The reason I'm a bloody Volvo driver?

  So many stories out their can attest to the safety of the Volvo, so I
thought maybe someone may find mine interesting as well.

Death of a 1976 244 DL (Dad's pride & joy)

     On a weekend leave from the Navy back home to visit my girlfriend I
managed to miss my return bus, with the threat of being arrested on AWOL
charges, I begged my father to let me borrow his 240 for the week,
reluctantly he agreed.  18yrs old, 12hrs of driving ahead, I may have been a
little over the speed limit perhaps.  Driving through the desert areas of
outback New South Wales, there are a lot of long straight highways with
gentle curves. My lack of concentration most likely caused the rear tyre to
catch the gravel shoulder on the highway, causing the rear passengers tyre
to burst and thrust the car into a sideways slide on the highway.  Quickly
the car started to roll over, inside the cabin all I can remember was the
dusty air and the flying debris.  When I eventually landed I was on the
other side of the highway, upside down, facing in the opposite direction.  I
unfastened my seat belt opened the door and walked out without a scratch, my
only concerns being what my father was going to do to me when he saw what I
had done to his car!  The car following me on the highway stopped to pick me
up, fully expecting to be taking delivery of a corpse I'm sure...When the
police and I returned for the car and to fill the accident report we counted
the indents left in the highway and came to the conclusion the car had
rolled 8 times in total, at a speed of 130kmph.

Death of a 1974 164 GLE (Mum's Beast)

    Now that I had reduced our family to the one owner status by crashing
the 240, Mum?fs 164 was all that was left.  The 164 was a GLE which in those
days meant full leather, very inappropriate for the searing heat of the
Australian Mallee, so Dad had fitted sheep skin seat covers (yes it works!),
unfortunately being a tall man this left him with exactly 2inches of head
room to the head lining.  One hot day the folks jump in the 164 to head down
to our local polling booth to vote.  In the country this was situated in an
old church hall, in a dinky town called Fish Point.  To get to Fish
Point one had to pass through the Murray/Darling River levy, which during
the winter months was of course flooded. As Dad approached the levy bank at
his usual brisk pace, the pure weight (and the fact they had recently
re-graveled it) the momentum of the heavy 164 started a sideways slide that
eventually carried them sideways off the levy bank, flipping the car upside
down in mid air and then dropping them from a height of about 4m directly
onto the roof.  Mum & Dad got out of the car unhurt, and with the help of a
local farmer and his tractor, they put the 164 back onto her wheels, started
her up and drove her home (after voting of course).  When Dad sat in the car
after it had returned home the roof had moved exactly 2 inches as now the
roof lining was touching his head.  Volvo tough!

  I'm now older and wiser!, and have owned a multitude of rice rockets, but
now when I'm considering my future with a family in it, Volvo's are never
far from my mind, having saved my parents & my life.  I'm now the proud
owner of 2 850's, one for the wife and one for me!  So go ahead call me a
bloody Volvo driver, it's like a badge of honor for me!

Mark
Japan/Australia