In May 2012 after an exhaustive search for the right 1998-2000 V70 or 96-97 850, I found a 2003 V70. It was silver on graphite, rare to find a black interior. Even better, being a 2003 it had the gremlins that plagued the launch of the car exorcised by then. The T5s were very low production by 2003, only a few have seen them in person. The 2001s and 2002s were plentiful but had trans and ETM issues.
I bought it from a curbstoner for a fairly high price, but I was tired of looking and it was a rare car. 190k miles but in decent shape, just had lots of neglect on wear items but the important stuff was there. Note the mismatched tires, my God!
After a year and $5k in parts later, it turned into this:
Jjust when I'm close to getting it to where I want it I just really want a more classic Volvo wagon. So I sold it to a very nice older gentleman who is thrilled with it. I sold it a year after I bought it, to the day.
Being the way I am, part of the fun of these cars is the hunt. It's a shame that many are so far away, as there were lots for sale but I wasn't in the position to travel very far. An eBay listing caught my eye, it was a black/black '97 855R (wagon) with the original Volans wheels. I remember back in 1996 when my father was buying a used 1994 850 Turbo Sportswagon in Regent Red for my stepmother, the 1996 850R had just come out. It was on the cover of magazines, and in my cherished issue of Road and Track with the 0-100-0 contest. Too bad that they were $40k in 1996 dollars, so it just wasn't going to work. I sat in a Platinum White 855R in the showroom of Nalley Volvo in Marietta, GA and will never forget it.
Coming back to today...I'm not sure what it is, but I just don't care for Cars.com. Even though I've sold a car through their free listing, something about it I just never check it. Thankfully I did, as I saw a standard listing from a Subaru dealer in Cherry Hill showed that they had a 1996 855R . No miles, no price, no pics. Due to the dealer agreement with Cars.com, if they don't mark it as wholesale in their system it gets loaded onto the website. Glad they did! Since I work for a NoVA Volvo dealer I called them up and bought it as a wholesale piece, sight unseen for more than I wanted to pay.
Without further adieu, here's my Radio Flyer.
It's a 1-owner car out of Cherry Hill, NJ. Unfortunately it has the no-cost 16" Columbas instead of the 17" Volans but I will fix that. The owners weren't enthusiasts by any stretch, I'm not sure why they even bought an R but glad it's mine. It's in decent shape, and dealer-serviced all its life but at some point an enthusiast needs to take over and address the problem areas. It needs just about every 850 mechanical issue tended to, needs new brakes, needs a suspension refresh, but the interior is decent and the bones are solid. Unfortunately the sides have been painted and clearcoated, as the R-specific Flame Red is single-stage. A good detail will wake it up though.
That's my story, and eager to make progress on it. I've already got the odometer gears cluster to fix the old-style broken-odometer cluster, also bought a 1998 V70R cluster with wrong miles to swap faces with a 174k mile 1998 one if I can find it. Have a new PCV system waiting and full tuneup stuff. IPD trans flush kit en-route too. This will be a nice build when I'm done with it but I'm pacing myself as the journey is fun. :
First mod, Plastidip
My driver's footwell is messed up. Missing carpet and foam backing, missing dead pedal, and no anchors on the floormat. Any ideas about the dead pedal?
