Customer Feature - Long Nguyen

It all started when my mother, in 1984, had a Jaguar XJ6 and was getting tired of all of the issues it had. So, she had brought it to a dealership and was looking to trade in her XJ6 in for something else. This is when she saw, for the first time a Volvo 240. She hadn't heard of Volvo before so this was her first encounter with the Swedish car company. After some test drives, looking around, and paperwork, she officially owned her first Volvo. She chose a brand new 1984 244 DL in Scotia Blue with 14 miles on the odometer. She drove it home and parked in the garage and wowed her neighbors. She took it to the shoppes, around town and on occasional short trips here and there. She absolutely loved the car.

4 years later, I was born and was taken home from the hospital in this bright blue Volvo. As far back as I can remember, we took the car on a lot of trips with my family around the Southwest region of the United States. I remember sitting in the back seat in a baby seat laughing uncontrollably at the wind shield wipers going up and down and the funny little Oreo looking vent adjustments. You could say I spent a lot of time as a young child with this magnificent car. As my family moved around the states over the years, we always brought along this Volvo everywhere we moved to. Although we did have other cars over the years, this one remained with us. I first started driving provisionally at the age of 15 in the Midwest and had a choice of cars to start out with. Since I loved the Volvo I chose it to be my very first car. My mother sat in the passenger seat this time and I was in the driver's seat. It was the most exhilarating experience (yes I know a non-turbo 240 is not fast at all, but for a 15 year old it was for me). After obtaining my operators license, I drove it through all of secondary school, took it to prom, and to graduation. After starting at the University, I began working on the car, doing my own modifications and making it my own style. I began tearing into the car and learning more about how everything works on a vehicle. For an engineering student, I thought this was quite important and practical. Through school, I had done work to the car such as a complete engine reseal, converted it to a manual transmission, lowered the car with the all of the usual upgrades, repaired little things here and there and added the Volvo Polaris wheels. Also, slightly altering some of the aesthetics of the vehicle such as changing the front end to the turbo style for a more sportier look. By this time I was very content of the overall vehicle. After graduating college, I took this car to my first day of my career as an engineer. I still drive it everyday and it puts a smile to my face every time I get the behind the wheel. To this day, I still look back on how this car has been with me through thick and thin and its been an incredible experience. Through my ownership of this car, I have met some fantastic people and have even made a close friend with. It's amazing how car enthusiasm can be such a big part of your life. And with all of this you could say this baby blue Volvo is my partner in crime.

From Sweden With Love.
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Best Regards,

Long Nguyen