So after breakfast, I set out with a good friend of mine to look up a couple of cars listed in the Sunday paper.
Ostensibly, we were looking for a replacement for either his VW Golf GTI, his '86 Jetta Diesel, or another Volvo for my home, since I'm remarkably low on cars right now, having rather suddenly sold my grey '91 244.

We drove about 50 miles all told, and stayed within 10 miles of home. Our finds for the day were mostly all private sales, though we did stop by one favorite Volvo shop, European Auto in East Lyme, CT.

The cars were all accidental finds, though we did locate one of the cars in the paper without calling the number in the ad.

1) 1990 240DL 4-door. Grey, auto, black cloth. 211K. Scratchy clear coat, no rust, but a rather nasty dent from bottoming out the driver's rocker panel. Looked like it was a pretty typical basemodel car, with no cruise or sunroof. No particular leaks visible, one little dent in a rear fender dogleg, and missing all the rear bumper trim. Good lights, trim, and grille. No price, just a number... on Rt.1 in East Lyme, if anyone local is interested.

2) 1984 Porsche 944. Black. $1500 FIRM sign. Not even worth that, I think. Black paint falling off the car everywhere. Significant damage to RF fender and front of door. (You could see the hinges through the dent!) Good 5-spoke wheels and tires, 5- speed, black leather. Kinda cool beater car but way way rough. Plates expired a year ago....

3) 1987 BMW 528E. Lovely car, auto, 192K. $1700 price on it. Nice shape, well kept, but isn't that a ZF22 auto in there? Pass.

4) stopped by the Volvo shop but just before we got there, across the street... 1987 Porsche 924S. Beautiful body. A lady pulled into the lot and went to the building... we stopped and asked her, turned out its her sons car, she thinks he wants to get rid of it, and it hasn't run "in at least a year". Really lovely car, Guards Red with phone-dial alloys. 5-speed. Black leather. We left our number in case he's really going to sell it.

5) The shop, European Auto, has a 210 wagon in the showroom. We drooled on the glass. Lovely dark blue/cream paint, ready to go car. Just $12K. There was also a black/black '88 740T sedan, auto, 206K I think, sitting in front with no plates. Hmm, I'll have to call when they're open. And a 1982 245T with the officially Worst Paint I've seen... looked like it has psoriasis, only light blue. Really bizarre paint peeling. 4 good Virgos, though and 2 more inside it. I want em! Otherwise typical decrepit early Turbo. Complete car from what I could see. And in addition to the 93 854 with the windshield 1/2 removed(!) out back, there was a pretty bright red 242T as well. Have to wonder what that's all about...

6) Back towards town; yecch is that an El Camino on blocks? Lovely. Next stop, a 1990 244DL that's been sitting "for a couple months". Plates were recently expired. It's teal green with a tan cloth interior. 212K. 5-speed! Looks like it was the kid's car... has a high school parking sticker on it. Complete car, typical broken seats (one lumber support, one split back foam.) Missing the muffler entirely. Just nothing behind the axle pipe. Tires are WASTED. Struts are WASTED. New clutch though. Engine looks ok, has Volvo belts, proper wires, a bunch of extra wires for the radio, an aftermarket tach, and cool light up windshield sprayer nozzles that were disconnected. This one says $1200 on the sign. I'd say $600- 750 and I'd be happy. FLoors are good, no accident damage... but the driver's door hinge is bent somehow and the door has tweaked the fender slightly. How do people do these things? Anyway we'll be calling this guy on Monday when he's in the area.

7) Completing our loop, we found the car my friend started out looking for: 1992 SAAB 900S 4-door sedan (not a hatchback). Really lovely car with 141K on it. Dark green, perfect tan leather. The guy wants $2300 and I would say the car is worth it. The only damage I could find was to the bottom of the driver's rear door- a bad bottoming-out incident scraped right through the paint and bent the door bottom. For you non-SAAB people, the 900's doors extend to the rocker- when they're open you can see straight down. Kind of weird arrangement but it's a SAAB thing.

8) After dropping me off at home to finish up rear shocks on one of mine, my friend tracked down a 1980 Vanagon, that sounded much better in the paper than in person... turned out to be a perfectly functional rustbucket for $1700...

All in all a good car guy's day. Who knew such a good selection of machinery was close at hand?
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Rob Bareiss, New London CT ::: '87 244DL/M47- 225K, 88 744GLE- 209K, 91 244 183K. Also responsible for the care and feeding of: 88 745GLE, 229K, 88 244GL, 146K, 87 244DL, 235K, 88 245DL, 236K