Tad emotional tonight

[roadtripper]

Not strictly the right forum but I never really got on with Volvo forums and I figured some folks here will understand.

Tomorrow morning we have to say goodbye to our heroic XC70 that's practically part of the family, unfortunately it failed it's MOT end of last week and at 18 years old (15 with us) and 249200 miles (190000 with us) it's no longer even emotionally economical to keep on the road. It's being picked up by a local salvage company.

It's the car I bought when MrsRT moved in with me, I proposed in it, we got married and honeymooned in it and we brought both younguns home from hospital in it. It's never once let us down or left us stranded.

Tomorrow for the first day in 30 odd years I won't have a Swedish car on my drive and for the first time in 15 I won't have a 4x4.

It's silly, it's just a machine, yet tonight it feels like the day we had our dog put down. I love and enjoy my van, I'm enjoying the new i3, but I doubt very much I will ever have a car this meaningful to me again. My one regret is we never quite made it to a quarter of a million officially, had one of the failures not been a tyre cut I hadn't found I'd have done a daft 800 mile roadtrip in the remaining 24 hours of MOT validity but it was not to be.

The future is full of the adventures we will continue to have in the van, but tonight I'm unashamedly in bits.

Goodbye old friend, and thank you.

 

[Sasquatch]

I'm a long time Volvo owner, having owned a Volvo of one sort or another continuously since 1988, and I don't like any of the forums or the OC either.

The P2 XC70 was a great car. Chuck in some sentimental attachment and I can see why you miss it. I miss my XC90 to this day.

I'm never letting this one go. Had it from new, not driven jn the rain since 2010, full Volvo history, only 40k miles.

 

[JOG]

I had an S40 back in the day as my company car and I loved it.

With so many years, memories and life events attached to your car, I can completely understand that you are “grieving” this evening.

More power to you for speaking up and externalising how you feel. I’m glad that this forum truly is a friendly forum and provides a platform.

 

[DaveD]

Not strictly the right forum but I never really got on with Volvo forums and I figured some folks here will understand.

Tomorrow morning we have to say goodbye to our heroic XC70 that's practically part of the family, unfortunately it failed it's MOT end of last week and at 18 years old (15 with us) and 249200 miles (190000 with us) it's no longer even emotionally economical to keep on the road. It's being picked up by a local salvage company.

It's the car I bought when MrsRT moved in with me, I proposed in it, we got married and honeymooned in it and we brought both younguns home from hospital in it. It's never once let us down or left us stranded.

Tomorrow for the first day in 30 odd years I won't have a Swedish car on my drive and for the first time in 15 I won't have a 4x4.

It's silly, it's just a machine, yet tonight it feels like the day we had our dog put down. I love and enjoy my van, I'm enjoying the new i3, but I doubt very much I will ever have a car this meaningful to me again. My one regret is we never quite made it to a quarter of a million officially, had one of the failures not been a tyre cut I hadn't found I'd have done a daft 800 mile roadtrip in the remaining 24 hours of MOT validity but it was not to be.

The future is full of the adventures we will continue to have in the van, but tonight I'm unashamedly in bits.

Goodbye old friend, and thank you.

View attachment 259712

As a Volvo fan I feel your pain. Sadly I think that the days of buying a car and getting 190,000 largely trouble free miles out of it are over.
Funnily enough I'm tempted to buy a late XC70 while we still can, I think they are under rated and under valued, what a versatile car!

 

[roadtripper]

Funnily enough I'm tempted to buy a late XC70 while we still can, I think they are under rated and under valued, what a versatile car!

Ironically our original P2 XC70 has outlasted the younger P2 XC70 and P3 XC70 bought as the "main" car to replace it.

The newer P2 was a total Friday car that had endless electrical issues and finally got shot of it when presented the bill for 4 new active shocks for the fancy chassis. The P3 I bought 3 weeks before The Weirdness started so I never really drove. We'd likely have kept it a bit longer but it did a weird unexplained power loss to both me and MrsRT on long run so we swapped it for the van.

Having had both the P3 is still a great Volvo but it's not a patch on the way the P2 version was designed and built. The P2 folding seats a case in point, they are all supported when down so it's a proper van style flat bed, the P3 it just sits on the upholstery like any other folding seats car.

 

[JumpShip]

Had many a 'swedish barge' .
Underrated and over engineered .

 

[Sackmycook]

Man up.

 

[roadtripper]

I'm actually a SAAB nut at heart.

Luckily I can still get my fix there as my old man is shamelessly attached to his Hirsch tuned SAAB 93 soft top that we're all insured on so I occasionally take the younguns for a blast down to the coast with the lid down much to their delight.

Once you've seen Nightpanel you'll wonder why no-one else ever did it..it would be especially welcome in modern overly digital vehicles.

