Crap Volvos!!!

So what's wrong with the Ford Volvo's? I've been in a V50 and an S40 and providing you don't have the Arctic Ice or whatever it's called it's no more plasticy than my V40, my friends V70 classic or my ex's uncles 265 GLE...

Even the crtics are starting to say nice things about them now - build quality up with the big boys etc...

The only compaint I have is the 10K difference between a Focus and a V50...

Stu

[tonyflynn1]

Ford make great cars, and no, I'm not joking.

I learnt to drive (age 11, on a disused airfield near where I lived in East Anglia) in a 1961 Mk II Zephyr convertible with bench seat and column shift and have always loved the tinny razzledazzle of the big Fords ever since - and that extends to Lincoln, Mercury, &c. Stateside. I believe nowadays Ford make very good cars indeed, and without the pretentiousness of the big-ticket marques - most of which they own anyway! There are a million and one mass-produced everyday items we take totally for granted now, and I don't see why cars shouldn't feature among them. Buy one, use it, and change it, knowing it will be recycled. Let the technology evolve. Now you'll think I'm a total philistine I suppose

Nope, not a philistine.

Very well said.

OK you love your car - and no one can argue that with you...

But how can you say a '98 Merc (a susposedly (sp?) luxury, quality expensive car) is great when it already has a rust prone body?

I still think that Mercs (and VAG) trade on their reliability of a bygone age...

[James A]

I saw an 'S' registration MB E320 with rusty rear wheelarches last summer. Shocking! :(

I feel the same sort of affection for the old barge that you might for a very comfortable pair of shoes you've had mended countless times but still wear day in, day out because you can't find anything more comfortable ... and it has NEVER ONCE let me down in 140,000 miles and has paid for itself several times over ... I gather (from the Merc forums) that the '98 era E class is prone to rust, because 'the steel was stretched' or 'the steel was left out in a field' - take your pick of laughable excuses - but it was only round the wheel arches & tailgate, & my mate sorted it for £350. So many M-B owners, begging their pardon, and I was like this at first, treat their motor with kid-gloved reverence and throw a fit the minute the machine starts behaving at all irrationally, unpredictably, or inexplicably - in other words, like a car.

Reliability of a bygone age eh ... a golden age, would that be?

I'll have the decency not to add M-B E300 TD to my signature here - that would be adding insult to injury :D

I know what you mean... I was just shocked at mercs being known for rust the same age as my V40...

I do the same with my Spit (now *that* is prone to rust :) ). The Volvo is far more reliable and thankfully seems okay rust wise (even with countless stone chips at the front), but there is just something about the Spitfire...

Golden age sounds apt - the people I knew who had / have 80's models are quite happy - bit like the old BMW 7 series.

Why not add it to your Sig - surely driving another mark isn't a hanging offence is it? The other forum I post on is for my bike a Suzi SV650S and we have regular posters who ride Honda Hornets etc (the enemy :) ) we should welcome other cars with welcome arms - even if we poke a little good natured fun occasionally...

In my dim & distant youth I ran an MGC roadster (straight-six Austin Westmister 3-litre, bulge in bonnet) which was *held together* with rust and only went in a straight line, and then only in the dry - and boiled over in any traffic jam - and had a steering wheel like a Routemaster London bus - but I still loved the abominable heap and would have kept it if I hadn't then got a company car. It would be worth unthinkable amounts of money now but if we knew that we'd never get rid of anything would we? And we'd have spent all our income on a fleet of cars we couldn't drive and had nowhere to keep

Volvos may come and go, motorbikes may come and go... But the Spitfire stays }(

Done too much to ever let it go (leather interior, race suspension, walnut dash and door capping etc etc etc)... The best thing though is that when I renovate I can easily change from right hand to left hand drive as I now live in Holland... Roll on Winter when hopefully I'll have the cash to start the restoration...

Stu