How This Couple Put A Million Miles On Their Volvo 240s

For years, as I walked past a charming red house near my family’s place in Darien, Connecticut, I noticed an ever-shifting array of Volvo 240s dating from the late ‘80s and early ‘90s. I decided that, if I were ever to write for an automotive outlet, I would try to learn more about this concentration of Swedish bricks in my neighborhood. So I did.

After getting a green light from Autopian higher-ups, I strolled over to learn more about why this round-up of Volvos lived here. In more rural areas, it’s not as unusual to see stockpiles of certain makes and/or models from days gone by, but a town populated by the latest in Range Rovers, Porsches, and Ineos Grenadiers, the phenomenon registers as more intriguing.

Roger and Judy Kleinert are a retired couple, both of whom worked in IT. You’ll find them cheering on the Army football team (hell, their Golden Retriever is named “Trooper”) and spending idle days on the water. What gets them around? Volvo 240s – five of them.

Make no mistake: These retro Swedes see regular exercise. Lest you think that the two don’t use their Volvos on a daily basis, I saw the Kleinerts – with Trooper – driving the bronze sedan through town as I was taking a walk the same day I met Roger.

Mr. Kleinert has nursed the Volvo bug for a lifetime, first owning a 145 before basking in the glory of the 240 beginning in the early 1980s. His wife, meanwhile, got fed up with her first car: a 1977 Pontiac Sunbird. She latched onto the tough-as-moose automaker around the same time, buying a 1981 example. It seemed like destiny, then, for these Volvo lovers to meet.

When I first spoke to Roger, he underscored that Judy was “the true enthusiast” of the pair, despite his ownership of, among other 240s, a dependable wagon.

A prevailing sense of logic guided Judy towards her decision to become a lifetime Volvo patron. “I did the investigation and found out that it’s probably more cost-effective to get an ’81 Volvo, with everything included, than it would be to get an American car with the add-ons,” she recalled, lamenting the possibility of “a radio that’s X number of dollars, if you get radial tires that’s X number of dollars…”

“Plus,” Judy added, “the safety factor of the Volvo.” It was then that I brought up a certain classic Top Gear episode.

In series 13, Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond, and James May are tasked with finding what they believe to be the perfect car for newly-minted 17-year-old drivers. Clarkson picked a 1994 Volvo 940 wagon. While his 940 was assembled just after 240 production drew to a close, a quote he bellowed in defending his choice felt apt to mention. “Look at the amount of metal between him and the tree he will inevitably hit!”

Judy drove her first 240 until she replaced it in 1987 with another one, in white, which you’ll see in the Kleinert driveway today.

The two are now 69 years old, having logged hundreds of thousands of miles on their Swedish steeds. I was told, proudly, that Volvo sent them mileage plaques affixed to their car’s dashboards.

Total mileage on the five Volvos:

• Roger’s 1993: 240,000
• Roger’s 1990 Wagon: 225,000
• Judy’s 1987: 265,000
• Judy’s 1988: 110,000
• Judy’s 1993: 270,000
• All five: 1,110,000

To be sure, Roger bought the ’90 wagon with around 100,000 miles on the clock, meaning he’s added 125,000. And though I’m not sure how many miles the ’93 had upon acquisition, it was purchased from a sales rep in New Jersey with low mileage. Add the fact that the predecessor to Roger’s wagon was yet another 240 he owned, a 1982 245, and indeed he and Judy have driven over 1 million miles in this one Swedish car model.

You may be reminded, at this point, of Irv Gordon, the New York man who logged 3,200,000 miles on his Volvo P1800. Gordon still stands as the man who logged more miles on a single car than anyone else in history. I asked the Kleinerts if they knew of this fellow Volvo fanatic. “Yes,” they answered in unison.

Despite this devotion, both Roger and Judy do not describe themselves as car enthusiasts. At one point during my pair of interviews, I asked if they had any sort of 240 shrines, perhaps a shelf with 240 scale models somewhere in their house. Negative! The idea “is a little too extreme for me,” Judy says.

Perhaps Roger sums it up best: “They seem like a cult car. I’m not a cult person.”

In a 2012 Fortune article entitled “The Curse of the Volvo 240,” Alex Taylor III posits that Volvo has been dealt a damning fate due to discontinuation of the Kleinerts’ favorite car. “When you hear that Volvos last nearly 20 years, the reference is probably to the 240. Owners keep them forever and roll up astounding amounts of miles, extolling their homely virtues and ignoring their obvious drawbacks, like a pokey four-cylinder engine.” Taylor sums up the 240 as “an anti-status symbol, a conspicuous sign of inconspicuous consumption.” When Roger told me of the killing Volvo dealers made through marketing 240s as “Nanny Mobiles” to wealthy families in our area, looking to give their children and sitters a safe mode of transport, it seemed fitting that I would come across Taylor’s brilliant tagline soon after.

The people who own 240s can be as possessive as the Kleinerts – these humble Volvos run forever and are easy to work on if something goes awry. Judy describes the 240 as a “hands-on car” – since any minor troubleshooting or upgrade can be executed without much hassle – and Roger boasts, with a knock on wood, that “they’ve never let us down…in a bad situation!” throughout their years of ownership. Oil changes, and other basics, couldn’t be easier, according to Roger and Judy.

Although these two claim to not subscribe to the Cult of 240dom, they don’t seem too far off. For instance, I asked if Judy and Roger felt that the 240 was the perfect choice of car for Darien, Connecticut, one of the wealthiest ZIP Codes in the United States. “Absolutely not!” Judy responded in an instant. Of course, that brought a chuckle, but Judy backed the take with a few words of sincerity. “I take pride in washing my own car, waxing it twice a year, stuff like that. You’re not gonna find people doing that in Darien…I find satisfaction in doing it myself.”

It seems, then, that – like the resourceful third pig in the famous fairy tale – the Kleinerts have done well to build a house of bricks.

All photos by Tyler Roland, Roger & Judy Kleinert