Our compatriot Mark Tucker is somehow in the middle of yet another move, which means one of us needed to step up and fill in for him a bit this week. Since all of us spend roughly 26-27 hours a day on various car-selling sites, it could have been any of us, but I’m up first.
Also, and this is a terrible idea given my lack of parking infrastructure, but the algo has decided I want a Volvo XC70, and I still continue to see them everywhere. I’ll get there in a second. In the interim, I thought Friday offered two fascinating choices.
My personal vote was for the Pulsar, as I find the appeal of owning a Fiat with the engine in the back drowned out by the fear of owning a Fiat with an engine in the back. As often happens, many of you didn’t agree with me:
I think what I want will be clear today, and I’m also uncertain if you’ll be with me.
2006 Volvo XC70 – $1,750
Engine/drivetrain: 2.5-liter inline-five turbo, AWD, automatic transmission
Location: Vernon Rockville, CT
Odometer reading: 165,285 miles
Operational status: Was great, has a transmission issue
My last Volvo wagon was a 1993 Volvo 240 with that beautiful Ruby Red exterior paint, which is fairly similar to what you see here, so I’m a sucker for this car. It’s also at precisely the mileage I want.
I think old European cars should be purchased in the 140-180k range, as it implies the car has been well taken care of and has probably had the timing belt/water pump service that comes around 100k for most vehicles. At 165k, this is right in the middle.
Also, I like this black leather interior with the extremely green, early 2000s lighting I didn’t know I was missing. I’ve looked at a lot of these interiors on Craigslist, et cetera, and this one seems to be in great shape.
Is there rust? This photo is not helpful, other than sitting on what’s likely a salty road. It doesn’t look fully ripped, but any car in New England for this long probably has rust. It’s just a matter of looking around the car and seeing how atrocious it really is. At this price, though, I can probably live with the rust.
The one flaw in my “buy an XC70” logic is that they’re all automatics (in this country). Having been a part (mostly as a witness) of one European automatic transmission service, my sense is that I still barely understand how these labyrinthine machines actually work.
This one? At least there’s an idea of what’s going on:
Just passed emissions. Was running and driving great and then a check engine lignt came on for a shift solenoid (pictured). It was my spare car and I don’t want to invest
It’s nice of this person to pull out the OBDII and give a potential buyer an understanding of what’s going on (or, at least, one of the things going on). Kits for fixing this seem to range from $75-$200, but that assumes you have the time and space to lower the subframe, which I do not.
This is awfully close to my parents, so I am curious, but then I have two cars I don’t have space to work on or park.
1990 Chevrolet Celebrity Eurosport Wagon – $2,500
Engine/drivetrain: 3.1-liter V6, FWD, automatic transmission
Location: Keene, NH
Odometer reading: 163,000 miles
Operational status: runs and drives great
It’s been said before, but a Chevrolet Celebrity Eurosport is impressive just for how misleading it is. No celebrity ever drove one, and it is neither European nor particularly sporty, other than maybe the nice five-spoke wheels.
Because I’ve been looking at Volvo wagons basically nonstop for two months, I’ll get the algo guessing other cars I might like. This is often a Saab, or a Taurus SHO, although occasionally it’ll toss me something like this.
Hahaha, why? Why? This is not my particular strand of weird, but I respect that it exists, and I think it probably appeals to someone. As a 1990 model, this is the one to have, with the 3.1-liter V6 producing a not terrible 135 horsepower and 180 lb-ft of torque (according to Wikipedia, at least). Given the low weight, that’s probably not super slow.
“The underside of this car is a solid as the top!” is the brag, which means this thing must have been garaged or never driven in the salt, given that it’s in New Hampshire.
Granted, the top is showing some paint wear, so it’s not exactly the best brag.
My favorite feature? Eight seats! Not enough cars have eight seats these days.
So what’ll it be? How would you transport your friends and gear up north? The newer, nicer Volvo with a questionable transmission, or the seemingly too clean Eurosport?
I am not confident enough in my mechanical abilities to tackle the Volvo although I do really like the car. My choice today is Matt’s bimmer, but if that isn’t available yet I will take the celebrity.
