In 2012 my girlfriend and I learned that we were expecting our first child. We decided that a car would make things more manageable as we live hundreds of miles from our families of origin.
Unlike previously, I decided to go about selecting a car in a more grown-up manner. That meant that I would figure out a set of adult criteria and use those criteria to find a suitable car.
We started with a budget of 25.000 DKK (3,500 to 4,000 USD). Our goal was a safe car, a station wagon, and reliability. Since particularly reliability (yes, the poor reliability was primarily due to bad decisions on my part) had made this old car enthusiast wary of buying cars, I looked east to Japan. The facelifted P11 Nissan Primera from around 2000 has a good reliability reputation but suffers a bit in the rust proofing department, I figured a well-maintained one would be alright. I would have liked a Toyota Avensis but that was not within the set budget, plus I honestly would like a minimum of comfort equipment and Toyotas of that vintage are usually more or less strippers compared to the competition over here. Hondas are even further out of the price range in Denmark.
I test drove a 1.8 silver station wagon which had all four front and rear fenders backyard painted which the ad neither mentioned nor showed. It drove well, but I did not entirely trust the seller – plus the car did not actually have the full set of service records that the ad said, so I declined. The 1.8 was the one I wanted as it had an adequate 125 hp and 122 lb-ft (165 NM) and most importantly better fuel economy than the 2.0. I did try a 2-liter silver wagon. It was loaded with power seats, fake wood, leather and an automatic (CVT) transmission. With 140 hp it was more punchy and this one had a full service history. It also had a creaking noise from the rear suspension and the fuel economy must have been pretty bad with this transmission and the bigger engine, so I reluctantly passed on that one as well.
The search was hard so at one point my girlfriend asked me what I would buy with a budget of 35.000 DKK rather than 25k. It seemed to me that the best buy in that category was once again from that storied Swedish automaker: the V40. With the 1.8 it had performance and fuel economy comparable to that of the Primera. It had six airbags and comfortable seats. The Business trim level of which there are quite a few in Denmark came with cruise control, climate control, power windows and other good stuff. I just missed one listed with 246,000 kilometers (153,000 miles) at 20,000DKK. Ironically this was the car we ended up buying a while later, when a dubious character had purchased it to make a buck on it. He kept dropping the price from the high 30s to eventually 25,900 DKK which is what we paid for it. This car had its periodical inspection (every two years) just performed without remarks and it had a full service history. That is why I deemed it safe to once again go with a high mileage car.
The car was a real treat and by far the most reliable car I have owned. This has to do with the fact that it belonged to a small family for a number of years before a brief stint with the dubious character.
This was the car I drove my first-born back from the hospital in (like Jim Klein in his turbocharged V40). What I really appreciated then and even more now were the little things. The fact that it had a strap for tying down grocery bags in the trunk. The little nets for small items in the trunk. The excellent seats. When you need to carry something long, there’s a release mechanism that folds the front passenger seat down flat so that you can easily use the total length of the cabin. These are the things Volvo think about and they make ownership effortless.
The car drove well and was reasonably quiet. Handling was not the focus when designing this car, nor was performance. I once drove a T4 version with 200 turbocharged horsepower and it was insane, spinning the wheels in the first three gears. The naturally aspirated 1.8, on the other hand, was very house-trained. It pulled evenly and competently but there was no sweet spot where you could find a bit extra power to overtake. It felt like someone whom you know will always be there to support you, but whom you wouldn’t go out for beers with, because come on, what’s the point of going out for fun, if it’s not going to be fun?
Guess why I called it the Crimson Express.
I simply took care of this car. I only added hubcaps and an aftermarket radio with bluetooth connectivity. Oh, and an ISOfix bracket for the child seat.
I had zero issues with it and it was never in the shop in our almost two years of ownership. Unlike all other cars I had owned up to this point, I did not kill it with neglect, which is something I’m quite pleased with.
I did kill it, though.
On a summer day in July 2014 I came up behind a semi double parked and a car behind it. I slowly pulled out across the full lines when I came back to the right side of the road, a parked car pulled out in front of me. I hit him and got the blame because I had crossed the lines, even though there was no other way to go either forward or backward with cars lining up behind me. The car was totaled and the insurance company charged my deductible of 5,000 DKK and offered me 25,000 for the car (20,000 net), so the depreciation for two years of ownership was 5,900 DKK which was very fair.
Drive towards the light, old friend. This shot was actually taken on its very last drive delivering it to the scrapper.
In the end, it would have had to go anyway, as I had decided to quit my job without another one lined up meaning we had to cut spending.
We did not buy another car until I got another job after a period of temporary positions and unemployment. With a new full-time job and another baby on the way we started looking again in the fall of 2016. This time we did not buy Italian or Swedish.
I still like the looks of these whenever I see one in the road. Thanks for the shout-out! Your story kind of bookends mine, mine was new and at the start of its lifecycle, yours was older and ended its lifecycle. Both 2001’s and used for first kid duty. Over here we only had the 1.9T engine which I think was a good compromise overall. Plenty of power but not more than the car could easily handle. Maybe we should have kept ours after the lease was up…
Having once owned a 1992 Infiniti G20/Nissan Primera, I think I would have been sorely tempted by that Primera wagon….though that front end styling is a bit off-putting.
