Vintage Volvos (Portland, Eugene, Burns: to buy, living, shop)

[nostaticguy]

I spent 2 years in Portland('03-'05) so I don't know if this is still the same, but I'd never seen so many old Volvos in one place, especially station wagons.

Are they some sort of counter-culture status symbol? What's the attraction?

[pdxMIKEpdx]

That's what was driven before Subaru Outbacks became popular.
Yes, they were considered a little bit counterculture. In fact, one of my favorite Portland subcultures.
Mainly the old 80's and '90's way left liberal, public radio, Birkenstocks, granola, tree hugging, "tolerant", pretend natural, Greatful Dead, pseudo-hippie counterculture.
Volvo station wagons were almost exclusively driven by the vegetarian pony tailed men and middle aged single women of this interesting sub-culture.
A lot of them were perpetual post graduate liberal arts students.
But that's considered normal around here now, so it's not even considered a type of counterculture anymore.
People involved with this subculture are in their early 60's and 70's now and it's kind of disappearing.
The only time you might see a vintage volvo explosion now, is the day after Social Security checks arrive.
These days, the old Volvos are wearing out and parts are hard to find.
Their owners are replacing them with either newer and more reliable Outbacks, vintage Mercedes Benz sedans that burn biodeisel, or living urban and taking advantage of the public transit system, pre-owned clothing stores and farmers markets.


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[UrbanAdventurer]

Volvo's still have a stong following here among both the hipsters/hippies and the tuning/racing crowd. The former probably outnumbers the later by wide margin, but there is a shop called IPD in Portland that specializes in Volvo restoration and hot-rodding...one of the authorities nationwide on the matter actually.

To the broader audience they're popular here because they're cheap to buy, easy to fix, and generally pretty reliable. The tree huggers love them because of the company's green and left-leaning mgmt policies. The huge blue sign on top Jim Fisher Volvo on Burnside probably helps generate interest in the brand too.

[carolinajack]

i lived there too and my love for Volvo wagons were quinched throught that area. they are an all around vehichle

[backdrifter]

My Volvo isn't vintage yet, but I'll probably keep it until it is. I see a lot of them in Eugene, and saw a lot up in Seattle too.

They're great cars though. Super reliable if they're not abused and they just seem to go forevvver. Practical and fun and quirky.

[khyron]

I saw this thread and felt it just had to include this link:

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