same year they got sold to China.
Though you could argue their quality has gone downhill since Ford bought them in 2000 (less real leather, less wood and more plastic). The newest ones look incredible IMO. Still wouldn’t buy one though because China.
I agree, in my honnest opinion Volvo has really lost its face and image,
ever since they partnered with Ford really.
Nowdays i guess its Chinese ownership which i´m also skeptical about.
Allthough they seem to have their eye back on safety again,
which is a good thing.
But honnestlly the last real volvo´s were the 740´s and 940 series with RWD.
Everything that came next to that transition to FWD pretty much facelost for Volvo.
I live in the salt belt and my Subie still has yellow undercoating to match the yellow paint. Zero Rust.
They don’t make cars like they used to. Whenever my friend and I get together for beers, we fantasize about building “The LOLvo”, a Volvo 240 with a turbocharged ford 302 in it.
Realistically, I could probably do the whole project for $7000, including buying the car. But then it becomes a literal $7000 meme.
S10 manual swap update:
I’m getting excited.
IMO my favorite RWD Volvo is the 960 & V90. They were in between Volvo putting out their Whiteblock block engines (straight 4, 5, or 6). The 5 Cylinder is the perfect balance of performance and economy IMO.
Anyway, the 960 & V90 have the Whiteblock engine and are RWD, and it has a locking diff. Sooo it’s great for getting sideways!
A guy here in Idaho LS swapped one and put a turbo on it.
Test drove the XC90 T8 with polestar mapping, they definitely stepped up their luxury game and those 421 horses kicked well.
Still the BMW X5 drives waaay better and I’d take it any day over the Volvo.
I don’t even own the car yet and I already spent most of last night looking at stuff for it.
I’m interested in trying out a BMW, but I haven’t seen any at a price I’m willing to pay.
I delivered cars for an auto auction, and I drove a few of them, and I thought they felt really good.
That’s my issue with BMW. I picked up a 4 year old CPO Benz with an original sale price of $65k for just shy of $25k. If I tried to do that with a BMW, I’d be paying $35k.
They’re good, the pricing on them is too much for what they are. The only time it’s possibly worth it, and even then it’s questionable, is when you’re buying an M car.
I know the feeling. I spent 3 years drooling over the Miata. I knew exactly what suspension, wheels and tires I’d buy for it, then I knew I was going to put a turbo in it, but that took (is taking…) a bit longer than expected.
My advice: If you’re going to daily it, do SAT (Service, Audio, Tires), drive it for a while, then decide if you’re willing to risk the reliability.
I never trust the prior owner did the services correctly. I get the car to my driveway and then it goes up on the lift and I drain every fluid, swap every belt, replace all filters and check every hose.
I was looking at audio mostly. The doors are deeper than previous models so I can fit a wider variety of speakers. Was thinking getting Infinity Kappas to start would be good, then maybe jump for blocks and/or a new headunit. Then see if I can find nice rims for next Summer and roll the stock rims over to be the winter set.
Although I do have two sets of the OG Subaru RS rims I could choose from.
Car is right about due for it’s 60,000 mile maintenance, so I’ll probably call up the local dealership I have used in the past so they can check it out. The most recent maintenance was done with Subaru supplied parts, and my dad did say the looks and runs lime it should for its model year. Pays off to have a former Subaru Master Tech for a father.
I’ve been out of the Audio game for so long… I can’t really help you here.
Good! Those rims are really sweet.
Damn straight. Consider looking at suspension bushings as well. They tend to crack by 60k to 80k, if the ride is harsh, that might improve it.
Decided to go for the mid-level clutch for my car. The stock one I got with the transmission won’t be able to hold increased power if (when) I decide to upgrade the turbo, exhaust, and injectors. I also forgot I picked up an electric fuel pump to supplement the standard mechanical pump.
Does anyone know of a way to do DIY exhaust pipe bending? I’d be going with either 2.5 or 3 inch stainless. My car is currently staight-piped with a mix of OEM and cheap auto parts store exhaust pipe. The OE size is metric, but comes out to about 2.25 inch.
If you want it to be professional-ish you’re going to want to use a tube bender or mandrel.
If you don’t mind getting handsy you can tack weld a cap on one end of the pipe, fill it with sand, cap the other end, and bend it using a rig.
These guys used an old rim as a mandrel.
That sure looks like fun. I wonder how well that would work with stainless. Could definitely rig something like that up.
You can use j or u bend pipe, which will let you get any bend you’d need just buy cutting it in the bend.
Mike Finnegan explains it in like 2 seconds (time stamped).
Wow, that looks intense, and seemed to work pretty well.
This was my immediate thought. You can buy donuts of the stuff. I’ve not actually heard of anyone bending pipes for exhaust unless it is for a motorcycle seeing as it is immediately visible. At the same time if it is tig, and titanium, people love that welded section look as opposed to either bends or cut prebends. This being said, I am also a ways off of doing an exhaust for my caddi. I need to get that 355 in first so I havent done my research proper. lul
I’m not sure if a tubing bender like a JD^2 will work with exhaust tubing, IIRC there is a minimum thickness “gauge” needed so the tube doesn’t kink. I have bent 1.5" EMT for my cooling system but did kink one out of three bends. EMT is a hell of a lot cheaper than SS.
