By Jeff Glucker
The listing is short on details and the asking price is a tad too high, but this car definitely deserves a good home. That’s because it’s a one-owner 1973 Volvo 1800ES with 80,000 miles on its odometer. It most certainly needs a fair bit of work but not an insane amount. Some basic body work and interior magic and this thing will be in great shape. Here’s the full text of the listing:
4 speed, runs, sold new in Arizona, yellow on black. needs some cosmetic work
So yeah, we’re talking new seats and dash. I’m sure that dashboard isn’t easy to find but you could have the existing seats recovered. Then move on to cleaning up the wiring and the outside of the car. From there, assuming the mechanicals are otherwise good, you’re ready to rock in a low-mileage, soon-to-be-two-owner Swedish shooting brake.
Here’s the ad, which has the seller asking $7,600
Kamil Kaluski
You can get the dash recovered, too. http://www.justdashes.com/services/
I suspect it’s being sold by a flipper, not the original owner. Someone who knows the cars wouldn’t call it a P1800.
Good point, it’s an ES isn’t it?
Correct. The various flavors of 1800 are:
P1800: The Jensen-bodied coupe.
1800S: The Swedish-bodied coupe, carbureted engine.
1800E: The Swedish-bodied coupe, fuel-injected engine.
1800ES: The wagon.
Those are the only official designations. Anything else, such as P1800E, is fictional.
i am going to correct the article but leave the comments here as a record of my ignorance
If you ever have a need for more comments on an article, mention a P1800ES wagon and a Saab Sonnet. Those are Bat-signals to summon @mdharrell.
I’ve seen this one listed for a while (since I search Volvo max year 1975 Mercedes max year 1995 just about daily). I’m never sure exactly what that means – is there not a lot of interest, or is the price just very firm?
Back when a friend of mine had an 1800S, about 25 years ago, the received wisdom was to be very careful when considering any 1800 showing even the seemingly modest amount of rust that this one does, as they were notorious for consequently having substantially more rust hidden in the rockers and elsewhere in the unibody which was, so we were told, unusually difficult and expensive to fix properly. This may explain why it hasn’t sold.
could be some flakybois in there for sure. if this were priced right it’s be pretty tempting. $3k, drive it until it dies or you find rust in the A pillar, sell the back glass for $3k?
Before I bought the Jag I was searching Benz, BMW, Jag, Land Rover daily too…
Well, Sedona and her family seem to be done with their Bug…just sayin’.
1800ES’s go fo bonkers money on BaT now. It’s the nicest of them, of course, not the worst, but for someone being able to manage the rust, it could be a worthwhile project. Alternatively, I wonder if this would fit on a medium sized EV skateboard like the Leaf?
I mentally kick myself every time I think about the number of 1800s I’ve passed on. I always had another project going and figured they’d never appreciate– there would always be opportunity to get one down the road. As much as I regret my miscalculation, that particular wagon isn’t tempting. The asking price is just too steep.