Customer Spotlight - Taylor Harris

My 1984 Volvo 240

For me cars have been a part of my life as far back as I can remember. I can think back to my earliest memories and they always involve some type of motorized vehicle. Be it a project my dad was working on, a model I was building or even creating crazy Hot Wheels tracks all through my house. So you could say I’ve just always had the bug. I became interested in Volvos however when I was 18 and my friend bought an 88 740 turbo for 500 bucks. I was amazed because it had over 350,000 miles on it and it road like a new car, plenty of power and everything worked. Before this I thought of Volvo's as anyone else who has no knowledge of this great automobile manufacture, slow grandma cars. I was wrong. Big time.

I started researching and found that Volvo had a great racing pedigree and some great performance models. For me at the time it was the 850R. I decided that I had to get a Volvo so after saving up some money I came across this 98 v70-xc on craigslist for 1000 bucks with only 100,000 miles. It only needed a fuel pump which on those cars can be tricky to change. So I gave it a try and was able to do it in an afternoon. I was soon thereafter driving the greatest car id ever owned and I’ve owned quite a variety (Alfa Romeo, Volkswagen, Ford, Chevy, BMW).

I drove it for a year and had slowly been falling in love with the early 240's. So again I saved my paychecks and bought the blue car I now drive every day. It has the b23f and the 3 speed with electronic overdrive. I have slowly been restoring it and it has been an absolute delight to work on. When I bought the car it was in bone stock original form and I am only the second owner of it. A woman in Tulsa, OK bought it new there from a local dealership (still has the original dealer decal on the back) and owned it up until she passed it on to her daughter. Once she went off to college the car sat for quite some time and that’s when they decided to sell it and also how I came to own it. The glove box was gone, door handles broken, paint faded, but it started right up.

I’ve since installed IPD lowering spring which really make the car stand out much more over a stock spring height, Bilstein HD shocks front and back, IPD adj. torque rods, IPD wires, IPD sway bar bushings, full ignition tune up including the pcv, breaks pads and rotors, Hella fog lights and I advanced the timing a few degrees for a little more grunt. I also built a custom roof rack for the car that I get comments on almost every day. Just about once a week I have people asking if it’s for sale but I more than likely won’t sell it. I have considered myself a Ford guy, Nissan guy, Volkswagen guy, but nothing ever stuck until I became a Volvo guy. I’ll never turn my back on them.

We love featuring some of the great Volvo stories that come across our desk. We plan on doing this on a regular basis so if you have a project car, helpful tech tip or other cool Volvo related story, share it with us and we’ll likely feature you in a future customer spotlight.

Email me at marketing@ipdusa.com to submit your story.