After 3 x minor incidents in his brand new car the elderly owner parked the car . 27 yrs later it was discovered after the owner's death.
It is to be auctioned on 5th April if you fancy buying a genuine low mileage, 1 owber Volvo 340.
tinyurl.com/njrcvmm
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Just what I've always wanted - a beige Volvo!
The chap who drove at 84mph in fog should be condemned to drive one of these for the rest of his life after his ban expires.
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Bless the poor man.
And I'd drive that Volvo, in fact I'd rather like too. Its a bit different to the normal stuff around.
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With some luck he will be driving a tin box with a lawnmower engine due to his insurance costs.
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Nice car, I had customers with cars like that, cosseted, cared for, and wrapped in cotton wool.
I used to feel a certain pride in being 'allowed' to work on their cars being they didn't trust garages for some reason.
The Eastern European chap with the Mazda would most likely be interested in this Volvo, especially as it has the 1.7 Volvo engine.
:}
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No reserve: www.angliacarauctions.co.uk/classic-auctions/saturday-5th-april-2014.aspx
There's a Renault 5 with a couple of hundred miles from new as well - similar story.
I think the estimate for the Austin 1100 at £2k could be a tad high when compared to the Scimitar. I wonder if I could talk to SWMBO..................
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I always had a soft spot for the Volvo 340 even if they were a bit of a Naf (pun intended!).
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If I didn't need the Grand Vitara for the caravan I'd be happy with the red Renault 6. I bought one many years ago for £50 for SWM and welded a good floor in it. Same year. Delightful, comfy little car with the smaller 850cc Ventoux engine. Bags of space with the seats down and tax free.
Ours got smacked up the back by a kid driving his mum's Sunny...uninsured .....bah !
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At least you were ok though, sadly this happened to one of my late customers on Hardy Lane about 8 years ago. He passed away a few years later as a direct result of complications from the injuries he suffered in that accident. The uninsured scrotes in the stolen car got away with it :(.
Well by got away with it, he got a very short prison sentence and to this day probably doesn't realise he caused his death. He was quite elderly (very late 70's) but that is not the point.
Last edited by: RattleandSmoke on Wed 26 Mar 14 at 23:28
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And I thought my (now sadly sold) 360 was timewarp with 37000 miles on it.
I want this car, but can't justify buying it.
Love those motors. There's still one used as a daily a few streets from me, D-reg like this one.
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One near me too. (Street of mostly largish family houses, remember, although I think this may belong to one of the occasional bungalows.) Only see it on the drive, never on the road, so it may be another for Vić to look out for when the, erm, time comes.
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That Volvo stirs some memories. My Mother had a 345DL Auto (CVT) 1978 - 5 door version. NYA 72 V. My Dad bought that and a white estate at the same time with consecutive plates.
Owned from new until it went to one of my brothers about 10 years ago, whereupon I assume it passed away.
White with a blue fabric interior, and shockingly bad fuel economy. I would borrow it and put a few pounds worth of petrol in after and it always needed more that I though to get the needle where it should be.
The engine would scream away with the auto box. Handled really well and was very comfy.
Ah, childhood memories. I can smell the Murray mints she always had in it now.....
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2 Friends had 340's early in their driving lives.
One was Auto, or were they all CVT autos? I remember nearly being t-boned at a junction in it when I pulled out. Lots of revs and it kind of just ambled out. Foot now firmly on the carpet and just more noise, but still not much movement.
The manual led a very hard life and ended up being stuffed into some railings. Amazed how much stick it took with no problems
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My late Uncle had one, belt drive auto thing. I even got to drive it in my early twenties. He changed his cars every two or three years and also had, in the same era, a Marina TC, Renault 30 and one of the first Audi 80s.
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>> Renault 30
Oh slobber slobber slobber. One of my all time favourites.
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Mine too. Mr Barratt the head of English had one when I was at school, a silver 30 TX (when silver cars were rare) with a blue velour interior and a driver's door mirror that adjusted from inside. I never went in it but I did travel in a similarly furnished 20 TX on my first visit to France, which I thought was wonderful - when I was used to vinyl-clad lesser Renaults at home.
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When my Dad's Zodiac Executive (DUV 770J) was written off in a accident, I campaigned hard to get him to replace it with a black Renault 30 a local dealer had on the forecourt near my school. Beige velour interior on that one.
He didn't want to know, as he only "did" British motors - in his mind Ford was British. He bought a pale dog turd-coloured Triumph 2000 with brown vinyl interior (PKX 788M). Gah. Last motor he had.....shortly before he left us he did speak of wanting an Opel Ascona as his next car, it was nearly a Vauxhall so British really.......
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Was is a 30 that featured in the wonderful 'Stirling Moss' TV ad? (Policeman on pushbike drawing alongside and asking, "who do you think you are..?")
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I would worry a bit about the rubberwear, gaiters and the like. A friend of mine bought a long-garaged Marina (some time ago!) that had lost quite a bit of insulation and rubber to mice, although this was not immediately apparent...
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I don't blame the poor old chap - the early 340s had the most ferocious unassisted steering that I've ever tried. Thee must have been quite a lot of elderly owners who struggled with them. Even 30 or so years on, I can remember this as one of the most disappointing test drives I've had. The 1.4 engine was fine in SWMBO's similarly-powered Renault 5, but a real slug in the heavy Volvo: and the 1.7 as in the one up for auction was no ball of fire either.
Very happy memories, though of the Renault 20 TS, my first company car, in 1980. Reliable, comfortable, plenty of room for the family and with more of a turn of speed than you'd expect.
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I had a couple of 340's; first was a 1980 Variomatic, bought for £200 with a full year's test and sold (with a broken drive belt and no test) for £100 to a West Indian gentleman a year later.
Second one was a 1986 1.4 manual which cost me £300, went for two years and never let me down. Solid car, bit thirsty but extremely comfortable and quite nice to drive if you didn't have sporting pretensions. Huge boot too.
I worked at a Renault dealership (GT cars, Nottingham) after I came out of the Army, when the 20 and 30 were current models. 30TX was a cracking car, 20 a bit underpowered but as you say very spacious; always thought it was what the Austin Princess should have been if they'd developed it properly. They were not dissimilar in style.
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Yes, lovely car the 20/30. I was ferried to school occasionally in a bronze 20TS with a lovely velour interior.nlovely. But very rare these days. I guess rust was their undoing (those being the days before cars had complicated electrics for the French to screw up).
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>> I don't blame the poor old chap - the early 340s had the most ferocious
>> unassisted steering that I've ever tried. Thee must have been quite a lot of elderly
>> owners who struggled with them. Even 30 or so years on, I can remember this
>> as one of the most disappointing test drives I've had. The 1.4 engine was fine
>> in SWMBO's similarly-powered Renault 5, but a real slug in the heavy Volvo: and the
>> 1.7 as in the one up for auction was no ball of fire either.
>>
Volvette, not a real Volvo :)
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Weren't these 1.4 and 1.7 340s fitted with Renault engines?
I seem to recall those 1.7s of the day had a habit of eating the pistons. You could poke a screwdriver down the spark plug hole and lose the screwdriver.
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>> Weren't these 1.4 and 1.7 340s fitted with Renault engines?
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Sort of. It was a Renault block, some parts fitted, others didn't.
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Sold for £5000
tinyurl.com/q4qulju - www.edp24.co.uk/news
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