Volvos explained

  • Thread starter Thread starter Peter H.M.Brooks
  • Start date Start date
Peter H.M.Brooks said:
all.
Saab also makes cars that look slightly less ugly these days, as do
Citroen. This is a curious thing as aesthetics has generally taken a bit
of a dive the past couple of decades.
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Ugly would be a generous term - they're just non-descript boxes.....

At least Saab and Citroen made cars with curves and aerodynamics, something
ovlov never did....

the DS and CX were great looking cars.

BTW have you seen the new Saab 9-5? That front end treatment....hideous....
 
I've wondered for a long time why anybody would buy a Volvo. They're
ugly, though recent models are a little less so, and built like a brick.
They also affect the minds of fairly normal (I said fairly) who are
turned into that dangerous and stupid road beast, the Volvo driver,
something rather like a rhino, short-sighted, aggressive and only able
to move in straight lines, usually fairly slowly.

The only excuse that I've heard is that, being built like a brick
shit-house Volvo drivers can keep their sprogs uncrushed despite their
bad driving.

It turns out that I was wrong. Apparently the back seats of revolves are
the most comfortable mobile bonk locations. I'm not sure if Rolls Royces
and Winnebagos were included in the survey, and I'm surprised that jags
don't feature as their seats are quite squishy, but it is probably the
sheer width that gives them the edge - or maybe those funny barred
headrests give a good purchase. I'm not sure, the article said that they
were best, not exactly why.

What's odd is that revolves tend to be driven by middle-aged wage- slave
types who can, presumably, bonk at home. When have they had the
opportunity or inclination to find out enough to fill in the survey? If
anything, I'd have expected them to carry out adulterous limbo dancing
in the bog at the local Sainsbury's or in their shed on the allotment.

Or could it be that the sprogs, protected from crushing over all these
years in their brick on wheels are forced to rebel when teenagers
borrowing the car? It would make sense, I suppose.
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Ever since my wife managed to roll my Volvo 240 estate, and she and all
3 sprogs and her mother, who were aboard, all walked out without a
scratch, I've bought Volvo. Since said sprogs have grown up and I can no
longer afford Volvos, I drive a diesel Cit ZX and a Pug 205. I don't
feel nearly as safe as I did when I had my beloved Volvos. Plus my back
aches after a long drive, something that never happened in the Volvo.
I've never tried screwing in the 3 740's I've had, as the kids would
probably have been a bit scarred by the experience, not to mention the
MIL.
 
The message <[email protected]>
Excellent !!! I'm most impressed. :-)
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I wasn't impressed with getting it back in the next day. Loads of
lubricant all over the rubber and several sets of hands helping and it
was still a tight fit. Shoving a screwdriver in the crack and waggling
it around gently to ease the lips over it wasn't ideal, and the old
trick of using string was OK except the string kept falling out.

Putting the screen back wasn't easy, either.
 
Guy said:
T

I wasn't impressed with getting it back in the next day. Loads of
lubricant all over the rubber and several sets of hands helping and it
was still a tight fit. Shoving a screwdriver in the crack and waggling
it around gently to ease the lips over it wasn't ideal, and the old
trick of using string was OK except the string kept falling out.

Putting the screen back wasn't easy, either.
Click to expand...
Well, it seems that Volvo owners aren't slow in all departments.

If string isn't working for you, there is always the electric bunny.
 
Steve Hayes said:
It's been many years since I drove a Volvo, but when I did none of those
criteria applied. It was simply the fastest saloon car on the road, and
outperformed a lot of sports cars.
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That was the 850TR, 'faster than a Porsche between 3rd and 4th gear' was
the gist of the ads in those days IIRC.
My ex has had her 850 station wagon for 14 years, still drives it
occasionally. Beautiful car, aged better than its owner did.

Jon
 
john said:
Ugly would be a generous term - they're just non-descript boxes.....
Click to expand...
Yes, I agree, ugly was generous - hideous was more accurate, but I was
trying to be kind.
 
Steve Hayes wrote:
'outperformed' in the technical sense, presumably, Volvos have no
descernable aesthetic or emotional connection to sports cars that I can
detect.
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That was the whole point.

I once devised a complicated formula to calculate the best car to buy from
road tests in a motoring magazine - the lowest price, the highest top speed,
the best acceleration, the best fuel economy etc. I was quite surprised to
find that the Volvo came top -- its styling was at least 10 years out of date.

Then a friend gave me a drive in his father's Volvo, along the old
Johannesburg-Pretoria road, going down the hill from Buccleuch at over 120
miles an hour, changed into 3rd gear at the bottom and went up the othetr side
at over 90, at which point the Austin Healey sports car (with a much bigger
engine) that had been trying to catch us got left way behind.

That taught me not to judge be external appearance.
 
What about the 850R BTCC Racer? I guess Steve would be talking about the
road going version of that.
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Actually I was talking about the 544 Sport -- 1947 American styling, vinyl
upholstery, rubber floor mats, creeping death speedometer, single-cam pushrod
overhead valves, but it could go like a bat out of hell.

