Rusty But Trusty

There’s been quite a bit of talk about Volvo lately, what with the sale of the company to Geely wrapping up, and in my little world, a recent feature of a 142S on BringATrailer.com. So I thought I’d try to find an interesting Volvo built in the times when things were simple. When Geely was just a glint in Li Shufu’s eye, and when Volvo was a purely Swedish company. When selling 3 versions of the same brick-shaped car (and a mildly sporting coupe/shooting brake) was considered sufficient to run a business.

So here it is, the 1966 Teknikens Värld car of the year, the fuel injected Volvo 140-series wagon, or 145E. My fantasy has always been that one of these might be fun to drive, or maybe to flog on a dirt road in the mountains. Like many older Volvos, it’s well-used, but underneath it appears to be a well-loved car that’s had some cleaning up already done to it. You can find this Volvo in North Portland, OR for $1500.

There’s a lot to like on this car – the green paint looks better than some other colors (like red) when worn, and the body looks fairly straight and rust-free. It’s got an IPD front sway bar and sport springs, plus some other bits, and the seller says the car has never left him stranded. It also comes with Volvo 960 wheels, which allow for wider rubber, and a vintage roof rack. Lastly, it’s got overdrive, which should make freeway driving much more tolerable than the standard 4-speed.

You can see the paint has plenty of wear, but the color is still vibrant. The roof rack is pretty cool, although you can be sure it adds both drag and wind noise. If I were to keep it, I’d want to paint it silver or white, instead of the modern-looking black. This should help increase the Volvo’s meager cargo capacity.

The interior looks remarkably clean. The back seats are just as good-looking (although the pattern doesn’t look totally original, front or back), and the trunk carpet appears new. Seller has also added some gauges out of a later sport model, and is throwing in an uncracked dash. Really, this is starting to look like a fairly easy project car you can drive while finishing.

Finally, the engine compartment. As mentioned before, the car runs pretty reliably, and one would hope the fuel injected engine is fairly easy to start & run, while giving a bit more power. It could use some detailing, but it’s by no means bad for a car at this price point. Take it home, clean up some details, put on some period correct wheels, give the car a budget paint job and you’ll have one clean Volvo wagon!

Tags: 145, 145E, Feature, station wagon, swedish, under $2000, volvo

This entry was posted on February 5, 2010 at 3:43 pm and is filed under Feature. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.