1973 Volvo 1800ES - Be The 2nd Owner

I'm oddly attracted to the new Volvo C30. Maybe that's because - in some ways - it is the spiritual successor to this car, the 1800ES. (Actually, the 480 was probably more of the spiritual successor to the 1800ES, but that car was never sent to North America. Too bad, too. I liked the wedge shaped design of it.)

The 1800ES was the last version of the P1800, which was introduced in 1961. Over the years it went from being built in England to being built in Sweden and from a coupe to a hatchback / station wagon. (I wrote a post about another 1800ES back in September, 2009. It has a few more details and some links. You can find it here.) Other changes / improvements along the way included fuel injection and 4 wheel disc brakes.

This is a pretty remarkable 1800ES. It's a one owner car with just 84,000 miles on it. It has a 4 speed manual transmission and the somewhat rare factory air-conditioning setup. The paint and interior are original. These cars, like most older cars, tend to rust, but this one is rust free. (The car is being sold from Pheonix, AZ, but the seller doesn't mention if it has spent all its life there.)

There is one confusing issue with this car... The seller mentions that an oil line blew and sprayed oil all over the engine compartment. He then writes, "She got VERY nasty in the engine compartment so as I proceeded to clean her up I decided to REALLY clean her up by having the valves/head rebuilt while she was getting pretty so she could drink unleaded. The engine compartment was taken down to the block so all the interior could be made close to new and is in the process of being reassembled. Anything that isn't right is being replaced with original parts as I can get them so she is right." "In the process of being reassembled"? From that sentence, it sounds like the engine is not in the car, but will be (might be?) when the buyer picks it up. (An odd way of selling a car...)

Out of a total of 47,492 1800 cars built, only 8000 were the 1800ES model, making this a relatively rare car and the most valuable of the 1800 line.

Parts for these cars are not too difficult to find. Many of the mechanical parts are off the shelf Volvo parts, which are still available from Volvo or aftermarket suppliers. The pieces that are unique to 1800ES can be a little tougher to find, but the car has a huge worldwide following and there are plenty of websites and forums that can help you with those.

Click here to see the eBay listing.