Time To Let The Old Lady Go? A Volvo 850 Station Wagon from 1997 That Won't Quit

I spent much of the day bringing our Volvo station wagon back to life after a year-long nap. The question is, what is to be done with her now?

We've made a lot of changes to simplify our lives in the last year. All part of leaving the rat race. One of those decisions was to live with just one car. So we took our older car - this Volvo 850 station wagon - off the road in the fall. We kept it around in case we needed it again in the Spring, when things got rolling with the AirBnB rental and obligations multiplied.

Happily, getting along with one car worked out just fine. It's amazing how much you're able to accomplish with so little when you're able to make your own schedule! And there's so much expense involved in keeping a second car on the road. Fuel, repairs, insurance (outrageous), registration, excise tax. We've been able to cut all those expenses in half. But spring turned to fall and we forgot about the Volvo as the weeds grew up around it.

This car certainly owes us no favors. The Wife drove it hard over the years, using it more like a pickup truck than a station wagon. She's hauled mulch, manure, furniture, lumber, kayaks, boulders, and chickens around in that thing. It's gotten us through two local moves so that we didn't need to rent a van or trailer.

And then there were all the dump runs we made, cleaning out my hoarder-grandfather's house (and boat-house, and garage, and shed...) This car has literally hauled hundreds of tons in its time.

We've had it for over ten years and it's never broken down and left us abandoned.

Sure, we have to add a quart of oil ever three weeks and top off the antifreeze every six. One of the tires has had a slow leak for four years. The suspension is so worn out that it squeaks like an out-of-tune orchestra every time you go around a corner. The electric motor that adjusts the driver's seat seized up. The dashboard instruments only work a quarter of the time. The odometer stopped turning at 190,000 miles - over six years ago. And the heating fan only turns on when you bang the dashboard in just the right way.

But, man, this thing is built like a tank.

After a year of total neglect -

I decided to charge the battery with a trickle charger over-night. I reconnected the terminals and the car lit right up. Turned the key. Instant start! No hesitation. No grinding and grumbling and waiting for the engine to catch. Just the familiar throaty purr of that five cylinder engine.

She sounded like I'd commuted home with her last night.

We really had shamefully neglected her. Water leaked in around that sunroof, and the inside smelled like a cross between a swamp and a locker room. The steering wheel was covered in fuzzy mold. Even getting in the car was a challenge, as thorns and Virginia creeper had started to work their way up the hubcaps, and bushes of poison ivy had sprouted menacingly by the doors. That slow-leaking tire was on its rim and the rest weren't far behind.

But with the engine running I was able to drive her out of the woods, inflate the tires, and go to work with the shop-vac. I drove her up and down our private road a couple of times. The rusty brakes squeaked a bit, but other than that, all the important mechanical bits worked just fine. Transmission shifting, belts turning, headlights shining... Christ, even the cassette deck still works!

She spent the day with the doors open and the sun streaming in. A couple more days like this and she'll be all dried out.

It's a cliche, but they really don't build 'em like they used to. I'm used to the feather-light plastic panels and cardboard doors of my Prius. Get into a car from 20 years ago and you feel like you're driving a tank.

So now what?

Well, I suppose it might be time to sell. At least she's out of the woods. Even if a buyer just wants her for parts, at least someone can see that the engine's running and she goes from A to B when you step on the gas.

On the other hand, we could just keep her here on the homestead as a working vehicle - to haul salt-hay up from the beach, say, or move topsoil around. No need to register and insure her for that.

I suspect there's a few things that would have to be done before she could pass a state inspection. Another reason we decided to take her off the road was the warning light for the air-bag system had gone on, and she wouldn't pass without a $700 replacement. Ironically enough, after sitting for a year with a dead battery, that light has gone out! She's actually closer to being street-legal now than she was a year ago.

I'm not sure if we'd need to have a working speedometer, though.

I hate hoarding, and I hate keeping stuff around just for the hell of it. And I really was just trying to get her into salable condition. But now that she's cleaned up and purring -

She's really not such a bad car, is she?

How many of you are able to get by with a single car in your family? Do you keep a hard-working beater around for dirty jobs?