#parents' car stories

[freeride53]

Am I the only one who thinks my old folks' have irrational automotive habits?

Well anyways, my parents bought this 2002 Volvo Cross Country brand new. We bought it at the factory in Sweden, drove it around Europe, yadda yadda, and dropped if off on the Iberian Peninusla and had it shipped back...This was nearly 13 years ago. My folks did the same thing 10 years prior, with an old and actually decent Volvo 240.

Fast forward to 2010, and the car's under-engineered tranny blew up while I was driving it (up a steep windy road in the SF Bay Area hills of all places) and that was quite interesting.. $4k later, and it was running again. Think my family would have learned the lesson back then, fixed it, and sold it ASAP...Well being that my family likes to hoard old cars, they didn't..

A few years pass, and more expensive components fail. Hey, another tranny fails in the summer of 2012 whilst driving in the SF city hills. Another interesting story, was riding with a buddy of mine, and we had to coast it down, and ended up sitting/waiting for a flat-bed in the middle of SF's Castro at 1 am.

Fast forward to the summer of 2014. The car had been experiencing rough shifts once again...and my dad decides to preemptively replace the tranny while I'm at school, despite my counsel against it. $3k later and the steering rack is making scary noises and locking up randomly. Boom $1.5k.

Then yesterday I hear that my pops decided to take the car into the body shop to fix the front bumper that my mom messed up last month. At body shop, the igntion cylinder fails. So it gets towed to the Volvo shop. Mechanic replaces igntion cylinder.

Then driving back to the body shop, the turbo blows up.



Just thought I'd share teh lolz. Anyone else here with fiscally-retarded parents when it comes to cars?

also, money shot of said POS from high school shenanigans.

[Gesture]

money shot of said POS from high school shenanigans.

I don't think you are using that right.

[Wergen7]

I drove a 2001 Volvo V70 T5 my first car. It sat for one winter while nobody drove it and the repair bill was around $2100 to get it worthy for me. That was more than the car was worth at the time. It was a tank though went to 237,000 baby! Didn't ever have any crazy mofo issues that you mentioned though. But I told my rents I could have found a running e30 for that (before I had one).

I think parents have different brains about cars for their children. Parents like Volvos

[Kevinl]

My parents don't do anything that stupid but my wifes aunt probably has like a 400 credit score and can only buy from buy here pay here places.

in the past two years she had a Kia Sedona minivan that the a/c, water pump and a bunch of other crap broke and she dumped a ton of money into the pos then the engine blew and quit making payments it got repoed

Then she got a chevy cobalt which seemed decent then the engine blew and she quit making payments got repoed

Bought a Ford Windstar tranny blew a month later spent 2 k to fix it and 6 months later the engine blew and is currently waiting to be repoed

[ClausE30]

hahah, My parents 2005 xc70 blew its transmission and they replaced it too. Their old 2001 volvo s60 had a shit tranny too.. sold that pos

[rturbo 930]

My parents don't do anything that stupid but my wifes aunt probably has like a 400 credit score and can only buy from buy here pay here places.

in the past two years she had a Kia Sedona minivan that the a/c, water pump and a bunch of other crap broke and she dumped a ton of money into the pos then the engine blew and quit making payments it got repoed

Then she got a chevy cobalt which seemed decent then the engine blew and she quit making payments got repoed

Bought a Ford Windstar tranny blew a month later spent 2 k to fix it and 6 months later the engine blew and is currently waiting to be repoed

What is your aunt doing (or not doing) to blow up THREE engines?! What the fuck...

As for my parents, in 2007 they bought a 2000 A4 1.8T. My dad test drove it, and somehow found no issue with it, despite the fact that it pulls hard to the right. Most likely slid into a curb shortly before we bought it. After way too long, it was finally taken in to have the alignment looked at, and they managed to improve it somewhat, but it still pulls to the right. Shop noted that it "needs cradle shift left" (quoting) or maybe the frame is bent, I don't know. My mom doesn't care, and my dad doesn't seem to think it's an issue. "Under inflated tire" he says. It also shudders while braking, and if you drive it slowly on a rough road, you can hear something rattling in the front end, somewhere. But there's nothing wrong with the car, so who cares? It's fine.

I can't wait for it to catch on fire. It's an Audi, so it should happen soon. Especially considering the turbo and timing belt are both most likely original. Water pump too, probably. It if ain't broken in half, it doesn't get fixed.

[Kevinl]

I don't know she also blew up a Dodge intrepid her daughter bought

A few of them might of been from overheating since she keeps driving the car even if overheats without fixing the problem but I dont think thats the case with all of them I don't know what happend to the Cobalt it seemed like a decent car and didnt have that many miles

[freeride53]

Hahaha these are great. Love the Audi one.

[Stanley Rockafella]

my dad was the same about the 81 245DL wagon we had. Total POS that was rusted out and kept breaking.

Against my advice, he kept purchasing new parts for it. Totally baffled me, esp since it was literally worthless to anyone, even the local wrecking yards.

We finally got rid of that POS when they gave it to me for school, and I sold it to some dude who thought he was getting a good deal after negotiating me down from 800 to 500. The joke was on him LOL

[ButtJuice]

Hahah, great story freeride. I would've sold that pos after the first trans.. Jesus.

[Stanley Rockafella]

I recall freeride mentioning this situation about his parents dumping good money after bad on that POS. I thought he wasn't clearly explaining how bad of an idea this was, despite them using new/rebuilt parts.

Sometimes, parents just don't understand.

I blame those misleading Volvo advertisements "Volvo-for life" crap.

[2mAn]

Volvos must have the shittiest auto transmissions in the world. My brother bought a 2003 S60 and within a few months of buying it (~70k miles) the tranny blew up. He spent 4k replacing it. Now it has ~130k and the tranny is about to blow up again.

As for my parents, my Mom had a nightmare with her Range Rover and after she bought a brand new GLK350, and my Dad just bought a 2012 328ic with 20k on it. My parents are finally letting me help them get cars and they are both happy.

My brother on the other hand has a euro 190e 16v that instead of maintaining has let it sit and bought the Volvo and now owns an Acura TL that he is getting bored with.

ugh family...

[freeride53]

LMAO. Hey! Just cause the newer Volvo's are junk, doesn't mean the old ones are!

We have owned a 1992 245 since new, I drive it most often now.
It has nearly 400,000 miles on it and has had no problems compared to that POS 2002 XC70.

I love THAT car to death.

[E30SPDFRK]

It seems your parents did fine with the Volvo until you started driving it, is there something you're leaving out of the story???

[Balleristic31]

My dad built a Datsun 510 track car back in the late 80s-early 90s. Such an awesome car. Flared, caged, built motor with mikunis the works. I remember being little enough to be able to stand where the passenger seat was and hold onto the cage while he took me and my siblings for rides around the block.

He got upset that stuff was getting stacked on it in the garage.... So he sold it for around 3k in the late 90s.... :( he still regrets it and so do I!!