The one I compared the road tests with (see other message) was the straight
544, which made it even more remarkable. It differed from the Sport in having
a single carb and a 3-speed gearbox.
 
Steve Hayes said:
Actually I was talking about the 544 Sport -- 1947 American styling, vinyl
upholstery, rubber floor mats, creeping death speedometer, single-cam
pushrod
overhead valves, but it could go like a bat out of hell.
Click to expand...

Ah, when you said 'many years', you meant quite a few! :)
 
-Yhey do handle very well, is just enought to have one and be sure of
what I´m talking about
-Long service life
-They do look great, not in need to have a burble shape, an asleep
chinesse face, or such kind of strange things
-Break is not a bad concept: you can buid up many things based on one
of them (family, future, savings, personality, etc.), I won´´t never
be staisfy inside a ridiculous shaped car such a Ford Contour, Toyota
Yaris or Citroen C4, not to say a "crab face" Mazda 6.
-Is for protecting ourselves and family from some maniatics driving,
drunked or not drunked
-I sold three monthso an 86 740 Turbo Intercooler with 215.127miles on
it, and withou any important problem in engine, shifting box, etc-, and
was still able to reach 125MPH.
-Someones like to change year to year the car (loosing each year the
25% of the new car, if it is a new car, or wasting lots of money in
up-dating maintanence), Volvo owners do it once each 5 or ten years,
may be more
-Some of the Volvo owners have other cars, and it let us compare with a
greet point of view.
-Finally: If we decide to have a car is just because its shape, safety
and performances makes us happy, no matter if there are fashion people,
new car sellers, etc., that does´t share our point view. At the end,
is our sacred right to do what we preffer without need to get the
agreement of thoose who are not part of our family or aren´t giving us
the money for the buying or maintanence of one lovely Volvo.

Best regards
 
WHY NOT???????????????
IT'S AS READABLE AS BOTTOM POSTS.
Jim said:
DO NOT TOP-POST!
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IF YOU ARE HAVING PROBLEMS FOLLOWING THE THREAD THEN YOU NEED TO GET AN
UP-TO-DATE READER. OR JUST USE GOOGLE GROUPS SOFTWARE.
 
Peter H.M.Brooks wrote [all over the place] :
I've wondered for a long time why anybody would buy a Volvo.
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I had an accident in someone else's volvo once (my fault) and would have
prolly died it it hadn't been built like the tank it was,
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Ditto MTAAW - apart from the 'someone else's '.....Ah, the A405
between St Albans and Hatfield, visiting the Aged P's laden with
Chrissy prezzies....a dark and dismal night....70 mph on a recently
re-surfaced road...the graceful fishtail coming OUT of the bend at the
bottom of the hill and Bu Fuvg...that's what happens when you hit a
kerb obliquely ?...hmmm...aerodynamics are interesting...hello, car on
it's side eh ?...I know, let's climb out of this handily placed
drivers window....What? no i'm fine thank you...this ambulance ?
Okay...ah...so you'll be coming to Casualty too Officer?....what, you
mean the EXACT place I came off the road?....and it was a brand new
Rover cruiser yours then?....rolled into you ?....and he's?....ah...a
Peugeot 205 - yes they ARE a bit of a tin snail really......mmm,
broken pelvis?....ouch....BTW, these yoghurts were in my glove
compartment...No, they're untouched seemingly....Vanilla for you?

Roger

( Boodly Insurers insisted it was a write-off even so...onfgneqf...)

\\
<|:-) Helga? Damn,it's been a long time -lookin'GOOD!
//
 
ISN'T!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
IT
NO
WHY NOT???????????????
IT'S AS READABLE AS BOTTOM POSTS.


IF YOU ARE HAVING PROBLEMS FOLLOWING THE THREAD THEN YOU NEED TO GET
AN UP-TO-DATE READER. OR JUST USE GOOGLE GROUPS SOFTWARE.
Click to expand...
 
WHY NOT???????????????
IT'S AS READABLE AS BOTTOM POSTS.
Click to expand...

Stop shouting.
IF YOU ARE HAVING PROBLEMS FOLLOWING THE THREAD THEN YOU NEED TO GET AN
UP-TO-DATE READER. OR JUST USE GOOGLE GROUPS SOFTWARE.
Click to expand...

Christ, no, not googlegroups. Come back when you've read something
about Usenet etiquette.
 
Tom said:
And the Volvo ?
Click to expand...

hhmm made me think about outlook express,
after all of these years you would have thought that microsoft would make it so that the sig and reply would be at the bottom of the post automatically.
 
hhmm made me think about outlook express,
after all of these years you would have thought that microsoft would make it so that the sig and reply would be at the bottom of the post automatically.
Click to expand...


Really? Cravens, I never thought I'd see the day. Now they have to
sort of the gazillion other things that are wrong too, though.
 
hhmm made me think about outlook express,
after all of these years you would have thought that microsoft would make it so that the sig and reply would be at the bottom of the post automatically.
Click to expand...

And line wrap.
 
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