Rethinking "Made in China"

I quite like the C30 Volvo. Ford's hands in things don't always turn out bad. The fact that a C30 fetches as much money as it does is a bit of a pisser considering that what it really *is*...is a Mazda 3. I have owned Volvos in the past without any drama.

One of the worst lemons I ever had was an early-model Volvo P-1800. I made a sharp u-turn one day and the wire from the distributor wrapped around the steering and broke. The hose from the fuel filter leaked and the car caught fire one day in a gas station. The Pirelli radial tires made the car waggle like a duck at low speeds as the side walls flexed back and forth. A c-clip in the window mechanism kept coming off and I became good at removing the trim and replacing the clip.

Maybe the fact that the car was made in Scotland was a factor.

My next Volvo was a model 142, made (assembled, actually) in Halifax, Nova Scotia -- I bought it duty free, with no accessories - not even a radio -- for $2000 brand new. It was more reliable but I finally sold it in Dayton, OH when there was no Volvo dealership and no reliable repair shops that I could find and the disk brakes started to seize up randomly.

On 12/20/2009 5:37 PM Robatoy spake thus:

Ah, but there is (and it's Top Sekrit).

Damn! I knew there'd be consequences ...