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3/08/2011

Could this be the end?

My family has had a little old Volvo 240 for about forever. We got it from my Uncle the Mechanic, who had the front end of a '84 and the rear end of an '82, and decided that having one fully functional vehicle would be more profitable than two halves. After we bought from him, my mom drove it all through my childhood, and both me and my brother learned to drive in it, and it withstood 6 years driving daily in the High School parking lot.  When my brother rolled his jeep (yes, it's happened to both of us), it got some snow tires and went to Laramie WY for a semester.  It's been backed into, it's backed into things, and it has severe sentimental and practical value.  I've been driving around town, about half and half with my truck lately, since it gets much better mileage than a 5.8L V8...

Last night, as I drove over to my friend the history major's house to watch Top Gear, Something happened.  It started out with a possible clogged injector, and progressed into a horrendous BANG! and stalled out engine.  I pushed it the last quarter mile to his house, and between me and his dad, who is an airplane mechanic, we decided that, yes, Something Bad had happened.  We got it to run briefly, with it seeming like it had a dead cylinder, but then Something Worse happened, and it BANG!ed again, and wouldn't even start.  So there it sits in their driveway, waiting for my Uncle to pick it up and bring it down to his shop.  I really hope that he can get it fixed--if it's only scrap and parts, well, it'll be another piece of my childhood, killed.  But then, it has over 200,000 miles on it, so it's had a good run.

2 comments:

Tango Juliet said...

I fully expect 200K out of all my vehicles.

I'd 250K out of 'em.

Do not buy a used car from me (unless it's intended for a demo derby.)

:)

bluesun said...

Question: if you were using an '80's model volvo for demolition derby, shouldn't you be disqualified? I mean, there's no way it will stop due to body damage, and if you had to wait 16 years for a timing belt to wear out (which is the suspected problem here), all the others would be wore out just from sitting around...