Cars!

The best car Volvo have ever made....



When production of this stopped, as a car manufacturer, they went downhill faster than Humpty Dumpty...

 

Formerly they were people of superior breeding but nowadays they're just regarded as sensible. Think back to the days of the 205gti and you'l remember how dynamically brilliant Peugeot were but that has gone now.

A new one? Just a Renault Megane in expensive clothes! Literally

The mark 1 SLK was a massively underated drivers car. We have a 320SLK at the moment and it's almost as if we are inventing excuses not to sell it as it is just a giggle to drive!

A baffle would be unusual as..............
a] they don't need it. The reservoir is only really there to provide fluid to allow for piston displacement as the brake linings wear
and............
b] they have low fluid level sensors. Admittedly not much use in the event of sudden fluid loss.

When one circuit fails the pedal will go soft, have long travel and braking performance will be massively reduced. My guess is that your friend just crapped themselves and so their recollection after the event is of total brake failure.
However, it is possible (but rather unlikely) that the master cylinder had wear and that a ridge had formed at the limit of what was the natural travel. Under conditions where the travel is for some reason longer than it was it is possible (but rather unlikely) that the seals can snag on this ridge and fail leading to absolute failure.

So you really are a Man Called Ove then

 

I still love my Peugeot 306 Pinafarina 1997 Cabriolet which I have owned for over ten years. She had a respray last summer, just a few bits to do on the leatherwork now.

 

Probably!

Seriously, I can give enough reasons for not buying one to fill a library...

 

@JWK its a Volvo Duett. It doesnt have a heated front windscreen, but on the other hand never needed one even in this climate. Even if the last ones were made something like 50 years ago, they are still used as working vehicles here. Our village blacksmith has some, as do plenty others.

 

I wouldn't call myself sensible!

A friend had the 205 gti, god it pulled but it was body kit-ed up and lowered.. and very much abused.. bloody boy racer!

Yes, the old man was adamant the A-class was the Merc for me! It's nice looking but that is it.. I told him in the simplest terms we can't afford the parts for the bloody slk230 as well as another type..

The other half is seriously gutted, he really wants to keep it and is making excuses up too, we can store it in parent's garage SORN but knowing my other half it will just sit there collecting dust

That looks mint @Victoria, well looked after!

 

I'll qualify my comments from a Swedish perspective. Back around 1980 or so, about 50-55% of the Swedish car park consisted of Volvos. At that time, mostly PV's, Amazons and the 140-series cars. They were so beloved that the launch of a new model caused headline news on national TV. It was such a major event!

Then, starting really with the 240-series cars, quality began to decline. The B21/B23 engines that replaced the old B18/B20's soon became known as an expensive to service, high maintenance motor in comparison. Then, the company compounded matters by introducing the FWD cars. The became not only less practical, especially in estate form, but more unreliable. Basically, the company has lost the plot.

The result being that they started to sell less and less here, and no longer do they have such a large market share, and will soon be overtaken by VW...or perhaps even Kia which I'm told is currently in 3rd place.

 

not anymore I had a RAV complete pile of crap kept going wrong had it 10 months from new 15 faults. not as bad as jag XE had that 8 months, jag had it 3 of those months trying to solve numerous electrical faults, they could not.
I got my money back. it was still on their forecourt a year later.