This right here, is “Grace” The Ocean Race. My car was quite a unique find! As It’s almost fully optioned, and has the 3.0 T6.
The backstory goes like this: My Mom had purchased a 2015.5 Volvo XC60 T6 Platinum in 2020, and we fell in love with the car.
So, this started the search for a second XC60. Does this seem a little weird? Oh yeah, absolutely. My Mom’s XC60 had been such an incredible daily driver and a wonderful car in the winter with all of its creature comforts (front and rear heated seats, heated steering wheel, and even a heated windshield, with the heating element inside of the glass.)
Chapter 1: The Search For The Perfect Spec.
I started my search in November 2022 for a second XC60 to join our family. I sent some inquiries about cars that were low(ish) mileage (Around 60k) and quite a few of them ended up being XC60 T6 Inscription(s). This was quite odd, as with an inscription, you have a leather dashboard, black carpets and headliner, and BRIGHT white seats. (They also came with black seats, but It was simply too dark.)
But, there is beautiful wooden trim on the doors and center stack. No one in my family liked the idea of a black interior, so, the inscription was off of the table.
My search continued with the lovely scam artists known as CarMax. I found a seemingly “minty” Pearl White XC60 T6, and I asked my family if we wanted to go take a look at it. We took the trip to go see this XC60, and at first impression, the car looked great. However, as I got to know this car more, It had electrical issues, and a terrible burning smell when you’d turn on the heater. This was surprising, as this car only had 56 thousand miles, and Its CarFax looked to be perfectly dealer maintained. What a joke. It’s headlights were incredibly hazed over, and It has scratches that paint correction wouldn’t be able to fix.
It didn’t look bad from afar, but It was awful…
What made this deal even worse? They wanted 28 thousand dollars, not including taxes or registration fees. That would’ve made this plain jane XC60 a thirty thousand dollar car. Let that sink in.
We took it on a 48 hour “test drive” and brought the car home. This car was littered with issues, and for whatever reason I still really enjoyed the car, and I tried to persuade my parents to buy it. It had the Book of Mormon on CD in the glovebox. I was letting “shiny object syndrome” take over and I thought It was a pretty cool car.
We all semi-agreed that we would buy it, and on the 1 hour and 30 minute drive back to CarMax, my Mom started having heart trouble.
They stopped at a local hospital, and my Mom needed emergency heart surgery. That was a terrifying time. She has healed now, but I was terribly distraught. My Dad returned “Pearl” to CarMax without buying it, and got an Uber back to the hospital.
Chapter 2: An Ocean Race, in a field?
My good friend Ian sent me a link to a very unique XC60. It was an XC60 T6 “Ocean Race.” It had black seats, and a tan headliner. This car was being sold by a place called Hooshie’s Auto Sales in Englewood, Colorado. But, they made a critical flaw when listing the car.
The theory is that this car was traded in at a prestigious Volvo dealer in Pennsylvania. It was higher mileage, and had a few major door dings. So, instead of listing the car in pre-owned inventory, they sent it to dealer auction. Obviously, the photographer didn’t take much time to take good photos of a car sitting in a field. Let’s be honest. Would you be interested in THIS car?
And look at this SCANNER.
Dude, a PINE NEEDLE?
Key to the STREETS, my friends. Those are some janky photos.
There were about 20 images like this, sealing the car’s fate. It was also listed at $15,500 with 110 thousand miles. That is why I imagine no one wanted to go look at it. But, Ian did some digging, and at the VERY end of the album were the true listing photos.
Wow… this car was BEAUTIFUL! It was deep, incredibly rich blue that I had never seen before. This car also came with the original floor mats, and trunk cover (that has a map of the world on it!)
So, on December 16th, we gave them a call, and they said “Yep, it’s available, but don’t count on it for long.” So, that night we took the 1.5 hour one way trip to Englewood to go see this car. We got to take it for a test drive, and it had this weird whine at low speeds before warming up, but, this went away after it was warm.
I was fiddling with all of the features to make sure that everything worked, and the car passed with flying colors. My Dad loved it as well. We asked the dealer if we could take the car to our home dealer called Pedersen Volvo in Fort Collins for a PPI the next day. You see, this was also a 1.5 hour trip one way. They reluctantly agreed, and we put down a $500 nonrefundable deposit. We took the long drive home, and I thought about the car all evening, I don’t think I slept much.
The next day, we left at 7:00 AM to make the trip to Hooshie’s, and the trip went smoothly. We took our very beat up XC90 known as “The Battle Axe” If that says anything about the condition. Hooshie’s installed a dealer plate, and we started our trek North to Pedersen Volvo. It was a flawless trip, and on the way there, the car hit 111k, and I have that on video.
It was a long morning, but we made it to Pedersen, and they had a loaner for us. It was a 2022 XC40 B6 or something along those lines. This car felt awful by comparison, and we couldn’t wait to be back in the Ocean Race. I vividly remember waiting in the beautiful dealership, and looking back to see the “recently serviced” cars, and the Ocean Race was sitting there beautifully. I knew that car was ours, It HAD to be.
We did some Christmas shopping at this time, and when we returned, the technician said the car was mechanically perfect, in exception to one motor mount that needs replacement.
We took the now evening trek south back to Hooshie’s, and the car continued to be fantastic. We talked to Hooshie’s about the motor mount, after some negotiation they said “we can replace it here, or we can take money off of the purchase.” We asked them to take money off of the purchase.
I checked the car’s settings and it had two keys registered. I asked the sales manager, and he pulled the second key out of the envelope for the car. IT WAS PERFECT!
We bought the car then, and I was THROUGH THE ROOF!
The Ocean Race was ours, and we once again started our trek home. I had the Battle Axe, and Dad was in the Ocean Race.
Right before we headed up the canyon to go home, my Dad stopped for fuel, and asked if I wanted to drive it. I said YES! And I loved the drive home. I had the best XC60 that I could ask for.