To this day, I still see old, tired-looking 240s and VW Rabbits from the late '70s & early '80s being driven daily on the road. Any comments as to how and why Rabbits could, and can, last as long as old Volvos, even though the two cars were equally rust- and trouble-prone when new?

Having been a Scirocco/Rabbit/Rabbit pickup owner prior to getting my 740, I've noticed they have a lot of things in common which enable them to stay running - good aftermarket & enthusiast support, parts availability (both wrecking yard and new), well-designed running gear, and a clean design. Both seem to have been designed with the knowledge that sooner or later, someone's going to have to work on it (the 240 heater blower and the alternator on a Rabbit with A/C being the exceptions); in general, a similar overall design philosophy that insured repairability and longetivity. While many jobs on the Rabbit are best tackled by removing the engine & trans, they come out easily as a unit. An additional help is the availability of reasonably good shop manuals - Bently does much better on the VWs than on the 240, however.

Digression here... There is a definite need for someone to write an "How to Keep Your 240 (or 740) Alive; a manual of procedures for the Compleat Idiot"! I've done my own equivalent by printing out FAQ pages, etc., but miss the spirit of the Muir Publications books (IIRC, the discussion of safety procedures included a caution against wrenching while stoned...) Anyone who's worked on old VWs knows & reveres the original spiral-bound versions for the air- and water-cooled cars.

Parts are easy to find & cross across many years; my daughter's 4-door '80 Rabbit has an '85 GTI engine, ~'82 wide-ratio 5-speed, Boge Turbo Gas (another good thing in common), an Audi 5000S throttle body (ported intake manifold to match), instruments from an '83 Scirocco, etc. (Not to mention the Mercedes horn)... The 1.8 liter 8V engine long-block is a direct replacement for any of the earlier engines, and was used up to the late '90s; once VW fitted the K-Jet fuel injection and electronic ignition, they were rather trouble-free, with long-lived engines (my pickup at 166K miles and original 1.7 engine still shows 150 psi compresssion across the board. Like the Volvo, it's a solid engine design - and a non-interference design, as well (it may become interference with some cams, but I've not seen any OEM ones that were).

Both cars respond well to performance improvements (most of which are not particularly expensive), and can surprise the unwary...

I guess the major defining factor is that both cars have a certain character which attracts those who see no reason to scrap a perfectly good car just because it's not new enough - as long as parts are available and the rust is held at bay, they'll keep running.
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Tom Harper ('86 740GLE)

Once those initial problems are ironed out though, both cars will run forever. Rabbits are just as easy to work on as Volvos, and the parts are readily available and cheap. They are also fun to drive and fairly practical for their size (I transported a 50hp outboard motor in mine for a 4 hour trip before I got the Volvo). Also, a good number of Rabbits are owned by enthusiasts who, as we know, are crazy about keeping their loves alive. VW owners also have the advanage of being able to swap engines with little problem -- there is a decent number of 16v Rabbits around!

I have an '83 Rabbit GTI (160000mi) and a '90 Volvo 245 (237000mi). The GTI is much more fun to drive and is quite comfortable with Recaro-like seats, but it is a bit harder to work on due to the quality of nuts and bolts and other fasteners (they tend to break instead of loosten), and it revs like crazy on the highway (3000rpm at 55mph).

-erik

Enter the 240 turbowagon. It's fun (perhaps not quite in the go kart way that a Rabbit would be), but damn.. you can still fit a whole family of midgets in there or something.

- alex

'85 244 Turbo
'84 245 Turbo

Most likely, the majority of the Rabbits you are seeing that are still around are _diesel_ Rabbits. This, combined with other minute engine details enables the Rabbit to keep chugging along. Both are small, high compression engines, efficient/thermally resiliant and great little piece of affordable enginering. I still hate my father for getting rid of our Rabbit. C'est la vie. As for the rust, well, the only car company that has really succeeded at building a rust resilant frame/paint job combo is Mercedes, so I don't fault Volvo or VW for that. They had to make the cars affordable after all.

The old Rabbits that I see around here have badges that say "DIESEL", "FUEL INJECTION" or "GTI". I don't see any carburated gasoline engine ones any more (which don't have any of these badge markings).

Perhaps getting old carburator cars to run properly in the presence of emissions testing gets more difficult as carburators and things wear out (perhaps fuel injection, if it is reliable to begin with, will work properly for longer).

Quit your whinning and move out here to CA!!! ;)

Actually, it is nice to say that my girlfriend and familys owns a rust FREE 58k mile 1800e. Where else, save for texas can you find rust free 1800's!

Course, then you have to deal with our smog laws and our wonderfully broke government! lol

If I were you, I'd just buy CA cars and stay away from CA itself!

Seriously though, it's hard to argue with good realible cars, add to the fact that the N/A 240's will just run until the car rusts away from the motor!

Doug
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Sacramento VCOA President, (sacvolvo@hotmail.com) Admin @ clubvolvo.com 2001 S60 2.4t w/17' Amalthea & Premium package 82 242t 5spd (Offical Project Car!) w/ With more parts than I can list, 85 244ti~ Parts car

I just love the image of a B230 proceeding down the freeway by itself, eternally Rolling along. :)

Really, not much different than what happened to all my old Beetles, and what I'm NOT going to allow to happen to my '70 Bus. If it wasn't for rust, all of these well designed, cheap to maintain cars would be around forever. Witness the vehicles surviving in California. Connecticut is particularly tough on sheetmetal. If there's a weak spot, it will be found in a few years of use here. It's a credit to VOlvo's engineers that the cars last HERE as long as they do. That reputation has a LOT to do with my observation that roughly 1 in 8 cars that pass by in CT is a Volvo. COmpare that to national sales of -what? 1% of new vehicles sold in the USA? They're everywhere, they're everywhere! :)
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Rob Bareiss, New London CT ::: 86 244DL, 87 244DL, 88 744GLE, 91 244: 808K total

Thirty two years ago I had a 63 volkswagon to go to college in. I had a great time taking out the engine to fix a broken exhaust valve. I was an incredible car to take apart clean and keep going. Finally lost it to rust in Toronto and the wiring harness had tooo much resistance in it. My advisor was my brother in law who loved volvos. On of the many was an orange stationwagon with a brown interior. That was ugly, but it lasted longer than any other cars in the area.
Cut to year 2000, moved to Victoria B.C. No kidding it is Volvo Heaven. I'd say one out every five cars is a Volvo. I keep my eyes open for those majic 1979 Volvos (I've had three) But now I want to find an 80s GL model and keep it for a second car. The 1979 fire engine red wagon is a head turner. I really had to polish it back from a pink colour. Everything works and the carburator just needed a real good cleaning when I picked it up for $500 bucks Canadian. That's like bumming around money down in the States. I remenber replacing a tire and rim for $450 on my leased Audi back in the eighties. These cars are too much fun. Ok I can't see for the tears. Gotta go.
Stephen