I was on my way to work, and I'm 90% certain I saw my old 1992 Volvo 240 Wagon today. It was around 8:20am on 84th Street in Omaha, NE. The reason I'm pretty certain it was my old one is because the molding on the driver's door tore in such a way that it's pretty recognizable, plus the front driver side fender is a bit dented up. That and there are just not that many Volvo 240 wagons in the midwest. I was really tempted to follow them and ask them how they got it but I needed to get to work. I hope it's treating its current owner well, and I hope they treat it well. I hope the new owner is or becomes a member of the forum!

 

Nice to hear about one still on the road. Here in South Florida they use to be a very common sight in the 80's and 90's like the Mercedes W123, but slowly they started to disappear. I can't remember when was the last time I saw one on the road. Now that I think about it I haven't seen an 850 in a while and they are much newer. Everyone here leases or owns fairly new cars.

 

I still have a w123! It's what converted me over to Mercedes. It is very rusty... but trusty.

 

My 86 240 wagon is noticable in Palm Beach. I, along with a few I see regulary is very noticable in a crowd. Bringing mine back to almost new condition so it should be around a long time. No need to part with it.

 

The engines and transmissions on the W123's are bulletproof but that is about it. I owned a 1977 300D W123 from 1983-1997 and I was not all that impressed. The Volvo 940 has been hands down a more reliable, durable, and simpler car. The Mercedes needed the rear wheel bearings, a master cylinder, heater valve block, speedometer repair, and door locks and power windows repaired countless times before 185K miles. On the Volvo all of those items are original and the car currently has 260K miles. The Volvo is 21 years old and has no rust the Mercedes was a rust bucket at the end of its life and lived in Florida its entire life. The A/C system on the Mercedes always had problems and never work all that good. Sorry for my rant.

 

Now that I come to think of it my 940 is a rare sight. I hardly ever see another one anymore and when I do they are in rough shape and all rigged up under the hood.

 

Your rant is very rightful! Not going to lie. Vacuum problems plague w123's. Luckily mine hasn't had any in the 4 years of ownership. They do eat A/C systems. When the factory A/C went out on it last year I opted not to replace it since I only drive it during nice weather anyways. They say (they being the w123 enthusiasts over at BenzWorld) that if you do replace the A/C system in the car, for some reason it'll eat it again in about two years time. Mine is a 1985 300D Turbo Diesel. Perhaps Mercedes worked out some problems between 1977 and 1985. '85 was the last year for the w123.

I know what you mean about rough shape older Volvos. There's a green 240 Wagon that parks in my work place's parking lot from time to time and its soo beat up. I occasionally see a blue 240 sedan, also super beat up. Only problem body wise my old 240 had was a dented front fender then the molding on the door. The red paint was faded to albeit more of a pink. The interior was very nice. Ha.

 

The PO of my '89 744 in white lives just 5 blocks down the alley from me. If I'm out we'll chat about "his" car and his boat. The first time I drove that car to work I pulled into the lot and saw another '89 744 sitting there. While I was looking at it the owner came out. We both had paid $1000 for the cars.

I don't see many 7's or 9's on the road or on craigslist here in central Ohio. The 240's are more common on both. And almost always overpriced on CL if they're clean. There is a 1985 244 turbo for $600obo on CL right now but it looks kinda hoopty.

I see 850's here and there most everyday.

My daughter told me that she was asked more than a few times if "her" car was for sale...she was driving my '89 744 in black at the time...she made that car into a parts car eventually.

Don't know anything about Mercedes...just enough about redblocks and '94 Dodge Colts to be dangerous.

 

i had a '84 300D turbo - was a great car put over 100k miles on it before my son totalled it. saved him from any injury. safe as a volvo in my opinion.

hereabouts in Mass. where i live there are very few 240's around either sedans or wagons... or mercedes W123's for that matter. guess we're a dying breed...

 

Here in Omaha, NE since I've lived here since last summer, I've seen three Volvo 240's and 4 w123's. I keep a mental note just about every time I see one.

 

Glad there is at least one other taking notes when you see an older Volvo or Benz...

I had an 1984 300 D Turbodiesel that I really loved, but it was a real handful in the snow.

Currently have a 1987 760 TI that has only 40,000 miles on it, and have decided that this car would be an even bigger handful in the snow...which it will never see. This one has never even seen snow!

Here in Michigan, I see the occasional 240 Volvo, have not seen a 760 in years, and will occasionally see a 740. I see a few 800 and 900 cars, but they are almost all really nasty.

I see far more 123's, but only a few are nice.


Dave Riedle

 

Today I happened to come across a silver 240 wagon on the road. I hadn't seen a 240 on the road in months and this particular one looked real clean and straight.

 

in coastal central California, where I live, I see w123, w124 mercedes, and 240/740/940 volvos daily. most of the w123's are pretty beat up but most of the w124's are nicely kept. the volvos range from rat cars to cherry.

 

I've felt the pain of the 300D being awful in snow. Last winter before I had my e320 4-matic, the 300D was my daily driver because the 240 was out of commission for one reason or another. It did fine up until you wanted to move anywhere from a stop in like 3" of snow. It did a wonderful job powering through stuff but come to a stop and you were stuck. Then I bought my e320 in February and didn't see snow until this winter. You can imagine how disappointing that was. The 240 always was better in snow than the 300D.