Do Volvos alter your mind?

[forddeliveryboy]

Do some cars' characters affect your mindset when driving? I find with Volvos there is a tendency to feel a little holier than thou, a little civil servant-like and emotionally-lacking. In total contrast, Alfas tend to find my soul and bring emotions closer to the surface. Saabs always used to make me feel polite, but generally I was encouraged to waste little time in one.

 

Hondas render me cold and analytical, Mercedes slightly fat and smug, BMWs a bit drugged. Older Jaguars and pre-Pug Citroëns leave me feeling thoughtful yet carefree - at one with the world and relaxed, a happy soul whether at 100mph+ or in heavy traffic.

 

Am I on my own here, or do fellow Shiters feel the effect - and what is it?

[dollywobbler]

Definitely true. Four-cylinder Mercs are wonderful for reappraising time itself. What's the rush? 2CVs beg to be thrashed. 

[J-Rod]

Nope; my Stagea (usually) has a nice calming affect and makes you feel fuzzy inside (so when you get tailgated/cut up by the usual suspects, you only want to do them harm... and not the rest of their kin). I blame the interior being various shades of mushroom and beige and the suspension being nice and soft... 

[320touring]

Do some cars' characters affect your mindset when driving? I find with Volvos there is a tendency to feel a little holier than thou, a little civil servant-like and emotionally-lacking.

You really ought to meet the SVM

[Sloth in a bowl]

The Skoda makes me bi-polar, either I'm totally chilled out and happy to sit in the left lane of an overly busy motorway or when the route is clear, I'm a foot to the floor loon.

 

The Puma turns me into a teenager, need, more, revs.

 

The Kia Pride made me into a grinning manic, driving a poverty spec shopping car shouldn't be that fun.

 

The Volvo chewed up my soul and spat it out on the side of the M40, I still have urges to sacrifice goats on a new moon.

[Noel Tidybeard]

the spaceship can bring out the chav/yoof OMGVTEC(sortof) whereas the renner is a 8v dontchakno so commands a more "gentlemanly" pace

[purplebargeken]

My 940 turbo estate turned me into a foot to the floor lunatic. Same for the i10.

 

Actually it has been the same for most cars I have had in all honesty. The MGF was the worst. I was probably lucky to escape a good few tickets with that little rocket.

[mercrocker]

4 cylinder Mercs do indeed have a soporific influence.  Not quite send you to sleep but there is certainly less point in hurrying.....Just been up to see my daughter in Notts - about 3-4 hour trip that I do in the 190E at 65mph and 35mpg.  In my 280E I used to hoon up, outside lane all the way - it only gave me about 20mpg however slow I went... That car, and my other three sixpot Mercs, made me feel Germanic and Autobahn-ish.   The 190E makes me feel like a retired bloke that drove Vauxhalls all his life and promised himself a Merc when he retired.  Only he could just about afford the 1.8....

 

I feel completely different in the Cowley than any other car I have owned, though.   Cannot even explain it - almost like a Vicar who often wondered what his life would have been like had he not taken the cloth.   Weird - I am glad I don't do drugs any more.   I think I have owned my Minor so long its become more like me - just as dogs take after their owners.   Its too old to be doing the things it does, creaks and groans, hates the cold and I am sure it hates most of the other cars on the road.   My Landcrab made me feel like a maths teacher - I loved the car but it never really suited me.

 

Other than that I think cars of a certain age did once reflect their nationalities - as for the MB stuff mentioned above.   My GSA made me feel very Gallic and shoulder-shruggy whereas I drove my Mirafioris like they were on fire - partly down to their cammy nature I guess.   I drove a new-ish Laguna recently and it felt about as French as a Chinese McDonalds outlet.     I didn't like the way my nearly-new BMW E21 made me feel - I saw myself in a shop window in it once and thought I looked a prat.

 

The only cars I can recall that made me feel absolutely nothing were 70s Datsuns - Bluebirds, Sunny and Cherry.   I often wonder if that was intended and indeed part of their appeal.   My Grandad and his brothers hated the Japanese (WW2....) but they all ended up with Datsuns when their Rovers and Wolseleys fell apart.  