 

[shropschris]

Not strictly the right forum but I never really got on with Volvo forums and I figured some folks here will understand.

Tomorrow morning we have to say goodbye to our heroic XC70 that's practically part of the family, unfortunately it failed it's MOT end of last week and at 18 years old (15 with us) and 249200 miles (190000 with us) it's no longer even emotionally economical to keep on the road. It's being picked up by a local salvage company.

It's the car I bought when MrsRT moved in with me, I proposed in it, we got married and honeymooned in it and we brought both younguns home from hospital in it. It's never once let us down or left us stranded.

Tomorrow for the first day in 30 odd years I won't have a Swedish car on my drive and for the first time in 15 I won't have a 4x4.

It's silly, it's just a machine, yet tonight it feels like the day we had our dog put down. I love and enjoy my van, I'm enjoying the new i3, but I doubt very much I will ever have a car this meaningful to me again. My one regret is we never quite made it to a quarter of a million officially, had one of the failures not been a tyre cut I hadn't found I'd have done a daft 800 mile roadtrip in the remaining 24 hours of MOT validity but it was not to be.

The future is full of the adventures we will continue to have in the van, but tonight I'm unashamedly in bits.

Goodbye old friend, and thank you.

View attachment 259712

Xc70 were amazing cars .

 

[cgtmiles]

I feel your pain (sort of) we had to scrap our zafira last week after 15 years of largely trouble free service. Now don’t get me wrong, I hated the thing, I never wanted it, I never liked driving it but it just worked. It was a bit battered where the wife had issues with walls etc but that just meant you could park it wherever and not care about it. So despite the fact that i absolutely despised the thing I was actually a little sad that it wasn’t even worth a trade in so had to be scrapped and was sad to see it go. So if you had a vehicle that you actually enjoyed owning and owning for so long then I say RIP!

 

[JumpShip]

I'm actually a SAAB nut at heart.

Also a SAAB man , i've owned about about 10 . Was actually looking at another last week (dont tell the wife)

 

[roadtripper]

It was a bit battered where the wife had issues with walls etc but that just meant you could park it wherever and not care about it.

Yeah, though Truckie polishes up well at a distance the sides carry a certain patina as the result of many roadtrip adventures to the The Lakes and the wilds of Scotland, Devon lanes and 5 years of a nursery up a rat run farm road.

Nothing gives you space on the road like an old slightly battered Swedish tank

 

[roadtripper]

Also a SAAB man , i've owned about about 10 . Was actually looking at another last week (dont tell the wife)

I still remember back in the mists of time when Dad bought his first one second hand and the salesman warned him "you'll own other cars alongside them but you'll always have one once you've driven one" - turns out they were right.

 

[z1ts]

Nightpanel

Still miss that from my dad's 9-3 Aero (you know the V6 turbo one...!)

 

[JumpShip]

Saw this yesterday parked up , doesnt have night panel but does have character and a nice rasp .

Although i think the last one i drove i think i reversed into the fence before i found a forward gear

 

[roadtripper]

Still miss that from my dad's 9-3 Aero (you know the V6 turbo one...!)

Dad and I got to drive a Viggen (accompanied by a mechanic) - amazing experience but far too much of handful to actually own. Showed what the Trolls from Trollhatten could do though and explained the rally heritage!

 

[JumpShip]

SAAB's were proper cars before GM got involved and spoilt/cheapened everything .
Very quirky but brilliantly motors .

 

[mvw]

I know exactly how you feel, last year I had to sell my Boxster for parts after engine failure. I daily'd it for just over 10 years, the engine failed on 208,000 miles of which 178k miles were mine. I only bought it as a stop gap, but ended up loving it. When it went, a couple of neighbours came out and even a waiting lorry driver (we'd blocked the road with the trailer) expressed his condolences. But getting rid of a two seater that my wife wouldn't drive for a mini cooper s that she loves driving, paved the way for us to have the T6 almost a year later

 

[JumpShip]

Strange how you get attached to certain motors yet others are 'just wheels' .
Our t5.1 defo felt 'special' when we bought it and still does yet is nothing flash but we still love it nearly 10 years later.
I keep looking at maybe an old cooper S as our next little run about .

 

[mvw]

Strange how you get attached to certain motors yet others are 'just wheels' .
Our t5.1 defo felt 'special' when we bought it and still does yet is nothing flash but we still love it nearly 10 years later.
I keep looking at maybe an old cooper S as our next little run about .

I can't say I would recommend investing too much into a MCS they seemed to be plagued with engine issues. But we bought an older 07 one which is immaculate and didn't spend too much on it, so not much to lose if it all goes wrong. Saying that I bought it knowing it need the high pressure fuel pump replacing, which I did myself and we just had to have the alternator replaced which is almost a front end off job! But it's a cracking car