The Brick Newsletter - May 2011

Customer Feature: Neil Pethe

My Volvo story is not amazing, but proves the "resistance" of the "brick bug" to various prescriptions.

So, as early as 1969 in my high school years, I became fascinated with the 1800 and the 140. I am not sure why, it must be the proverbial square peg and round hole thing.

In 1975, my friend nabbed a 1973 Volvo 164, which pushed me to immediately go buy a green 122S 2D. This was my honeymoon car in 1976, but by 1978 I replaced it with a fine 1964 Plymouth 4D to carry our family. By 1981 I couldn't go on without a Volvo, so I test drove a 1972 1800E, but bought an overpriced and defective 1967 122S Wagon. After a year as a project car, I parted it out. After six years of doldrums, I picked up a red 1973 142E in 1988 from the original owner. This was an affordable and fun hobby car/driver. Well, in 1992 I got it caught in the middle of a five car pile up. I sold the 142 carcass to a Volvo dude who intended to rebuild it. I immediately replaced it with a brown 1984 244 Turbo with some rust. That summer it blew the head, but got repaired expertly. This car was my pride for five years, but I sold it for a decent price. In 1995, just for fun I flew to Baltimore one day to check out a 1972 1800ES, thinking I'd return in my dream car. This was a no go. Furthermore, to show the "circular" nature of my story; in 1997 my wrecked 142 came back to me when my same friend spotted it. Some true die hards had somehow revived my old ride! It was on its very last gasps, close to exploding on its final trip. I paid $350 and sold it for $75 to a Volvo graveyard. RIP.

After two years of no Volvo, come 1999 I bought a Sweden Blue 1987 245 from the original owner. I have tinkered and upgraded it mildly for 12 years. I even got a picture of it in the back of the IPD catalog! Nowadays my work wagon and I are semi-retired, seen roaming around Indianapolis with mower and tools doing yard jobs.

This is my fifth decade of chronic Volvo use. Enabled by IPD and my Volvo buddies here, it seems old habits and old iron are very hard to break. It got into my blood. This is my brand of car fix.

Ed's 1958 split window PV444. His wife couldn't stand the old style split window styling!

Ed's 1968 122 with modern styling including a modern one piece windshield design

Customer Feature: Ed Van Bernum

My Volvo story began in 1957. The magazines were full of stories about the racing sucess of the PV 444. Most people were buying VW beetles at that time but I bought a Brand new, off the showroom floor 1958 444. Price was an even $2000 and it featured the then all new 4 speed stick. And stick it was...a long chrome "stick" with a knob on the end coming up out of the floor. It was a wonderful car, always giving me 30 MPG even when driven with gusto. My wife always complained about its 2 piece windshield while all other cars had gone to 1 piece windshields, but I did teach her to drive on this car. Oh those poor gears! They were crunched many, many times while she learned but they never gave up. They continued to shift crisply and perform. After about 100,000 miles I sold it to buy a new 122-S, whose styling was so much more "Modern". And....it had a 1 piece windshield to keep my wife happy. That 68' 122-S served well taking the whole family (4) wherever we had to go. It was a rather rare 2 door and the engine was 1800 cc instead of the 1600 cc in the 444. At about 120,000 miles the 122-S was given to my Daughter to use while in College. It served her well for the next 4 years while I upgraded to a brand new 145 Wagon with 4 speed trans. That car took us cross country several times and finally retired with a friend who drove it countless more miles. It was replaced by an 86' 245 with 4 speeds plus overdrive and it was a real highway cruiser. It also served me well to over 100,000 miles but when I saw a 93' 960 wagon for sale in the paper I felt it was time for a bit of luxury and bought it. That 960 was the best Volvo I ever owned and its 2.9 liter straight 6 made gobs of power and ran like the proverbial Swiss watch. An accident ended the life of that 960 and it was replaced by an 89' 244 which I still own to this day. A picture is attached. During these 54 years of Volvo ownership I have always done all Maintenance myself and always used IPD parts where possible. Now as I approach the age of 80 I find it a bit hard to crawl under and do that oil change......but I still do!