Well, it finally happened. After at least three dozens that have come and gone throughout my life (87-02 models of varying sorts), I finally find a perfect keeper.

It's a 1994 Volvo 940 wagon, silver, automatic, maintained by a Volvo specialist with records to boot. Everything works. From the rear liftgate shocks to the a/c system (surprisingly strong), it's been garage kept and I ended up getting it for $600.

What I've been thinking about doing is getting a spare parts car for a few reasons. First, I wanted to get some practice maintaining this model. This was the basis for the last keeper car we had, a Camry coupe, which lasted 12 years and 240k and sold for $2500 (people are nuts for the name... if they only knew.)

The second is obviously parts. The routine stuff I don't have a problem buying but this thing already has 244k and we're easily putting 2k miles a month on it. Things such as relays, fuel related doo-dads, electronics, regulators and such I would rather have easy access to. I do have a friend who owns a junkyard and has told me I can have whatever I like. But I really don't like scrounging off of people.

I should mention that the spare 940 is coming from an impound lot auction I'm doing this Saturday where I would usually get paid $300. That's about equivalent to what I would likely get for crushing it so the down side is limited, at least for now. I'm thinking I would rather have the vehicle hauled over to my house and put a tarp over it.

Any thoughts? experiences? random opinions?