Owning this car has been a great trip down memory lane for me. In the 70s I had one, worked on it, and worked on many others. It's amazing how those memories stay with you. Each step of the way, and each thing I fixed was just like it was 30 years ago. To me, that's what the whole old-car experience is all about.
But now it's time to move on. I've never viewed myself as a collector. I just want to experience working on a car, driving it, and looking at it. But after a while it's time to move on to the next one, and I have two others sitting around not getting much attention. So it's time.
I continue to believe that this is one of, if not the best example of a '71 Volvo 142E in existence. There was one that mode it's way back to Sweden from Oregon a couple of years ago that looked pretty good, but I never saw it first hand. And every other example that I've seen - and there are a lot of nice cars out there - have been modified or tricked out in one way or another, or creations made up of parts from cars of various vintages. When looking for originality, it all starts with the car's serial number. That tells what the car was, and what it still should be today if it's a real example. This has not been a priority for Volvos, but it's the lifeblood of higher value cars like Mercedes, Jaguars, and Porsches. And Volvos of this vintage are now starting to enter that phase of their life cycle where originality equal value, and rarity equals value.
Anyway, the car is for sale. I won't start advertising it until later this summer, but in the mean time if anyone is interested, please contact me through this site.