BTW, my G20 didn’t have any rust issues, but any and every G20 with a manual transmission seems to have developed a 5th gear pop-out problem, eventually.
I had a 93.5 G20, great car. No issues with 5th gear on mine but I think I sold it with only around 120k miles on it. They pretty much ran well into the 200’s even without much maintenance.
Had a ’94 G20t with the 5MT/LSD combo. Easily the best handling car I’ve ever driven, and I loved the black leather interior with bolstered seats.
I’ve always liked the S40 and V40, though available in the US only with an automatic and generally derided as a Mitsubishi in Volvo trim. But I guess its replacement was just a Focus in Volvo trim. Slightly off-topic, but I’m reading the Swedish novel “A Man Called Ove” and a key element in the character development is Ove’s allegiance to Saab, and his erstwhile friend Rune’s allegiance to Volvo, and their decades-long progression from sedan to wagon to hatchback, 4 cylinder to 6 cylinder to Turbo, as their family situations and perhaps budgets evolved. Ultimately, their friendship couldn’t last because one drove a Saab and the other a Volvo.
I’ve read rumors of the V40 coming to America. I for one would be interested.
A friend of mine bought a similar car in blue however it was she says the worst car she has ever owned comfortable yes, well equipped yes, reliable not in your wildest dreams, constant electrical issues and the gravel roads in her area just beat it to death, it cost her 2k to buy $800 to replace the steering column then it just nickle and dimed the whole time it was in her fleet until it stopped and refused to start again, a local Volvo enthusiast gave her $500 and took it away for parts, replaced by a Toyota Fielder that just goes and goes.
I look at various websites devoted to reporting potential faults in used cars (carcomplaints.com and Edmunds.com) and a major “theme” is that Volvos all seem to have had or quickly developed electrical faults.
Which is kind of ironic considering Volvo is moving heavily into hybrid powertrains.
Take the “Car Complaints” site with a huge grain of salt, since some cars will be listed as “AVOID LIKE THE PLAGUE”…and then you read that it’s mostly for cosmetic trim falling off.
That said, Volvos are certainly not without electrical weirdness. My parents’ S70 was fairly reliable for the 140K they owned it, but some quirks developed, like a radio that wouldn’t shut off and wonky door switches causing random warning chimes while driving.
My sister actually still drives an identical V40 in blue. It has more than 300,000 kms and they do zero maintenance and it’s still going despite being ever closer to the end. For them it’s reliable transportation. Although, it too has developed electrical issues.
I loved these wagons but never had the courage to buy one… based on all the owner reviews I read a good example seemed to be the exception rather than the norm. These were built in the NedCar factory, jointly owned by Mitsubishi which gave me DSM vibes.
There are many for sale over here, they are very well represented compared to contemporary cars. Also, I did read lots of consumer reviews back then and that’s actually a reason why I bought it. It looked reliable, and mine was.
DSM vibes? Well sure, since the DSM plant is at a short distance from NedCar.
They certainly got the styling right on these. But in Australia, it’d be a rarity for a former Alfa 75 owner to even know what a Volvo v40 might be. No, here they were bought by people like my friend Dianne, older, English, clear enunciator, conservative, a bit horsey, better monied than she ever let on, bit of a snob. No Jap cars for her. She had the wherewithal to pay the silly new price of a Volvo V40 here in 2001 (about $40K). Her sheepdogs liked it. I didn’t. Apart from the seats, it was a crashingly ordinary car, somehow indefinably a bit cheap feeling (and I wasn’t aware of the Mitsubishi connection then). Volvo dealer servicing (lady Di would insist over my objections that “you must get Volvos done at the dealer”) was no less a con than the inflated car prices, and this car was not at all reliable. She sheepishly admitted that when they got rid of it for $1000 nine years and 200,000 ks later, that it had cost slightly MORE over that time in repairs and service than they had paid for it new, which is absurd. To be entirely fair, a Volvos one USP did indeed save her daughter from serious injury after it was severely rear-ended a week after she gave it to her, so perhaps $80K did have a final priceless justification.
She now drives the dawgs in an Outback and is sworn off Swedes. The Subaru has needed a new fuel gauge in the last 130,000 kms. And frankly, I think she’d now admit that the dogs think it’s the Volvo anyway.
Thanks for your tales, Mads. There’s something very appealing about their honesty.
“Unlike previously, I decided to go about selecting a car in a more grown-up manner. That meant that I would figure out a set of adult criteria and use those criteria to find a suitable car.”
Hmm, what is this “grown-up manner” you speak of? I probably should give that a try.
Love the color! Wagons are shockingly effective tools, until you’ve had one you don’t know what you’re missing.
My Dad had the S40 saloon version, twice, and once in the same red colour. Very comfortable cars, a great stylish interior and more capable than you might imagine from a Volvo/Mitsubishi combination. I was very tempted to buy one from him at one time, but the timing was not right.
Well, I see political correctness will not allow my previous comment to be posted.
I think you’re making assumptions. Whatever you tried to post previously was not deleted; maybe there was a technical glitch.
But I’m not at all happy with this comment of yours, because of your presumption and of your use of the expression “political correctness”. Did you try to say something that doesn’t belong here?
The post was stopped due to some moderator blockage, as that message popped up. True not deleted, because it never got posted.
I just love these. I am actually looking into buying a diesel one of the 2000 breed. Timeless shape, one of the best to ever come from 90’s Volvo.