Seriously?

[Othen]

Originally Posted by Laird Scooby

People who are looking for an older Volvo won't want to spend out on a respray to get a decent colour Alan - might be a few Chinook fans out there but i think even they would baulk at the idea of dodgy paint! Is a "Chinook Paint Sprayer" even an official rank in the RAF?

I drove a lot of Focus models (Focii ?) when they were new (some so new they didn't have registration plates) and almost all (except the top/sportiest) models displayed worrying understeer when going into corners. I took the worst one back and got them to check tyre pressures, dampers and put it on the ramp to see if there was something wrong with the front suspension. I'd narrowly missed the Armco coming off a roundabout and i wasn't being a lead-foot either! As such i wouldn't even think about a Focus even if i was desperate for transport.

A lot of 20+ year old cars are going up in value now though, the 240 is in a grey area where some are considered "just an old Volvo" and others are definitely in classic territory, even if not at the magic 40 year status yet.

I wasn’t particularly advocating a Focus Dave, it was just a running and riding car for less than £500 (actually I had a few of them as rental cars, I didn’t mind them too much).

I think the 240 is at that difficult age: nowhere near being an historic car, but a bit older than a banger. The market for a car like that is going to be tiny, an enthusiast will want something 40ish years old and rarer, but it won’t really be usable as an everyday commuter. I wonder where this one will end up, I’m seeing it closer to a grand than two (particularly with a stolen paint job!).

[Laird Scooby]

Originally Posted by Othen

I wasn’t particularly advocating a Focus Dave, it was just a running and riding car for less than £500 (actually I had a few of them as rental cars, I didn’t mind them too much).

I think the 240 is at that difficult age: nowhere near being an historic car, but a bit older than a banger. The market for a car like that is going to be tiny, an enthusiast will want something 40ish years old and rarer, but it won’t really be usable as an everyday commuter. I wonder where this one will end up, I’m seeing it closer to a grand than two (particularly with a stolen paint job!).

I sort of guessed you weren't intending us all to rush out and buy a cheap Focus Alan, i was just outlining my (bad) experiences with them. I do find it strange though as much of the suspension is shared with the Mondeo of the same age and those handle very well with good grip in almost all conditions.

That 240 is at an age where i see the perfect buyer waving between £500-1000 at the seller, keeping it and generally improving it over the next few years until it hits the 40 year milestone and/or starts to be a classic in its own right. It's a base model which haven't come of age as yet, the GLE and GLT are in classic terrotory as they were rare when new, base spec cars were all over the place like a mad womans breakfast though because they were the entry level into a range that couldn't otherwise be afforded.

I remember working with someone a bit over 30 years ago who was very proud of her brand new Vauxhall Nova Antibes.

Basically a base model with a few stickers and an aftermarket glass sunroof fitted to "up the spec" and a couple of other cheap optional extras added (probably at the dealers on the first of the cars) to create a "limited edition" model that they could sell cheaply to help get rid of the overstock of Nova bodyshells.

Used values even then were on a par with the standard models but often a little lower. The depreciation was higher than standard models once about 3+ years old so in fact she would have been better off financially buying a 1-2 year old top spec Nova but the attraction of that new registration ("E" i think it was) was just too much for her. The higher spec used model wouldn't have had as much depreciation (setting aside the instant depreciation the moment you drive a new car off the forecourt) even when the Antibes was at the same age as it was a more prestigious model to start with.

Similar applies to that red 940, if it was a GLE with the 2.3 HPT engine, the price would be nearer what it's worth in that condition. However there are a lot of tell-tale signs that it could be be a pig wearing lipstick.

[Clan]

Originally Posted by Laird Scooby

People who are looking for an older Volvo won't want to spend out on a respray to get a decent colour Alan - might be a few Chinook fans out there but i think even they would baulk at the idea of dodgy paint! Is a "Chinook Paint Sprayer" even an official rank in the RAF?





I drove a lot of Focus models (Focii ?) when they were new (some so new they didn't have registration plates) and almost all (except the top/sportiest) models displayed worrying understeer when going into corners. I took the worst one back and got them to check tyre pressures, dampers and put it on the ramp to see if there was something wrong with the front suspension. I'd narrowly missed the Armco coming off a roundabout and i wasn't being a lead-foot either! As such i wouldn't even think about a Focus even if i was desperate for transport.

