One of the more aggravating things about owning and maintaining an ultra high-mileage Volvo (my Volvo XC70 has 350k kilometers) or similar car is that there are some features that you come to appreciate, but when they break, they don't contribute to getting you from point A to B.  So,...

I've written before about the “old days” of the 70s and 80s when cars were becoming a bit more sophisticated but still pretty manual in most ways. Take brakes, for example. Back in the day, if you had a brake problem, you simply looked for a leak, worn pads, shoes, drums or rotors or you started...

They sit in the driveway, looking forlorn, covered in snow. The days of getting an occasional wash and wax long gone. There are more than hints of rust now with a hole here and there. Some have that color scheme where the fender or hood is a different color than the rest of the car. Purchased for...

I was six years old and I still remember the day. My Dad had left the house early on a Saturday morning in his blue and white 1958 Ford Fairlane and had returned after lunch in a small black and brand new 4-door sedan, a Renault Dauphine. I don't think the Ford was working out for my folks. They...

I've mentioned in a couple of my other postings, that back when I was in high school, for those of us who just couldn't get ourselves into a Camaro, Firebird, AMX, or Mustang, the going rage was something British or for those a bit more practical, a VW Beetle. It was very uncool to have...

A little while back, I wrote a piece on the cars I wish I still had from the 46 or so that I have owned over the years, among them a Volvo 850R.  These were the cars that in looking back meant something to me.  They gave me a glow associated with good times from my past.  This piece is the...

You just hate that feeling.  You're driving down a peaceful country road with hardly any traffic, enjoying the scenery with your favorite tunes emanating from 250 watts of surround sound perfection.  Then it happens, no warning, nothing.  The car just quits running. So, you press the gas pedal...

Back in the near Stone Age when I was in high school and owned British cars, the junkyard was my and my buddies' local car parts store. As long as you didn't need an engine, gearbox, or rear axle, nearly everything else was $5.00 total.  We would take in nearly empty toolboxes, load them up with...

One of the interesting aspects of owning an older Volvo, Mercedes, or BMW, is that you can routinely exceed the expected lifespan of some parts that “normal” ownership never sees. In addition, if you live in an area like I do, with constant sea air and frequent use of road salt in the winter,...

You see them all the time.  They're there in the want ads, Autotrader, even the Barrett-Jackson auctions.  And sometimes, still in your dreams.  They're the cars of your past, the ones that you had and you wish you still had.  So what happened at the time?  Why didn't the romance continue? The...