I am the person with a non-starting, rusty 240DL station wagon (215,000 miles). So I was listening to Car Talk a couple of weeks ago and this guy who likes to fix up old Volkswagen Vanagons asks a question about the oxygen sensor. the problem ends up being pretty complicated and Click and Clack suggest that he buy another Vanagon (he recently got divorced, which only fuels the excitement) of the same year and that way he can swap parts and diagnose the problem. So that got me thinking - at least my impulsive side thinking - with this no start and no idea what is exactly wrong with it - maybe it would be a good idea for me to do something similar because I am getting pretty tired of hitch hiking back and forth to the cross country ski center every day - although I have met some pretty cool people, it is hard to do especially on days when I have to go to work afterwards. What do you guys think. My other logic for this is that I am already spending all this time learning about old volvos that I might as well get another one of the same type and it seems like a good, fast way to go about diagnosing problems - just switching parts, and hopefully, I could always have at least one of them running.
It has just been a little frustrating, especially with this no-start and having absolutely no idea what it is and then ordering away for a new part and waiting to test that - yes, I am practically located in the middle of nowhere, which helps the situation not at all.
The other thing is that I would love to have a manual, sedan volvo - better gas mileage on the sedan side of things and standards are more fun to drive. So I just want to see what you guys think. Here is one up on Craigslist that I am looking at: here is the link: http://boise.craigslist.org/cto/1005066876.html - just cut and paste. I am uncertain if it is a manual. Another question I have is - would there be a lot different between this car and the 1989 240dl station wagon I have now - in terms of fuel injection, etc. because I would want the cars to be fairly similar so that I could learn one car really well before I start spreading my butter to thin - better to collect all my eggs in one basket.

Much thanks,

Jimmy

p.s. if there are some pragmatists out there that think this is not such a good idea and think I am just being sucked into the brickboard too fast too soon, your voice will be heard as well.