1998 Volvo V70 Estate

1998 Volvo V70 Estate, 2.0 Petrol, Manual, 130,000 miles

This car popped up on Facebook Marketplace locally, and like a gambling addict walking past a bookmaker, I just couldn’t say no. It popped up on my phone on a Friday, so I sent a few messages to the seller, and secured the car. Over the weekend I was considering what to do with a green Volvo V70… it’s the wrong car for a touring car wrap, but I did have some ideas. The main problem was that I didn’t need this car – although I wanted it, and had a cool plan for a makeover, I had no reason to bring the car into my life and no space in the Geoffle schedule to drop it in for a giveaway. Buying this car made zero sense, but I’d already committed to have it and didn’t want to let the seller down!

My idea for this car was to turn it into a Canadian State Trooper vehicle, as they are a deep shade of green… I told the seller and he said ‘oh, you should go and speak to Charlie*, he’s got a siren from an American police car and he’s got some Volvo parts’.

I left the train station in my new Volvo and thought ‘nah, I don’t need to speak to Charlie, i’ll go straight home’ and then I had second thoughts, and drove to Charlie’s house.

Charlie is old school, no internet, no email, definitely no WhatsApp and absolutely no social media. I hadn’t been given a house number but the Volvo 850 with a ‘for sale’ sign on the road was a clue. As soon as Charlie came out the house, I told him I’d buy the 850. That was another estate car I didn’t need, but more on that another day… Charlie showed me his parts stash and his car collection, and I couldn’t believe it. I bought a set of wheels, a rear seat conversion and two cars!

I drove the green Volvo V70 back home, had the wheels swapped over and whilst sitting in the queue for the car wash I saw on Facebook that my good friend Paul was possibly looking to swap his Saab Convertible for a more sensible family car. We exchanged a few messages and I told him more about the Volvo, and once it was clean, I sent him the photos. We agreed that he would have the car, and he promised to drive the Saab down to do the swap the very next day!

The Volvo V70 shown here has covered a shade over 130,000 miles and has the 2.0 litre 5 cylinder petrol engine with a manual gearbox, and do you know what? It drives an absolute dream. It’s a lovely, honest car, in good condition all round and my gosh that colour is fantastic. It’s now running on some T5 wheels which suit it well, and will shortly be fitted with the rear seat conversion to make it a super practical 7 seater.