[Six-cylinder]

I notice when driving my Visa many modern cars feel the need to cut in front regardless of the fact my diesel will and does canter along as fast as I dare within UK speed limits, especially Audis!

[castros_bro]

XUDs and TUDs make you think "what's all the fuss about maintenance/repair/reliability/cost/stress/panic/locking doors and just get on with it being a bit of transport so you can get on with all the interesting things Spoons/curries/pondering the meaning of Rammstein's lyrics to Du Hast/moped fettling.

 

[cms206]

You really ought to meet the SVM

This. The Council Estate makes me actually aim at these new fangled Audi things when they try to go for a gap I'm in. The Pride just turns me into an 18 year old, its too much fun. Will report back on new steed when I've dragged it home.

[davidfowler2000]

Will report back on new steed when I've dragged it home.

 

I thought we were to keep quiet about that

[DSdriver]

There is nothing like a shonky Volvo for making traffic melt away in front of you. The other drivers can see you don't care about the car and that it will win at "who's space is it". It has the scars to prove it.

A shiny DS is quite another matter, you have to drive defensively. Even if they see you they pretend they can't.

[Six-cylinder]

Of all the cars that I have owned only one was really noticeable that other cars did not want is mess with me, not my off roader classic Range Rover with every panel dented but a very shinny black Range Rover with blacked out windows and black wheels!

[cms206]

I thought we were to keep quiet about that

Shhh.

[NorfolkNWeigh]

Jags have always calmed me, I don't recall ever getting angry whilst driving a Jag.

BMWs have the opposite effect, they seem to goad me into driving like a twat, the 530d that died in the summer was going to lose me my licence. Every time the traffic cleared in front of me it seemed to say " Go on,go on, go on, thrash me ,thrash me ,I love it"

Whereas the Merc I've got now is not much less powerful , it'd probably get up to the speed limiter, but I don't think it's been over a 100 in my ownership let alone 155- it just doesn't seem to want to rush anywhere.

[eddyramrod]

There is nothing like a shonky Volvo for making traffic melt away in front of you. The other drivers can see you don't care about the car and that it will win at "who's space is it". It has the scars to prove it.

 

So true!  I'm sure I've mentioned before that I used to have to get across Preston in the afternoon rush hour, for which there was no better tool than my 740 estate.  Did it make me feel arrogant?  Not like my E28, that's for sure!  In the BM I began to hate myself.  In the Volvo I felt like your friendly neighborhood superhero, righting the wrongs of Rush Hour and keeping the Audis in their place.

[stripped fred]

My Astra has a feeling of rightness, light controls, not too big, quite quick when you use the gears properly. Quite a relaxing place to be. My mr2 makes me drive like I'm qualifying for pole even when nipping to the shops. It's the engine's fault. Sounds so good when revved, and also the darty handling. Not that relaxing but 10/10 for fun. People do try and race you though.

[cort1977]

Never driven a Volvo I've just realized.  

 

My Mercedes makes me feel like a relaxed, responsible, sensible chap who has a copy of the AA Book of the Road at home.   Like my Dad in fact.

 

My Pontiac makes me feel like Huggy Bear off Starsky & Hutch which can only be a good thing.

[Lacquer Peel]

I drove my Volvo 944 TD for maximum smoke, noise, and offensiveness at all times.

[Luxxo Waftybarger]

My Volvo makes me feel sick rolling all over the place. BMW would make me drive like a twat.

[2MB]

BMWs and Pugs wake up the inner hooligan. Mercs give an intangible sense of well being and calm that translate to good road manners. Only had 1 Volvo, which I drove like a cunt but it was a while ago. Felt very safe though, even when undertaking a bus sideways at 60mph. Saabs are a nice mix of calm and nutter but aren't much fun away from straightish roads. Land rovers just make me want to drive into fields

[anonymous user]

I've had loads of Volvos, mainly 240 estates, they did not alter my mind, I was like this to start with. I'm very happy chugging around slowly in the Land Rover; however, the Smart Roadster, with its roadholding, acceleration and chirpy turbo, encourages me drive like a hooligan which is embarassing, at my age it looks a bit silly.

