In the Southwest? Where they don't use salt on the roads?
I would not buy a used 240 from the Midwest or the Northeast cuz of hidden rust conditions.
But the dry desert air of Texas and Arizona dries up the rubber seals around doors,etc...what's a 240 lover to do?
Where are the truly rust free ones?
GIA,
el Raidman

I just returned from Phoenix where I bought my second Volvo in the past 8-months. I look for cars in the desert southwest for the simple reason that they are rustfree. Rubber parts, including bushings, and dashes are usually toast, but all these things are much more repairable than rust - it's the difference between a zit and cancer.

I looked at a car a couple of years ago in the pacific northwest, and although they don't use salt on the roads, it does rain. The car was loaded with bondo.

Generally, I would look to the desert southwest, and the interior of the southern states - about 75 to 100 miles inland of the Atlantic and the Gulf of Mexico. I live on the Gulf of Mexico; the salt air, rain, high humidity, and intense sun are hard on cars - but nothing to compare to the rustbelt.

Joe K
84 245GL
73 1800ES

Here in west Texas there is very little rust.No salt on the roads and very little rain. I went to a local wrecking yard a couple of weeks ago and actually saw 2 that are in better shape than the one I'm driving, That kinda hurt my fellings... The sun do take a toll on the plactic stuff tho. but hey I'd much rather find a dash pad than try to replace a rear fender ... or a floorboard. No thanks dealt with enough rust growing up in Maine. not a lot of volvos here but the ones that are have little or no rust.
Bret
--
rust free in west Texas

Hi Raidman, I'm in AZ... you can definitely tell whether a volvo has lived it's whole life in the southwest, they are definitely rust-free. It is true about the hot sun though. I have to wax my car A LOT... and TRY to keep it in shade. The dashes are very prone to splitting, so you do need a dash cover to prevent that. Also the rubber has looked very good on my 240, never had a problem with that, but maybe I'm lucky. Are you really up to driving down here to get one some day? Take Care... Michael

YEP! Soon as I get my daughter graduated from Brown U...MUCHO dinero!
I've got an extra somewhat rusty 83 245 that I'm redoing at the local automotive repair class at the college. I do the mechanics but auto body is left to the professional teacher/students.
take care,
el Raidman

MY '91 240 is rust free in Detroit. It worked out that I found a mint cond. car at the start of the worst winter here in 20 years. They know my face at the car wash.

The used Volvo dealer I purchased it from gets his cars from the east coast. My car was titled in Delaware. Swan Imports of Detroit. His showroom is in St. Clair Shores Mi. Always has a clean 240 on hand and gets $5500 for one.

Mak

Florida. Under valued cars by the local populace, so prices are great, but the dashes are cracked from the sun.

One of them is parked in my garage. But it's not for sale.

I do have to agree with john sargent. I've said for a while now that all the good older Volvos live in Oregon. I know that's not entirely true but I say it anyway because they have a lot of good ones up there. Other cars, too. I saw a mid 60's Saab 96 in beautiful condition for sale in Corvallis a couple of years ago. I was on my way to buy my current 240 which spent most of it's life in Oregon, east of the coast ranges, with a few years in Utah, before I bought it.
--
'80 DL 2-door

There are many rust free 240s in Oregon and Washington. The roads are not salted here, and the summer temperatures are mild.

This is a "good news, bad news" situation though. Yes, there are LOTS of them, I even saw two very nice looking '80 wagons on the road yesterday, but if you are looking to buy one of those nice ones it is extremely difficult. You can find ads for the old beater 240's in the paper, but the nice ones are hardly ever advertised or seen in the car lots. These cars sell privately to their owner's relatives, friends or friends of friends. Ask an owner of a nice 240 if their car is going to be for sale and they will answer "no", and usually add that if it was to be for sale they already have inquiries aboout it. A couple of years ago I was trying to buy a 1990's wagon, in nice condition. After several weeks with no luck I went through a car broker from Seattle who specializes in Volvo wagons. Through her I got a very nice one-owner, continuously dealer-serviced 92 wagon.

Thanks for the response. I live in Vancouver, WA.

We currently own four turbo 700 series cars. All are rust free.

