It's a sad day at our house. We just bought a new car to replace our beloved volvo, our first car and favorite car. I simply can't keep up with the maintenance any more... its always just little things. But another worn tie-rod and a near accident finally convinced us that it was time to move on.

Now we have to figure out what to do with it. I'd love to see someone fix it up again. Is it realistic to sell? I'd even be happy to have someone piece it apart, but don't know if that is worth anything either. Any advice or suggestions?

It only has 130k miles, the engine is in great shape (just a slow oil leak in a front gasket, but that's easy to fix) and has not had a breakdown in any way for 10 years except once. The manual transmission is having trouble recently, though (very hard to shift). The body is rusting badly in places -- running boards, trunk spare tire wells, etc.). And then there are the little things that have been piling up: At least one tie rod needs replacing (again -- 3rd time in 3 years). It could use new shocks, and will soon need a few exhaust pieces. The brakes are okay, but at least one of the calipers is probably siezed and should be replaced.

Thanks,
Kevin [ a not-yet-former Volvo owner ]