VOVLO 240 GL
RUN BY Jack Phillips OWNED SINCE August 2016 PREVIOUS REPORT March
The Volvo has clocked up nearly 2000 miles since meet-ups were allowed, a result of events returning and our parents (who have missed half their granddaughter’s life) being dotted around England.
The only work I needed to do post-service was to fix a busted bulb, which shattered because I can make a meal of anything. It also revealed more Volvo overengineering: the spare wheel has to come out to remove the backplate. But in a rare win, my habitually inattentive parts ordering came up with a box of 10 bulbs for £4 rather than the pair I thought was coming.
Why power-window fuses are melting, giving off a burning smell as they go, remains a mystery, so too why the offside rear passenger door doesn’t unlock (it never has). They are all still to be resolved, along with the gaiter changes.
A new engine undertray may also be needed following a scrape – though I might have just never noticed it being vertical before. Taking the near-180º turn up a steep gravel drive from a ribbonthin, stone-wall-edged road was never going to end well.
That was on the trip we had originally booked for November last year, only for our Yorkshire friends to be placed in a strict tier and not allowed to meet. By chance rebooking coincided with Drive-it Day, and even the drive to Glossop for the Snake Pass was a treat, the undulating landscape marred only by lycra-clad cyclists struggling up the hills, sapping the barge’s all-important momentum.
Much of the fare was moderns, with the odd smile flashed our way, until midway through the pass we spotted a lovely pre-war saloon sweeping the other way, rally plate and all. Such was the surprise that I couldn’t tell you what it was.
An Elan passed by (and later broke down) before a stream of MGS appeared, and looping back to Holmfirth we were greeted by a grinning Mini owner on a very British ride out with an E-type.
Not having had much going pressingly wrong, I’ve started looking for things I don’t really need: a genuine Volvo roof-rack and an original radio. I wish I had converted the factory tape deck, and certainly wish I hadn’t stuck it on ebay; my search alerts have thrown up nothing, and a post on a forum has met deafening silence.