XC90 R-Design and E30 Activities. Whaaaaaaat?

[gilber33]

Eating my own words here - back in a Volvo. Don’t act surprised. You know you’re not. I also don’t care if you’re rolling your eyes right now, either. 
 

Ultimately I wanted the money that was in the X5 other places. Mostly paying off any outstanding debt we had. So I sold it to my brother. Picked up this 2013 R Design. It’s a car that’s always been on my list of cars I want, so it worked out. My first reaction is I can tell the difference between a BMW and a similar year Volvo; how the door closes, steering feel, interior finish, etc. But there are also more important things than that. 
 

Car has 150k miles. But drives straight. No leaks. Needs some attention - first on the list is new front rotors and pads to get rid of the stupid drilled and slotted rotors, transmission torque mount to get rid of the stupid poly torque mount, PCV box, and spark plugs. 
 

The issues I’ve discovered is a rear O2 CEL came on after I got it, P2098. I’d love anyone’s input on that one. And there’s some noises from the front DS wheel area. 
 

[Brad850]

Nice. What color do you think your next P80 is going to be?

[gilber33]

2 hours ago, Brad850 said:

Nice. What color do you think your next P80 is going to be?

Haha. Perfect. 🤌🏻 I looked at 850s. And I’m assuming this is the case everywhere but probably worse in the Midwest: finding clean, “lower” mileage p80s and p2s is getting really really hard. 

Here’s my problem with p80s: I can’t do a p80 and not have everything work exactly like it should. It’s not old enough to have quirks and me be like “oh haha it’s just an old car how silly”. My e30 it’s part of the patina/charm. Another p80 would have to be bought as a resto type project.

 

[gmsgltr]

We all have a problem. So I've got no room to comment. BUT DUDE WTF HAHA

Just hit 100k on ours on a trip to the OBX last week - got 21mpg with a full car and full roof box. The car was great. Really the only modern thing I wish it had was proximity key/push button start. Wife sat in the back in the middle seat entire time to be with the kids (did you know the center armrest comes out of these?!? for middle seat leg room)

 

[gilber33]

45 minutes ago, gmsgltr said:

We all have a problem. So I've got no room to comment. BUT DUDE WTF HAHA

Just hit 100k on ours on a trip to the OBX last week - got 21mpg with a full car and full roof box. The car was great. Really the only modern thing I wish it had was proximity key/push button start. Wife sat in the back in the middle seat entire time to be with the kids (did you know the center armrest comes out of these?!? for middle seat leg room)

 

Haha. I know. For what it's worth, this is the first time where I did this semi-reluctantly. The X5 is a phenomenal car. And I will really miss it. But I like eliminating the stress from CC debt from my life more than I like the X5. And more importantly it also means more flexibility to do stuff with the kids.

The positives I'm seeing in the XC90 though are the added cargo space, the flexibility of the third row, an all around simpler car to maintain, it already had a trailer hitch, I think it's in general a cooler car because I don't see as many. X5s are EVERYWHERE. The backup camera and nav are actually decent, too.

At the end of the day, my kids don't care what kind of car I drive, so I shouldn't either.

[ruecatinat]

8 hours ago, gilber33 said:

Haha. I know. For what it's worth, this is the first time where I did this semi-reluctantly. The X5 is a phenomenal car. And I will really miss it. But I like eliminating the stress from CC debt from my life more than I like the X5. And more importantly it also means more flexibility to do stuff with the kids.

The positives I'm seeing in the XC90 though are the added cargo space, the flexibility of the third row, an all around simpler car to maintain, it already had a trailer hitch, I think it's in general a cooler car because I don't see as many. X5s are EVERYWHERE. The backup camera and nav are actually decent, too.

At the end of the day, my kids don't care what kind of car I drive, so I shouldn't either.

Congrats on the XC - whatever makes you happy / satisfies your needs at the time.

I'm slowly making plans to get back into another Volvo but as each year passes it's harder and harder to find one that I actually want to own. I live in a rust-belt area and a Volvos are cars most people pile mileage on and use up so I'm seeing a lot of high mileage, deferred maintenance wallet traps.

[quiksilver]

There are just no P80s on the road anymore. The few I do see driving around are all beat up, it makes me treasure mine just a bit more.

[Zappo]

31 minutes ago, quiksilver said:

There are just no P80s on the road anymore. The few I do see driving around are all beat up, it makes me treasure mine just a bit more.

Mine has 346k miles on it.  Not show worthy anymore, but not beat up.  But yes, I don't see as many around here either, but I do see them. We don't salt the roads in the winter, so no big rust problems here.

[gilber33]

6 hours ago, quiksilver said:

There are just no P80s on the road anymore. The few I do see driving around are all beat up, it makes me treasure mine just a bit more.

Yeah, it’s too bad. Mechanical stuff is one thing but most by me have peeling clear coat and seats that look like they were blown apart by atomic farts. 
 

My silver on gray leather was my favorite 850 by far. 96 GLT. But everything worked. It wasn’t trying to be something it’s not. Just a comfortable, reliable, daily cruiser. 

[Burn-E]

There have been a few immaculate S70 T5 and GLT SE’s on FB with really low mileage. Grandma and Grandpa’s rarely driven cars are surfacing from their garages. Some are stupid money ($11.5k for a 38k mile car) but others are reasonable ($4.5-6k at ~60k miles). Have to travel to get them but they’re still emerging. The V70s are GONE.

Not really happy with the crappy paint job on my current S70 T5 but remind myself that mechanically it’s solid and the interior is even clean with excellent leather. I figure the girls are going to bang it up on occasion and I’ll be less worried because I’m not as invested in the exterior. Might repaint the front bumper at some point though.

[gilber33]

Working on a new project for the e30. Recently picked up some new front seats and fabric to have the rear bench done to match. I had terrible luck finding someone to do that I trusted after the last debacle or finding someone that didn't want a few grand. I decided to buy a sewing machine and learn upholstery and do it myself. This is few night's progress, but it's coming along and it's been really fun to do. 

I scaled back significantly on the headlight retrofit thing. I was tired of spending time in the garage working on other people's projects instead of my own. That has been a really nice change of pace. I can go out there and jump right into my stuff instead of bouncing back and forth.