Civilization Peaked with the Volvo Station Wagon

It just doesn’t get better than this. A classic Volvo station wagon. You can fit a 4×8 sheet of plywood in the back. You can fit 5 kids in the back. You can fit a sofa in the back. This was the peak, and it’s been all downhill from there.

The first car I bought with my own money was a 1990 Volvo 240 DL with 245,000 miles on it. I bought it for $1,200. I owned that car for 5 or 6 years. During my ownership, somebody backed into it and dented the rear end. Insurance gave me about $2k for the damage, but I never repaired it. I let a neighbor borrow the car a lot, and they paid me cash. When I eventually sold it I listed it for $2k and got about $1.8k.

I had a solid ROI on this Volvo, not to mention the joy of owning in.

Now there was one drawback. When it would overheat, the brakes would go out. But other than that, the car was great.