![Image](https://i.imgur.com/AchTCEJ.jpeg)
A 2001 Volvo S60, 5 speed manual gearbox with "spaceball" shifer, 2.4 litre 170 horsepower 5 cylinder petrol engine with an LPG conversion.
As I said I am not a smart person and after crying about the cost of driving a classic car I decided to buy a sophisticated Swedish couch on wheels.
I've been on the look-out for a Swede ever since Sept 2022 - first contender was a V70 but there were absolutely no examples worth buying - either too expensive or too broken, so I expanded my search and also considered the S60. In April 2023 this popped up and I jumped on it as it seemed tidy and the price was good.
The previous owner was a fanatic who had to sell the car due to his family expanding - he bought a Ford S-Max as a replacement.
Being a fanatic he had done all of the stuff that these cars need doing - he replaced the power steering reservoir for a facelift unit as the pre-facelift ones were prone to leaking, he replaced the VVT camshaft rings, the dual-mass clutch, the timing, every bushing, engine mount etc.
The car came with 17 inch Uniroyal Rainsport tyres on Borbet alloys for the summer and 2x Nokian + 2x Goodyear 15 inch tyres on steelies for the winter.
An interesting thing is I really hated the colour on the listing pictures but once I saw it in person it is probably one of the most interesting colours I have seen on a car this age and probably my favourite aspect of this car.
It is dark green metallic but when it's wet (or clean) it has a blue tint to it.
![Image](https://i.imgur.com/RyarXfu.jpeg)
(excuse the summer tyres in winter - this was a day after I bought the car and the previous owner had already put summer tyres on)
The interior is beige (or I don't know, sand-coloured?) with fake wood accents and a real wood steering wheel (which I added myself as it came from factory with a rubber steering wheel and black plastic accents. The seats are half-leather half-some-other-kind-of-material (velour?) and according to the specs they are "sportsitze".
![Image](https://i.imgur.com/8iJKI5Q.jpeg)
The car is unbelievably comfortable. It's so smooth, it feels as if it was driving itself. The seats are out of this world, the stereo even though it is the base option sounds great, the engine is maybe a bit underpowered for the weight of the car but it pulls nicely, the LPG conversion means that I am basically paying half of what I was paying to fuel up the Vectra.
As for maintenance as of now I had to:
- replace the oil,
- replace rear brake pads,
- replace LPG MAP sensor and filters,
- replace ignition coil
- replace ABS sensor
- replace front control arms (while doing this also replaced two CV joint boots, the CV axle carrier bearing and a ball joint)
All of these are just regular maintenance, the pads had to be replaced due to un-even wear because there was no grease and the caliper was pretty much stuck, the LPG MAP sensor is a faulty model and once the new one fails I'll adapt a different unit into the system, the ignition coil was the original 2001 part so I can't be angry about it failing, the ABS sensor was a cheap replacement part and the control arms had ripped bushings but were in a state in which it would be dangerous to replace the bushings themselves so I replaced the whole control arms for MeyleHD.
I also did some quality of life upgrades in the car like a cupholder and a bluetooth system.
Why a Volvo you may ask - well... I love the 5 cylinder engines and how well built these Swedish cars are. Also how ergonomic everything is. This car is really something that shows you that driving can be unbelievably comfortable, nice and not a chore. I always loved Saabs and Volvos and I always wanted one. So I guess it is a dream come true? I would say so.
And that's it for now! I don't know if I will update this as much as the Vectra thread but I at least want to show off the new machine.