I just bought a 1989 240 5-speed wagon off the original owner who had it ordered to his liking which I think is both interesting and appealing to me. Picking it up on Friday. Blue with blue interior, (same color combo as my 1990 DL Sedan), 170,000ish miles with working odometer,

DL
5-Speed
Cloth seats
Large Tach but owner specified no small clock either. He told me the clock in the radio was good enough.
Added Volvo 52mm volts gauge
Added Volvo 52mm oil pressure gauge
Manual windows
Added dealer installed fog lights. Still in tact coincidently
Has third row "death seat"
Original OEM blue floor matts.
Roof racks
Still has all original manuals
All original maintenance receipts from day one of the cars life
Original window sticker. It was hard to believe that after almost 30 years this has survive.

Seems like a guy who knew what he wanted. I like the rudimentary nature of a 5-speed, hand cranked window, the cloth seats, added functional gauges and fog lights to be better see and be seen.

Questions?

- Did all the DL 240s get the cloth seats over the vinyl?
- DL with manual windows? I would think with the DL package you would get power, unless ordered specifically without.
- Not sure if the original window sticker will show it or not, but anyone know the cost of the fog lights?
- I thought I read someplace that one 5-speed was better over the others???

 

DL was the base model, GL was "Grand Luxe". Vinyl or cloth, choice. Leather was on the GL. All the other things are easily installed dealer accessories. The transmission is the M47, a "true" 5 speed which succeeded the M46 which was 4+1, the fifth being an electric overdrive. This change happened in 1988. Curiously, the M46 is stronger and used on all Turbo Volvos.

 

the specifics of DL vs GL varied with the model year, and many of the features standard on a GL were optional on a DL.

by 89, I thought pretty much all US models had electric windows, certainly the several 240DL's of that era I've seen had electrics (we had a 87 GL, it was electric too, but with a hand crank sunroof).

 

If DL was the base model what about the 240s with no designation? I have one that has just 240 on the rear trunk?

Thanks for clarification on the M47 vs M46. I knew their was the difference, but did not know when the change happened. I won't be driving it hard so either would probably been fine.

Did all manual cars come with the large Tach? I assume so. It was just interesting to me that the original owner was, in my opinion, more concerned with monitoring the engine vitals and had the dealership install the volt meter and oil pressure gauge. I have since done some research and see that you can buy these gauges on eBay, but it seems not a lot of owners originally had them optioned in their cars from new. Where they are dealer installed I would imagine they are not listed on the original window sticker, which is unfortunate. Same for the fog lights.

The manual windows was an interesting option. I would have thought most buyers would have preferred power. Maybe the car is an early1989 production model or the owner specified manual windows? Once they went to power windows, say a 1990 model year, could you order a car without power windows? Or did they all just come standard with them?

 

they dropped the DL/GL the last couple years as they were pushing the 940 as the GL car.

btw, re the small clock, my daughter saved the one out of her 87 240GL when it went to the great wrecking yard in the sky... but she wants it as a memento of her first and favorite car that took her on all sorts of HS and college adventures. I suggested she could find someone who does woodwork and crafty stuff and they could probably make a wood block to slide it into, and run it off a 12VDC 'wall wart' power supply as a desk clock

re: power windows, our 87 had them... I've only seen manual windows on much older versions, like late 70s,early 80s. After about the mid 80s, I didn't even think you COULD special order a Volvo in the USA, you had to pick and choose from inventory, unless you did the European delivery thing, where you ordered a customized US spec car, then picked it up at the factory in Sweden, and drove it around europe, then deliver it to the port, and they'd ship it back to your dealer here with the next batch.... Now, a cooperative dealer could pull a car from the inventory at another dealer and swap it with one of theirs, so effectively you had the whole state's worth of inventory to choose from.

 

I love that idea for the clock. Add a matching outside temperature gauge and you could tell the time and know the temperature.

I will ask the owner about the manual windows when I pick up the car tomorrow. Either way, no motors to go bad. Though I'm sure there are other plastic bits/guides/rollers that could have their own unique issues.

 

All the gauges, tachs, clocks, etc. can be added after... easily and cheaply. The manual windows were standard. I just got a tach and a clock to fit into my 1993 240 Classic--it came with no tach originally and is stick shift, M47.

 

The picture I attached is actually of my 1990 DL automatic that I did the large tach small clock mod to. And the outside temperature gauge was an added benefit from the seller I bought the tach and clock off. I'm not sure on the cost of an oil pressure and volt gauge, but the large tach/small clock conversions aren't necessarily inexpensive. And the ambient temp gauge seems to bring an added premium.

I do like the idea of the mechanical oil pressure gauge and volt gauge. I know you can add more gauges if you move the OEM radio down to the open "cubby", but I prefer it in the upper location.

I would imagine that back in 1989 if most of the dealer's stock came with power windows a buyer would not seek out a lesser, in most peoples opinion, optioned car with manual windows. This probably just happened to be a bare bones car, cloth seats and manual windows, that the owner purchased then added the gauges and fog lights at the dealership.

 

I just picked up a one owner, 170,000 mile, fully documented, 1989 Midnight Blue wagon. I saw the add on PA Craigslist and had a good feeling about the car. I called the owner and discovered he was the original owner. In late 1988 he went to Keeler Volvo 347 New Karner Road in Colonie, New York and told them what he wanted, specifically, a car with manual windows and a manual transmission. The car was located at Barry Pontiac-Buick 166 Connell Highway in Newport, Rhode Island, put on a truck and shipped to Albany. At the dealership the owner added fog lights, large tach, no small clock, added a volts gauge, oil pressure gauge, third row seat and cruise control. The car stayed in Albany only a year and then moved to PA and that is probably why it is rust free.

As you can see in the photo the owner even kept the original window sticker. The car came with all of its owner's manuals with the maintenance book properly stamped, original touch up paint (purely a novelty item by now), the "what to do in the event of an accident" brochure with the original Volvo pencil, a full set of factory manuals and even the original dealer's key tag with two regular keys and a valet key. What more could I ask for for $1500.00. I drove it 330 miles home and it didn't skip a beat.


The first thing the car will get is a timing belt, water pump, all belts and hoses and a coolant flush along with plugs, dist. cap and rotor. The whole engine compartment needs a good cleaning and detailing. The seat covers will be taken off the seats and washed. The carpets washed and probably redyed. All the plastic appears to be in good condition so that's nice. The rear springs are tired, but I have a new set of overloads from another project as well as new shocks.

The hood is tweaked and will need to be adjusted, the paint buffed and waxed, and just a good all around going over.

In case others are curious about costs of installed options back in 1989 here are the ones installed on this car:

Fog Lights $179.00

Cruise Control $399.00

Tachometer (80mm) $189.50

Oil Pressure Gauge (52mm) $112.95

Voltage Regulator Gauge (52mm) $59.95