|
|
In
May 1998 my wife Margaret said that we did not need TWO Volvos, at the
time I had a 1974 164TE in excellent condition and a 1973 1800ES. She
suggested that we should get back to one Volvo by selling one
of them. I did not
really agree with her logic but as the ES was needing a full paint job
to bring it back to scratch, I decided that the 164 was the most
practical car to keep out of the two so I sold the ES. Three
days later I saw an advert in the paper for a 960 wagon! I
had been on the lookout for one of these for over two years, so I
brought it! "I thought we were going to get back to one
Volvo" said Margaret. "I did what you asked, I got back
to one Volvo but you did not specify for how long did you?" I
actually got away with it.
Upon making enquiries with Volvo Australia I discovered why I had not others
seen for sale. From 1990 to 1998 only 41 Volvo 960 wagons were
sold right across Australia so it really is a rare vehicle in this
country. In the five years I have owned it I have only seen one other
advert for sale and that was in Melbourne almost 2000kms from where we
live in Queensland. It is a 1993 model and when I purchased it the
speedo was reading 103,000kms. In the past 5 years it has towed
our caravan effortlessly about 40,000kms including a second trip right
around Australia. The only major problem I have had is that on a
rush trip to Victoria for my brother's funeral it split a heater hose
that went unnoticed, overheated and blew a head gasket. I had to
have it trucked 1300kms back to Brisbane for a successful repair. Having
a 150kw motor it tows like a dream and without a caravan and being
driven carefully it will return around 9/10 litres/100km. It also has no
problems in the 'get up and go department' It is now 10 years old
and has 205,000kms on the clock and I am confident that there are many
more years service in the old girl yet
|
