My 244GL is basically sound, I guess. Runs okay, no rust areas, no bent panels.

Or maybe it is not basically sound: it leaks oil from somewhere and begins to slip sometimes on take-off in drive or reverse.

The paint is badly faded and patchy - been repainted before here and there maybe.

I like the old car and I'm completely convinced it is better to keep a good old car running rather than throw it away, create junk and move on to something else and run it for a while before repeating the process.

But I wonder how rational I am.

Forget the enthusiasts who can spend thousands restoring a good old car because they love 'em, because I am not one of them because I don't have that option because I don't have that money.

In my world would it be sensible to put the time, effort and money into keeping this car going?

Repaint it, first. Find where/why it is leaking oil. Maybe have to put a new (secondhand, maybe recon) engine and/or transmission in it?

I just wondered what the community would say if I asked the question.

regards,

ab :)

IMHO keeping a car going without breaking bank depends mainly on how good you are at doing most of the work yourself

& how many friends/sources can supply affordable used parts, 'cos new ones are quite steep. I find 240 parts are almost unobtainable from wreckers as they can't make anything out of them, but I'm not going to have my own junkyard here. Fortunately, I've contact with a couple of enthusiasts who've befriended me...... BTW, those electric paint sprayers don't work well enough to use on a car, but iff you insist, make sure you go to Walmart etc and get a range of metal spray nozzles in different sizes. The plastic nozzles rupture! nozzle==jet. they often have the same thread.

I think that's the first intimation of the end. Cost of parts. I do quite a lot of work myself. I do everything I can but some things I just can't do.

I couldn't get inside the dash and fix the wipers, it needed a more agile, persistent and knowledgeable person than myself.

Probably the oil leak will need major work even a new (old) engine or transmission. That's where that cost thing will come in. I better check the possible price of that and plan to junk the car if that looks too expensive.

a small flexible body with small appendages can be a great help too, cars have some small spaces.

What year model is your 244GL? The oil leak could be the rear main seal. If you have to do transmission work, this won't add a lot to the total cost. Having an old Volvo as your daily drive is only economical if you have a good source of used parts locally. Also is this an automatic or a manual?

everybody brought up good points. figure what the cost would be and then see what it would cost you to get another car. then you can decide with a clear picture of cost to ownership.

Well I can't figure the cost because I don't know exactly what problems there are. I guess I'm asking the question as an attempt to peer into the future.

If even the 'whisperer' doesn't come right out and say something like: "old Volvo's are so well made that maintaining it will always be better than putting money into another second hand car" then I think I'm being steered towards giving it up. By the sound of him he's a real Volvo lover and if he doesn't urge me to keep it then it's probably at the end of its life.

It is a 1982 model. That's 26 years old. Old enough I guess. But I've got an XYFord, too, which is a 1971 model and that's 37 years old and given no major body work I'd have no hesitation in saying to anyone "Stick to the XY - an investment of a hundred dollars here and a hundred there will be more than repaid in terms of a good dependable car."

And I guess the basis of a statement such as that is a belief that despite the incredible age the construction is such that there's never going to be a sudden 'landslide' of parts and bodywork collapsing.

And I don't think there will be (I'm still talking about the Ford, illustrating the approach to the Volvo). And that's despite the cost of parts getting very high for the XY as all the rich GT collectors snatch them up for their GT's. No doubt whatever, I'll stick with the Ford to the end.

Why don't I apply the same thinking to the Volvo? Because the Volvo is automatic and in other respects, too, is more complicated than the XY. I can't do as much work on the Volvo as I can on the Ford. The Ford is simple and clear (but still incredibly hard under the dash for me to work on) and the Volvo is complicated and unclear to me.

Lastly the question of comparing maintenance costs with the cost of another car. That's very difficult to fathom, too, because I can get another car for what? Almost nothing. I've heard of Ford EA and EB - good ones - going for $500 (a mechanic told me that). I've seen the same models for $3000 in the motor trader.

We, in fact, got the Volvo for $500, two years ago or more. It needed starter motor work and generator work - less than $500 altogether - and it has now run dependably for at least the last two years. With minor hassles here and there.

They're all second hand. Liable to sudden breakdown and costs. Modern cars with their electronics are beyond me and frighten me with the possibility of numerous breakdowns that just can't be fixed without a trip to a garage which inevitably needs a tilt-tray pickup and you've dropped hundreds right there. (Because you can't tow an automatic, so I can't help myself).

