The Volvo Thread--long (some Audi content though)

[Mike Veglia]

Yes, I'm still here a'lurkin' but seldom postin' these days....
 
 The Volvo thread is wearing thin and will hopefully break soon. I guess it doesn't help for me to add to it, but I just can't hold back the urge. My wife loved Volvos (240 wagons) and I couldn't get her into an Audi for the life of me for the longest time. In around 2001 we decided my 5ktq at the time was getting a bit long in the tooth to be the primary family road tripper and bought her a really clean one-owner 1994 850t wagon. I have owned in excess of 30 vehicles since I started driving in the late 1970s. Mostly European, a couple Toyota trucks, a couple Ford trucks, several Volvos, BMWs, Porsches, Fiats (yes, Fiats), and of course 11 Audis and counting (there is some Audi content here). That '94 850t wagon was _THE WORST POS_ I have ever owned. It even made my Fiats look good. At first glance and test drive it seemed pretty good. However, it was totally incapable of putting power down to the road, handled worse than some pickup trucks I have owned, had the trashiest ride for a
 psuedo luxury car on the highway I have ever experienced (even old type 85 Audis ride much smoother at speed). Absolute junk. The only good thing that car did was turned my wife off to Volvos which resulted trading it away towards a (apparently much maligned on this list) 1995 A6q Avant in August of 1992. Well, a little over 3 years, and over 60k miles, later we still love the A6 and there is nothing that 850 could do that the A6q can't do so much better there isn't even a comparison, except straight line out of the box acceleration in the dry--but we don't drive a wagon for straight line speed thrills anyway. Same roads, same road trips, same maintenance practices. The '95 A6q avant we wound up with has been one of the best all around cars I have ever owned. It is closing in on 170k miles now and still runs and drives like a new car. Perhaps not my favorite of our three Audis (my Ur-Q holds favorite car status right now) yet when presented with the choice of four vehicles (three
 Audis and a Toyota pickup) in our driveway it is almost always the first car I hop into. At the other end of the spectrum, the car it replaced was the worst car I have ever owned. There are still Volvos in my family--my mom has an 850 (non-turbo 5spd) wagon and my sis has a S40 and they seem to be happy with them, but never again for me.
 
 
 


Mike Veglia
Motor Sport Visions Photography
http://www.motorsportvisions.com