I guess I am spoiled, but living in Tennessee, I have never seen the first spec of rust on any of the six Volvos I have owned, ranging from my first '76 240 to the '91 240 & '88 740 I have now. Rust is just not an issue here . . . Maybe that helps answer your question. Any car with a TN, GA, AL, NC history should be okay. I know Fla cars are also sold on "e-bay" with some reverance, but I might be a bit sceptical there, too, due to the ocean salt, sand, regular high winds, etc., all those thing that metal (and even glass) do not get along with. There are lots of good 240's left!

Well, as far as Fla... (Jacksonville says the CarFax)

That's where mine is from and it's in quite fine shape re: rust. The windsheild is speckled, paint could be better. But she'll not crumble to death.

Of course it hates its new home in NE with sub-zero, extra dry cold air, but hey all the tubes and pipes "cured" in high humidity and warm air. What do you expect! :)

Not a lick o rust though. And the rubber is quite, well, rubbery.

Did earlier 240s have the thick undercoating, looks like tar, under the whole car?

--

Pete

1993/244/152k

In the Volvo museum?

Seriously, the very first batch of Volvos imported to the USA were imported by a gentleman named Nils Sefeldt, into Galveston, Texas. So there are a fair number there. Relatively rust free 240s seem to exist in the Southwest. Of course, they'll show the effects of 10 plus years of exposure to the hot sun on their plastic. Since California has instituted Draconian emissions testing, there are a number of 240s that are finding their way to the crusher. Probably nice ones, by Northeast standards.

You need to be careful about 240s even in Cali, since they all leak like collanders and this is what causes the water to collect in the carpets and causes the floors to rot out.

A poster on the BMW board described troubles with a California BMW CS, the CS was Karmann's experiment with multi-layer unibody construction that is IMO one of the prettiest cars of all time and also possibly the worst rustbucket ever buit.

Anyway, this poster was discussing a severe rust problem in the ROOF!

Ultimately, the car became a convertible.

(That was enough to care me away from buying a CS!)

-Punxsutawney Phil

Yep, As Phil says Southern California is a good place to look but don't assume that just because the car has been here all its life it will be rust free. After finding a bit of rust in my turbo I made sure to check a few random cars at times in the local PNPs. It seems there is a 1" plug in the firewall that either falls out with great regularity or Volvo forgot to install in a bunch of cars from '81-85 this leads to water getting into the interior and rust forming behind the drivers seat, even here in good old hot, sunny, and too dry San Diego.

He is also right that smog laws and charity donations are taking a huge toll on the older bricks. I've been searching for a good rebuildable 245T for months only to see very nice ones turning up in salvage yards that never showed up in Auto Trader or the local paper. They are literally worth more as a tax write off than as a cash sale.
Dave Shannon
Spring Valley, California (San Diego area)
'84-245 200K+
'85-244Ti 200K+
'86-740 230K+
'88-240 180K+
www.volvo2.homestead.com (Opens new window)

Dave, I think you need to make a trip up to San Francisco:

http://www.craigslist.org/sfo/sfc/car/8870517.html (admittedly I thought the body was British...)

http://www.craigslist.org/sfo/sby/car/8778100.html
http://www.craigslist.org/sfo/eby/car/8754801.html

Here's the search I've got bookmarked. Occasionally a 245 turbo will turn up, this is how I found my wagon. The sedan I found thru a local classified paper, the Classified Gazette. Good luck finding that perfect 240 turbo. Maybe you should try and talk Lee Cornder out of one of his 242s ;-)

Perhaps you should buy back one of the ones you find in the yard. I know that if I had possessed the cash when I found that 240 with the Virgos, I would have bought it back. Dang thing was in near mint condition. I couldn't, for the life of me, figure out why it was in a junk yard. Getting a clean title for it is generally a matter of getting a CHP inspection for it.

Oh yeah, back on topic.. both of my 240s spent their entire lives in the SF Bay Area. Both have fairly significant amounts of rust. The wagon has floorpan rust and some little spots of surface rust. The sedan has rusted out doors, and a chewed up hood, etc. If you don't take care of the car, it doesn't really matter where it is.

- alex

'85 244 Turbo
'84 245 Turbo