Hi all,
new member here from Mass. Back in college (around '79) I got a lead on a '70 142 with 70k miles that was for sale on campus, but didn't run. It belonged to the hockey coach, and one of his players had worked for a summer at a dealer and had looked into the problem and concluded the car needed a head job. I checked it out, found fouled plugs, and offered him $400. He agreed, and I put in a new set of plugs and drove away. It was an interesting car because it had a factory sun roof. It was the only one I ever saw in the US.

From there I went to a 240DL sedan, and 850, a 245, an 850 wagon, and one of the first Cross Countries. The Cross Country was a disaster with some odd design flaw that would cause the car to run out of gas even though there was still 1/3 of a tank, but it was somehow stranded on the wrong side of the saddle bag tank. Volvo couldn't fix it and wouldn't make good on it, so that was my last Volvo. The failure seriously endangered my wife and kids several times, and my wife will never go near one ever again. Not taking care of us was a bad mistake on Volvo's part, if you ask me, but it's history now.

I'm mostly retired now and have gotten back into playing with old cars, and on a bit of a lark bought a 142 of a similar vintage to my first one. I can't wait to get back in it.

 

Cool, welcome here and sorry about the sorry stealer you had with the XC

 

Thanks. The XC issue is history now, but it has cost Volvo 7 new car sales across our family. It's a classic example of penny-wise and pound-foolish business practices.

Now I just need to get the 142 home.....

 

Welcome to the forum.