In which car did you first glimpse the sea – or, for that matter, experience being slowly boiled alive in standstill motorway traffic? I’ll bet you can still smell it, and feel the texture of its seats. Was it as cool as this blue Volvo 240 estate?
I can’t imagine another car so completely embodying the spirit of a family summer holiday. Looking at it, I live again all the unique thrills and frustrations of those times. Striped windbreaks on the beach and eyes lifting hopefully as, from amidst a screen of dark cloud, a puddle of sunlight drifts across the damp, cool sand. Dropped ice creams and the sticky residue of baby wipes. The nighttime dash from tent to toilet. The joy of being reunited with cousins.
I’d like to know this car’s record for the most amount of children ever squeezed into its boot. Oh, they were simpler times! My seatbelt’s too tight. Mum, I feel sick.
Look, this won’t be the last visit to Carnall’s Autocentre for this Volvo 740 GLE. Now in its thirty-seventh year, it’s no doubt become a bit of a luxury, to be granted long rests between its outings. Still, though, it turns heads, looking wonderful here under a winter sun with its classically boxy 80s silhouette and brilliantly enigmatic colouring.
Well, now we’re just showing off! This 1970 Volvo Amazon has a suave and stately air that puts me in mind of John Le Carre’s Cold War-era stakeouts and disappearing diplomats. I picture cigar smoke curling through its window as it sits parked beneath a streetlamp in the rain. By its glossy, midnight-blue paintwork and reflective curves it would once have been the picture of discretion; now it’s simply too elegant to be missed. The roof rack, like a spy rolling up his shirtsleeves in a costume of informality, is a fun touch. Bravo!
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