auto 240 for any length of time, hell some auto 240s barely drove out of the showrooms without self destructing their gearboxes (my parents new 2 series volvo dropped it gearbox under 5000k) :)

As for them being more reliable than Peugeots, that's a whole new can of worms.....i'd settle to say they can sometimes be in the same ball park in the reliability stakes (my bias would be heavily towards Peugeot).......to say there are plenty of 240s still on the road is like saying there are plenty of 504s on the road (heaps more early 70s 504s driven day to day out there than 144s for EG) :D

Yes, 240s go reasonably well, had great brakes too!, they handle like absolute poop though....any modern car will drive rings around a standard 240.....something that still can't be said about a 504 for eg wink

EDIT
added 240 rant:)

<small>[ 09 June 2002, 01:22 PM: Message edited by: DTwo ]</small>
________
Hyde Park Residence Condo Pattaya
 
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mmm Volvo's eh.

I've had "interesting" experiences with Volvos.

Firstly my DS was run into by them (both 244's) twice. (DS's lose this sort of confrontation , so don't try it yourself).

Unfortunately, on both occasions they were being driven by relatives. The first occured in Sydney, when a cousin of mine managed to drive up my whatsit at a stop sign in a 244 wagon.

On the second occasion it was my wife (We'd been rather impressed with the lack of damage sustained by the Volvo - a very slight scratch on the bumper bar - compared to my several thousand dollar damage bill on the Citroen the first time around)

I'd just spent a couple of days doing up a rear quarter panel on the D to perfection when somehow forward and reverse became confused by said dear driver. The result, again was not nice.

The final incident though, made me realise why some Volvo drivers are a trifle touchy about the subject. We'd just experienced a very tragic loss of a child, that I won't bore you with details about, and I was driving off in my wife's Volvo to the hospital to deal with some fairly distressing matters relating to it. I was stopped at a set of lights when a bikey came tearing up from a few hundred metres back, pulled up beside my window and started screaming f$%&ing C&@# Volvo F%^^ing driver.

Before this I'd seen the bloke a couple of hundred metres away down a side street, standing beside the bike. He'd obviously been sufficiently enraged by the sight of the distant 244 to climb aboard and burn rubber for the sake purely of offering his valuable insights into my personality defects.

This very nearly prompted me to commit murder - the only time in my life I've ever really felt this way. It would have been quite easy to do in the Volvo and under the circumstances I wasn't exactly overly concerned about the normal proprieties of life.

Fortunately I managed to suppress the impulse, but it helped me to understand why some Volvo drivers seem so oblivious to what is going on around them - the only way they can keep driving without risking a life sentence is to studiously suppress consciousness of all that goes on outside the vehicle.

We sold the Volvo and bought the SEAT soon afterwards , largely because of such experiences.

Cheers

Rod
 
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