This engine was awesome and this car was awesome (celebrity 100%)
I picked the Celebrity not because I want one, but because it appears to run while the Volvo does not and this failure of Euro electronics probably indicates some sort of catastrophic cascade in the near future that I want no part of paying for.
“The underside of this car is a solid as the top!”
If you drop it on its top side, it will collapse.
If you drop it onto its bottom side…
I’m glad the Volvo’s down in Connecticut and the Celebrity’s close to where I live, because I don’t need another car, but it might be interesting to spot a third ’80s A-body wagon in nice shape around – a fellow in Peterborough has an earlier Celebrity wagon in light blue, and someone in Marlborough has a dark green 6000 wagon [edit: with an Oscar the Grouch-themed vanity plate, I believe].
XC70, of course. But if I had to own a Celebrity, it would be this spec… but hopefully cleaner.
But the Volvo is sorta the perfect car for the Keene area; there’s even Toyota Volvo of Keene out there
I would rent a garage and learn how to drop a Volvo subframe before I’d let you saddle me with a Celebrity.
This particular Celebrity is also depressingly filthy while the lovely Volvo interior reminds me of my dear departed B5.5 Passat.
Oh, look, yet another GM. ????
Volvo would win by default, but extra points for being a Volvo, a wagon, and neither white nor black. ????????
I mean, no competition on this one: Volvo all the way.
Always had a soft spot for that generation XC70, and my wife and I almost bought one, but got a 2-year old 2001 Audi Allroad instead. Not sure if it was the better choice TBH – a fantastic interior and a handsome car, but a terrible transmission and throttle response, and a money pit to maintain. Always wondered about the path not taken…
Same same with the Volvo, and for the same orices, but without the nice-to-drive payoff of the Audi
My first car was a Celebrity wagon and it was replaced with a slightly newer Volvo 740 sedan so it seems to follow that my vote today goes to the substantially newer Volvo wagon.
I owned a 1986 Celebrity that I brought it to its knees many times, but like a zombie in The Walking Dead, it kept coming back. A few things…
The huge pad on the passenger side of revised dashboard has a notorious tendency to melt and sag down in the hotter-than-hell areas.
The 1990 Celebrity has a feature that I wished my 1986 would have: detach the upper dog bone and rotate the V6 engine forward for easier access to the spark plugs in the rear. I can’t tell you how many times I had broken the spark plug’s ceramic body when I turned the wrench at slightly wrong angle. Then, I found the magic tool: elastic extension rod wrench.
Another thing that isn’t obvious in the photo: the angle of seatbacks going much further back. They got very painfully uncomfortable during the long drives. I looked at the braces and noticed that they could be swapped from left side to right and vice versa. That shifted the seatbacks forward to the comfortable angle.
If the bolt holding the front subframe to the body breaks, expect to cut the hole in the firewall to extract the upper half of bolt. The problem is not knowing exactly where to cut…
So, I’d want Volvo instead…soldenoid be damned.
I don’t like the Chevy nearly as much as the Volvo, but I don’t have the skills, room, or interest in anything that involves lowering subframes, and I sure as hell wouldn’t pay someone else to do it for a car that old. The Celebrity is not nearly as cool, especially given that green lighting in the Volvo but I gotta take the one that runs right. (Now I’m sad.)
Don’t care much for GM station wagons of that era my dad had several and they tended to end up with the strangest issues. So Volvo for that and I could actually see using it after throwing a solenoid in there fairly common aisin issue though it could be wirering or a connector. I think it’s before then aluminum gears that cause big trouble.
I believe the Volvo has an Aisin automatic, which is used in a lot of brands so there’s definitely parts available. There’s an excellent two hour vid on YT from “Curmudgeon Transmission” showing the rebuild process if anyone is interested.
Perhaps not. But, ironically, what sealed the Swedish deal for me was the absence of shoulder belts on those otherwise fun fun fun way-back seats. It’s bad enough that their knees are in the crumple zone, but I’m afraid even a modest tap from the back could do pretty serious injury to those kiddies.
The ’86 Celebrity wagon my dad had had lap belts for all except the driver and front outboard passenger. I think my brother preferred riding with me in the way back over the middle row because there wasn’t a center lap belt I could whack him with back there. The one in the middle bench had a nice, heavy buckle that produced very satisfying results.