Gone

[donaldcurrie]

My neighbour [and friend] parted with his t4 yesterday.2001 v40 with mot till november,he drove it to scrapyard with other bits and bobs for small money.Does nobody want these cars any more,it's sad to see great cars come to their end.I own a 1997 v40 2.0 which is mot till next feb and was tempted to buy the car,have they come to an end? SAD.

[clarkey1984]

That's sad to hear, especially as it was MOT'd, I only stopped driving my 02 t4 back in November because the MOT ran out and garages don't like decats and worn piston rings due to lots of smoke on idle, I've got another engine ready to go in, it's actually in the boot of the t4 and has been for months, but what with work, kids, and only having a driveway to work in its a case of time and also enthusiasm, by the time it gets to the weekend all I want to do usually is grab a couple of beers and a takeaway and just chill out, it'll be done one day.

[canis]

In my opinion; Not quite yet, but the glory days or cheap V40s are going to come to an end very soon. There are still plenty about, and some really nice ones. Sooner or later there will come a point where they're getting so rare the last few on ebay will be hoovered up by specialist breakers - who in their own way are helping to keep the marque alive by selecting parts and improving existing runners.

They're just getting too old now, and the rustproofing is starting to fail. As they become too rusty to continue, the parts will be recycled, but the bodyshell represents a owner/driver. And car owners need parts, especially at this age. Except that now he doesn't anymore, he doesn't own it anymore, so that's a contracting customer base - which results in difficulty obtaining new parts. As the customer base for new parts diminishes, brakes, exhausts, belts, filters, etc., will become more difficult to obtain off-the-shelf.

My prediction:

There will come a point where the prices will ebb the other direction. Desireable models (forget base level spec) will begin to appreciate in value, unless some new-fangled emissions law, fuel duty, tax bracket or whatever makes them unaffordable. When that happens, cars turn into ornaments. There aren't many people with the facilities to store cars indefinately, and this scenario will be the end of the model.

Providing it's still economically viable to actually drive them, desireable models will probably still be seen occasionally in another 20 years, but they'll be rare by then and too expensive for anything other than an actual choice to drive one.

In other words, you've got a few more years bangornomics yet but the writing is on the wall. And you're quite right, your observation is well founded, I do believe. They're starting to disappear. Get a good one now, or be prepared to give them up.

And yes, I still think back to my Cortinas bought for a few tenners. Try getting a MkIII now - in ANY condition. Go on, try. Despite the MkII being "the one you want" for years, due to their popularity they were spared the crusher. Not so the MkIII, which was bangored to death. Few survive. As a result, they are now extremely rare, and ironically more valuable than the MkII. Go figure.

[Laird Scooby]

Originally Posted by canis

In my opinion; Not quite yet, but the glory days or cheap V40s are going to come to an end very soon. There are still plenty about, and some really nice ones. Sooner or later there will come a point where they're getting so rare the last few on ebay will be hoovered up by specialist breakers - who in their own way are helping to keep the marque alive by selecting parts and improving existing runners.

They're just getting too old now, and the rustproofing is starting to fail. As they become too rusty to continue, the parts will be recycled, but the bodyshell represents a owner/driver. And car owners need parts, especially at this age. Except that now he doesn't anymore, he doesn't own it anymore, so that's a contracting customer base - which results in difficulty obtaining new parts. As the customer base for new parts diminishes, brakes, exhausts, belts, filters, etc., will become more difficult to obtain off-the-shelf.

My prediction:

There will come a point where the prices will ebb the other direction. Desireable models (forget base level spec) will begin to appreciate in value, unless some new-fangled emissions law, fuel duty, tax bracket or whatever makes them unaffordable. When that happens, cars turn into ornaments. There aren't many people with the facilities to store cars indefinately, and this scenario will be the end of the model.

Providing it's still economically viable to actually drive them, desireable models will probably still be seen occasionally in another 20 years, but they'll be rare by then and too expensive for anything other than an actual choice to drive one.

In other words, you've got a few more years bangornomics yet but the writing is on the wall. And you're quite right, your observation is well founded, I do believe. They're starting to disappear. Get a good one now, or be prepared to give them up.

And yes, I still think back to my Cortinas bought for a few tenners. Try getting a MkIII now - in ANY condition. Go on, try. Despite the MkII being "the one you want" for years, due to their popularity they were spared the crusher. Not so the MkIII, which was bangored to death. Few survive. As a result, they are now extremely rare, and ironically more valuable than the MkII. Go figure.

I second all of that and have seen that prediction come true so many times with other cars it can almost be relied on to be not only a prediction but an almost guaranteed fact.

The V/S 40 isn't really my cup of tea (Volvo should never have gone FWD IMHO) but they are a poular car and will retain some loyal followers.
As such, if you like them, buy one now if you don't already have one at the trough of its value, try and pick up a spares car to strip for the usual things that break (again while they're cheap) and invest in having some anti-corrosion treatment. It will be cheaper in the long run than body repairs when the parts are no longer available. Look after the oily bits too, regular engine oil/filter changes, regular gearbox fluid changes (especially on autos), if a fault starts appearing, get it sorted ASAP before it damages anything else nearby.

In one way, it's bangernomics at its best, the prices of them will go up in years to come. My other passion besides Volvos is the Rover 827, i bought mine 11 years ago when prices were just starting to look up from the gutter for £300, now it's worth at least 10 times that. Even a rough one is likely to set you back at least a grand.
Then there are the Mk3 Cortinas as Canis mentions, once you couldn't give them away, now (if you can find one) you're looking at well over a grand just for a basket case that needs major restoration. Granted they're subject to the "Blue Oval Tax", a premium voluntarily paid by Ford enthusiasts compared to the price of a similar car of similar age (you can get a near concourse Marina/Victor for the price of a rough Cortina) but even taking that into account, people who have owned them a long time are going to make a profit.