A lot of 20+ year old cars are going up in value now though, the 240 is in a grey area where some are considered "just an old Volvo" and others are definitely in classic territory, even if not at the magic 40 year status yet.

yes ! Most focus are on cheap tyres too which doesn't help . Another car like this is a Citroen C1 ! Which will understeer in the wet on a sharper motor way bend at a legal 70 mph !

The 240 is now almost 47 years old by the way , they were still making Hillman Imps when the 240 was launched ..

[Laird Scooby]

Originally Posted by Clan

yes ! Most focus are on cheap tyres too which doesn't help . Another car like this is a Citroen C1 ! Which will understeer in the wet on a sharper motor way bend at a legal 70 mph !

The 240 is now almost 47 years old by the way , they were still making Hillman Imps when the 240 was launched ..

The Focus (multiple) i drove were all on factory fit tyres (Michelin i think - did nothing to improve my already low opinion of them!) with less than 10 miles on the clock and i was only doing about 28-30mph when the front decided it wanted to continue straight towards the Armco. Remember i was coming off a roundabout, it was a roundabout i used regularly regardless of whether i was working or not and none of my cars had ever even twitched at that sort of speed on the same bit of road. In fact many of them didn't even twitch at twice that speed with my foot hard down coming off the roundabout but considering i was driving this Focus gently as it was still warming up among other reasons, there was no excuse for it. Even the Growfungus (Berlingo) company vans i had that were prone to skidding for no apparent reason didn't do anything they shouldn't on the same roundabout/slip road.

[Othen]

Originally Posted by Laird Scooby

I sort of guessed you weren't intending us all to rush out and buy a cheap Focus Alan, i was just outlining my (bad) experiences with them. I do find it strange though as much of the suspension is shared with the Mondeo of the same age and those handle very well with good grip in almost all conditions.

That 240 is at an age where i see the perfect buyer waving between £500-1000 at the seller, keeping it and generally improving it over the next few years until it hits the 40 year milestone and/or starts to be a classic in its own right. It's a base model which haven't come of age as yet, the GLE and GLT are in classic terrotory as they were rare when new, base spec cars were all over the place like a mad womans breakfast though because they were the entry level into a range that couldn't otherwise be afforded.

I remember working with someone a bit over 30 years ago who was very proud of her brand new Vauxhall Nova Antibes.

Basically a base model with a few stickers and an aftermarket glass sunroof fitted to "up the spec" and a couple of other cheap optional extras added (probably at the dealers on the first of the cars) to create a "limited edition" model that they could sell cheaply to help get rid of the overstock of Nova bodyshells.

Used values even then were on a par with the standard models but often a little lower. The depreciation was higher than standard models once about 3+ years old so in fact she would have been better off financially buying a 1-2 year old top spec Nova but the attraction of that new registration ("E" i think it was) was just too much for her. The higher spec used model wouldn't have had as much depreciation (setting aside the instant depreciation the moment you drive a new car off the forecourt) even when the Antibes was at the same age as it was a more prestigious model to start with.

Similar applies to that red 940, if it was a GLE with the 2.3 HPT engine, the price would be nearer what it's worth in that condition. However there are a lot of tell-tale signs that it could be be a pig wearing lipstick.

I think you are right about the perfect buyer for that car Dave, if the price was £500 it would be cheap - a grand would be on the expensive side. At that price a chap (or lass) could afford to keep it as an occasional car and improve it a bit as time went by - as it got closer to 40 years its value might well increase making it worth investing a bit more. Must of the exterior trim is missing (I’m guessing from the ex-RAF paint re-spay) and that might be expensive to replace, so perhaps it might end up like the RB?

As with many of these cars, I wonder why the sellers think they are worth far more than they really are (I see the brown rust-bucket and the bright orange 244s are still for sale - see what I mean?).

I’m sure you are right about the pretend special editions of cooking cars like the Nova - the stickers will soon peel off, and cars like that are unlikely to make it to the 40 year point.