[D Spares & Tyres]

The Volvo I had bored me

 

My Standard never fails to make me smile every time I drive it

 

Never go more than 45 in it, I just adjust the mirror so i cant see behind and trundle along and it feels like the old days, no traffic to be seen apart from cars coming the other way ☺

 

In my Shogun I feel invincible and in my Escort van I feel like a pikey

[forddeliveryboy]

almost like a Vicar who often wondered what his life would have been like had he not taken the cloth

There is nothing like a shonky Volvo for making traffic melt away in front of you

 In the Volvo I felt like your friendly neighborhood superhero, righting the wrongs of Rush Hour and keeping the Audis in their place.

My Landcrab made me feel like a maths teacher

XUDs and TUDs...   ...so you can get on with all the interesting things Spoons/curries/pondering the meaning of Rammstein's lyrics to Du Hast/moped fettling.

Four-cylinder Mercs are wonderful for reappraising time itself

The Skoda makes me bi-polar

In the BM I began to hate myself

Only had 1 Volvo...    ...Felt very safe though, even when undertaking a bus sideways at 60mph

I drove a new-ish Laguna recently and it felt about as French as a Chinese McDonalds outlet

 

 

Quotes like these are one good reason I read this forum rather than any motoring rag. Rather than setting up a stall at a show, I'd say efforts would be better put into an Autoshite magazine* - well, a few photocopied pieces of foolscap with a Polaroid pic prittsticked to the front page. You never know, it might* be just what the market could be looking for. Autoshite. Read All About It. Issue 1, the best modern cars for under £400. Editorial - why visible pollution is a good thing.

[DSdriver]

Of all the cars that I have owned only one was really noticeable that other cars did not want is mess with me, not my off roader classic Range Rover with every panel dented but a very shinny black Range Rover with blacked out windows and black wheels!

I wouldn't argue with that, it looks like a drug dealers mode of transport and any slight disagreement over right of way would be met by an Uzi pointing out the window.

[Junkman]

Rover P6 V8s make you want to push them into rivers, believe in ghosts, and jump in front of a train. Rover P6 V8s that were at Lakeview Garage for a week make you bully all other cars on the road.

In a Volvo, you know what it is like being your grandad, in a VW Jetta, you know what it is like being dead. In a BMW, you quickly learn how to add up big sums without a calculator.

Italian cars make you turn into an Italian. When it has died the umpteenth time on the hard shoulder of the M60 at 3am in a cloud of steam, and you dance around it waving your arms, screaming and cursing the holy mother, you have turned into an Italian. Driving a yank, you fail to understand what people mean when they talk about bad stretches of road, steep inclines, bad weather, breakdowns, weighted power steering systems, road noise, or 106.6 FM.

[doobietoo]

I think you are onto something here, ever since I have had the Saab I have had an overwhelming desire to draw houses.... but while driving mrsDs yaris I have felt myself getting angry for no reason and trying to drive into inanimate objects in carparks...

[forddeliveryboy]

As some of you have mentioned, different engines have different effects - a crackllng, revvy, sonorous Alfa will soon have you being a teenager again, a dull drone with poor throttle response turns you into your Dad, or makes you into a bitchy grump. Some ask for indulgence, others to be left alone to get on with the job. I quite like the VW V5, though haven't driven one far enough to work out why. I'd prefer one mounted inline and in something like a Triumph Solomite or 2000.

 

Cylinder layouts have an effect on me too, any engine with opposed pistons relaxes me whether pottering or at Vmax, the less pleasant lined-up fours irritate and tire. Engines tuned for autobahns are painful no matter how fast they may be once in their sweet rev range, French engines are invariably good on British roads, if less good than the better British engines. Cars with engines from other places often feel a bit unsure of themselves so can be a little distracting as you try and work out what's not right with the installation, although an Arna is bloody superb.

 

Crosswise layouts always feel slightly rougher and sound different but are often more eager - a straight five Audi in a Volvo is noticeably different from the same lump in an A6, for example. Engines behind the driver often seem smoother, like for like.

[HH-R]

I drive everything exactly the same, I just can't DLAC.