Hi fellow travelers, long time listener first time caller here. Apologies for the wall-of-text.

I've reached an inflection point with my 240 and need some highly biased opinions.

Why biased? Because an opinion is an expression of personal bias. If it were unbiased it would be merely a recitation of facts which, at this point, I already have and aren't really very helpful. This is a gut call.

I have a '90 model 240DL wagon, which pretty much my ideal car, but if it is to remain viable I’m going to have to dump some money into it.

The Good:
200K miles, 5-speed, 2 owners from new, rust free with random dings and dents.
In the last 15K miles it’s had a major service including timing belt, as well as strut inserts and shocks, strut mounts, water pump, and drive shaft center bearing.
Also has a set of Virgo wheels that I had refinished by Wheels America a while back and have never been mounted.

The Bad:
Broken hood hinge.
Needs a starter and battery (damned inconvenient with the broken hinge…)
Needs tires
That 5-speed is getting mighty reluctant to go into 1st without bumping it off 2nd.
Factory clear-coated silver has not aged well as the car spent most of its life in west Texas and rural Colorado.

The Worst:
It’s been parked for almost 18 months because reasons…

This means we need the fuel and cooling systems flushed as well as the brakes, and an oil change. Just for starters.

The money involved isn’t terrible ($2K-ish), and I’ve got a local Volvo specialist (whom I’ve never done business with before) who’s willing to take it on, but I’m afraid that after sitting it’s going to nickel and dime me forever from here on and be of questionable reliability. On the other hand, if I dump it now all my previous efforts (and expenditures) will be wasted and finding a manual trans wagon is never easy.

So, I’m at the Clash stay/go Kenny Rogers hold/fold point. My gut says to keep it and spend the money, but the little part inside of me that’s a grown-up is unsure.

Thoughts?

 

I wouldn't. For less you can get a 940 - much better car.

 

Hmm... If you go to a shop, to do all that will be much more than $2k... Your tranny alone, if it's not just a clutch job, will be much more. Depends on the mechanic but lately everybody seems to be raking it in so unless you are fortunate, well, count on more than what you think is reasonable.

Your Volvo sounds a bit of a project, and unless you have some strongly sentimental reason to hang on, may be better to let go speaking from purely financial view point. Or, if you do the work yourself, at least most of it, then it looks better but at $100+hr labor in today's world, you may be in a money pit. I do my own work and it's the only way to make an older car make sense. Also, I have lots of cars so if a couple are out of commission I don't suffer.

 

Appreciate the input. It does, however, come with two separate issues:

First is that all US 940s were automatics and that's an absolute deal-breaker for me. A non-starter if you will. This is not necessarily a 100% rational point, but I cannot imagine seeking out another car that I would always view as being fundamentally flawed.

Second is that, even if I did like them, I don't have a 940. Selling the 240 and then hunting down a suitable replacement would be time consuming, and at best I'd end up with an only slightly newer car that's an unknown quantity. The classic devil you know versus devil you don't issue - and after owning it for 8 years I know this devil pretty well.

 

I'm ignoring the trans for the moment. 1st gear is a more deliberate action that it used to be, but I don't have any other problems such as unusual gear noise or jumping out of 3rd or 5th and it drives fine. I'll swap it out when I can find a good one, but it's a down-the-road issue.

Normally the current pressing issues (hood hinge and starter) are things I'd deal with myself, as I have with most of the other things over the years, but I've run into some serious bandwidth constraints over the last year. One of those things where you think there's going to be time to get to it and there just never is. Fortunately I've found a local shop that is both a specialist (Volvo and Mercedes only) and hungry for work. I got a solid estimate for the work and was surprised when it came back as less that I had expected/budgeted.

As for sentiment, of course that's most of it. Why else would anyone have a 30 year-old car and hang out on internet forums trying to justify their life choices? For me, a 240 wagon with manual trans is pretty much the Platonic ideal of what a non-sportscar should be and I'd be hard pressed to find another that wouldn't require a similar financial outlay for something...

As you can likely guess, I've pretty much talked myself into keeping/fixing it. Next couple of weeks will be interesting and may lead to a project thread.

Thanks for taking the time to reply.

 

That's fine, and no, you are not crazy! Hopefully your tranny will be OK with a new clutch as that would be the biggest expense if it's not just the clutch. And, if you have a DIY wrecking yard around you can help yourself a lot as well as if you don't mind doing some of the labor, like the broken hood hinge, starter, battery, things like that. These cars are as easy to work on as anything automotive.

 

I believe you answered the more important question in post #1 when you mention rust, and lack thereof. To me, that is a more important
factor than the issues you mention when it comes to deciding "should i stay or should i go!" good luck!