[loki_the_glt]

The narrative about a rear quarter shunt explains one thing I noticed about that GLT - the rear lamp assemblies don't match, with the offside one coming from a DL/GL/GLE as it has a chrome instead of satin-black divider. It's a bit like a "100% concours" GLT offered a couple of years ago at £10k which had non-GLT tail lamps on both sides. The anoraks (guilty, your honour) like to pick up on these little inconsistencies.

[Laird Scooby]

Yes Alan, i agree, £500 would be cheap and £1000 expensive, i was thinking of £500 as the opening bid for negotiation with the view to finding things that might need doing to drop the price from £1000 but meet somewhere in the middle. Certainly worth no more than £1000 as it stands, a respray in a better colour than what most would view as grey primer followed by replacing all the missing trim including the rear bumper is likely to be the sharp end of £4k and it still wouldn't be a £5k car.

I think it's the age-old idea of seeing a pristine example selling for a high price that makes others think their much less than pristine examples are worth just as much on the basis that some mug will still think they're getting a bargain.

Over on the Rover 800 forum a few years back, someone was regularly listing Mk2b Vitesse models (mainly Coupe) for £8-9k and while they appeared to be very nice examples, they weren't as pristine as a friends 1990 Mk1c 820SI that he'd just got an agreed value insurance policy of £10k on. You could literally have eaten your dinner off the engine but you wouldn't as you would have needed to clean it afterwards to the same standard. It is as good and clean underneath as well to the point the owner has biult mirrors to position under the car at shows. He wouldn't sell it but i doubt that he would reach the £10k point although i have seen a few exceptional similar cars reach that on ebay auctions - relisted a few days later though so i suspect shill bidding for most of the price.

This all served to generally boost the prices on the 800 range as a whole but nowhere near the over-optimistic £8-10k asked for those exceptional cars. Like all "investments" they can go down as well as up, had i sold my 827 Coupe that year i would have got nearer £3k than just under £2k the following year when i did sell.

The same pattern appears no matter what make and model though - i've recently seen in this months Practical Classics that VW Type split-screens have dropped a lot in price so anyone who bought a year ago is now in negative equity. Conversely the Fiat 130 Coupe has shot up in value. The bind moggles really as to the hows, whys and wherfores of it all.

[loki_the_glt]

Further - is it really a GLT? There's no under-bonnet photograph to confirm the presence of a B230E lump as opposed to a B230A.

And why was the head-gasket done? Unless run dry these engines usually go for ever without needing that work.

[Laird Scooby]

Originally Posted by loki_the_glt

Further - is it really a GLT? There's no under-bonnet photograph to confirm the presence of a B230E lump as opposed to a B230A.

And why was the head-gasket done? Unless run dry these engines usually go for ever without needing that work.

From confused.com after entering the reg :

Make and model
Registration F160RHU
Manufacturer VOLVO
Model 240 GLT AUTO
Body style 4 Door Saloon
Year 1989
Transmission Automatic
Fuel type Petrol
Engine size 2316

The lights are wrong but it left the factory as a GLT - with you on the need to renew the HG at 60k miles though! Could have been the original owner skipped the 600 mile service where the oil is changed (but not the filter strangely), timing belt retensioned and head bolts retightened. Or maybe the dealer skipped the head tightening and timing belt but did the oil change - or perhaps skipped that too!?!

[Thekilt]

I have been looking around at 240's recently, and i have been finding ones like the grey painted one quite often. Go on youtube and sear Volvo 240 and loads of modified for drifting come up. The picture with the guy in the background isnt the best sfor selling this as "Not abused". a few years ago you coudl pick these up for cheap money like many have said, this is when many rear wheel drive drift fans picked them up cheap to knock them around. Now they come to sell them, and see the redicidulous pricing some people are sellign clean versions for and they think they can lump a grand onto the selling price.

Im looking at Saab 900's as well, and all of them are going up and up. even the non turbos are looking at £3000+. i found one on autotrader (https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-det...tion=on&page=1) albeit it has low miles, but when you check the MOT history you need to run away from it now! it failed the MOT almost every year since 2005. just shows it hasnt been well looked after.