This is question, really, that applies to everyone with little money, and there's a lot more of us than anyone would believe, really. Should we buy the most expensive and modern car we can afford or should we stick with certain older cars?

Perhaps the answer is neither. Don't buy at the limit of your affordability and don't stick forever. Use judgement and hop from cheaper second hand to another such at the right time.

Or maybe someone with totally clear vision and a deep understanding of the car market can confidently pronounce something such as: "Consider your cost of motoring.... even with your rock bottom Volvo you're paying more than $10 week and factoring in tyres and future probs that you haven't attended to yet and which will get worse (oil leak, 'slipping' of the auto) then you'll easily be at $15. Well if you buy a blah, blah, blah and replace it every x years with the same then you'll have better motoring at a comparable price.

I am inclined to believe, because of my XY experience (owned it for about 15 years) that sticking with a well made car is the way to go.

Talk too much, don't I?

regards,

ab :)

see, i am the wrong person to advise you, if you have checked out my garage posts you will see why, being that i have been know to buy a car because i found such and such part real cheap and i needed to car to go with it. i bought my impala because i liked the body style, real low key, looked like a police car in the dark and it was kinda quick, as big cars go. so i tried to go faster and ended up blowing the engine and tranny plus the driveshaft for good measure. being if you are going to go out with a bang make it a big bang. anyway, i ended up going waaaaaaaaaaaaaay over board. is the car fun, hell yes. is it practical? what, you need an answer for that. it's all about passion. what does your heart say? i know all about the gt's there, i have a cousin in katoomba with an XR that he wants to be buried in. the car is a rusted hulk, but it is worth it's weight in gold, according to him. sleep on it, check out the mechanicals. strike a deal with your mechanic to see what it needs. then tally it up. keeping the ford because it might be worth something is not the best way. either fix it up and use it on the weekends, or park it and pour all the money into the volvo. $500 two years ago and all you have spent is $500 on two parts. that is effin good. poor or not. any other car you get, brand new or stinkin old have their problems. it all boils down to your choice, though. you own it and you drive it. all we can do is tell you what we would do in your situation, some of us have more money/time/know how/mechanical ability than others. good luck. keep us posted as to how you are deciding. maybe we'll just keep posting our two cents worth. take those to the bank and you'll have the money for a virtual ferrari :grin:

Do you have a good local Volvo shop? One where they're factory rather than dealer trained? Have them check the car and give you a complete run down on what it needs and the cost, then you can decide what you can do yourself and what you can't and whether it's worth it for you. I also have a 1982, 245 and it runs beautifully - for a 26 yr old car. Just bought my daughter a 1991, 244 - that's a bit more complicated to work on due to the air bag. The 240s are pretty easy to do most work on - part of it's your attitude! If you have engine or tranni trouble then the car probably hasn't been well maintained - at nearly 280,000 miles I've got not only the original engine and tranni but the original clutch as well. Regular oil and fluid changes are critical. It sounds like you are pretty ambilvilent about this car, maybe it's time to pass it along to some Volvo nut! Why keep it, if it's stressing you?

Actually, I wanted to know more details about your 244 and what resources you have locally so that I could give you some (probably biased) advice. It's cost-effective for me to run a 1986 245 because I do most of my own repairs, there is a Pull-a-part breaker's yard with a good supply of 240s about 15 miles from my house plus there is a Volvo dealership plus 3 independent shops that work on Volvos locally.
Your 1982 could actually be a viable option as you can use a lot of parts from 1981-1985 240s - with the 1975-1980 models, some of the parts for them are getting hard to get. so I'm not encouraging you to get rid of it. Plus since it's a GL doesn't it have a lot of the nicer parts -leather seats, sun roof, alloy wheels, tachometer etc?
Basically you'll have to find someone who will quote you for the big repair(s). I would bet that the engine rear main seal has blown which will require the transmission to be taken off to fix it. This is pretty common and not a big deal. It's unlikely that you'll need a new engine (B21?). Normally aspirated B series engines are very reliable - the turbo ones are the ones that break. A transmission flush could correct the transmission problem - or not. It's cheaper to get a used AW70 than pay someone to strip down and repair your one. Regardless, since the transmission and rear main seal can be done at the same time, once done you could have a reliable car for a long time to come. This would become cost-effective if you kept the car for another 2 years or so. Investing $1000 in your 244 would be a better option than spending the same amount buying somebody else's problem.