If you told me when I was first looking for a car that my first car would’ve been a Volvo, I would’ve been in disbelief. I spent most of my time looking for a WRX, RSX, terrible VQ cars, other random JDM cars, I almost even got a Baja Turbo (It was leaking oil, the brakes were spongy, and power steering was going bad but I loved it). I do sometimes wish I had a bugeye wrx like what my dad had in the 2000s but everything happens for a reason. I’m glad everything worked out how it did and I’m fortunate to have met all of the people I wouldn’t have without this silly Volvo. Now I will tell the story with my S60R.
The original facebook marketplace listing
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Vin: YV1RH527X62548313
I bought it October 2nd, 2021. It’s a 2006 Volvo S60R Atacama Spaceball in Titanium Grey. It was clean but needed work and I was simply done with searching for cars. On paper it sounded really awesome, 5 cylinder turbo, AWD (Minnesota winters are rough), manual, rare, and quirky. Everything I wanted in a car. It had 134k miles which I thought was pretty good because I believed Volvos were pretty reliable (mine has been at least). Before I got it, at around 118k miles it blew up for whatever reason, I’m assuming a timing belt broke. I think a sleeve and a piston were also replaced but I’m not 100% sure because if I’m being completely honest, I didn’t really listen to everything the previous owner said (sorry Jordan if you’re reading this lmao). Surprisingly everything worked except for the AWD because of a bad pump and the rear shocks were blown.
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There was definitely a learning curve for me with learning manual. It took me a few weeks to learn but I was also scared to drive it, to be honest. I remember one time I stalled many many times in a row while at a busy intersection. I felt like an idiot but I’m thankful it was my mom teaching me and not my dad because he would’ve been yelling and making things worse.
The first day I took it to school I felt awesome. I only stalled one time on the way to school but I was definitely getting the hang of it. I wasn’t the best driver and sometimes I’ll admit I’m not a great driver.
The second day I took it to school is a prime example of me being a bad driver. I went to back in park and there just happened to be a Prius that was going down the aisle as I was backing up. Instead of the guy stopping, he turned to avoid me and I simply didn’t see him. I ended up backing into the blue Prius and you can still find the dashcam footage of it if you know what to look for and it’s actually in a few dashcam compilations lol. I should’ve used my other mirrors but what’s done is done. We handled everything outside of insurance and my R only had a few minor scratches. The Prius had about $800 worth of damage and I paid for that out of pocket. Did I mention that I was also between jobs at that time? I had just quit Five Guys and hadn’t started working at Target (best and worst mistake I’ve ever made, good for my physical health but bad for my mental health). Everything ended up being okay in the end.
Me getting into this accident is what forced me to install a backup camera. Initially I installed it really sketchy, exposed wire to the camera haphazardly taped and stuck on the back. It was really dumb of me to not wire well because it is actually kind of cool and useful to have.
About a month later I got new plates from the DMV for some reason, all I did was renew the registration and they gave us new plates even though they were pretty new.
A lot of the first couple months I had it, I didn’t do much of any maintenance, an oil change but it would be a while before I replaced the rear struts and AWD pump. It was impossible for me to drive on the highway because it was simply very bad and dangerous to go highway speeds. Driving in the snow was not fun at all but I didn’t even realize the awd was broken.
Fast forward a few months and 2600 miles and I finally replaced the AWD pump and rear struts and it felt completely different. weirdly it felt slower because it had more grip with the AWD. Right around then when I replaced it was the phase where I had roof racks on it.
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Soon after I took it to my first car meet and I met a few Volvo owners and they all gushed over the seats.
Unfortunately I had the recall done with the airbag so I no longer have a minty R airbag
I then installed an IPD Catback and melted my rear valence in the process. I really wish I wouldn’t have rushed it and I also wish I didn’t run over a plastic bag a few months later that permanently melted onto my exhaust, forever making a bad smell whenever I accelerate.
My R now, I got custom plates for it and I also got a side mount for it because of course the front bracket decided to snap. I figured might as well look cool and replace it. I wish my dad was a lot more involved in cars so I could’ve avoided making a lot of the mistakes that I did, I also wish I was simply more careful. I also got some bumper plugs to cover up the ugly jack screws for the front bracket, do not recommend drilling out the jack screws because it can catch and the spin the screw making the hole even bigger and damage the bumper. Right now as of posting it’s at about 143,300 miles and that means pretty soon I’ll have driven it 10,000 miles.