Junkyard Find: 1971 Volvo 144
The Volvo 140 was the first of the beloved brick-shaped Swedes. It was built for the 1967 through 1975 model years, and it served as the basis for the legendary 240. I owned one, briefly, and found it was a very competent machine for its era. These cars are not worth big money today, unless they’re in excellent cosmetic shape, so the ones that stay on the street tend to do so because their owners can keep them running for cheap.
In fact, these cars are not uncommon in self-service wrecking yards, even though it has been 42 years since the last one was built. In this series prior to today, we have seen this ’68 142, this ’69 145, this ’71 144, this ’71 142, this ’72 145 wagon (plus this 140-based Volvo 164).
I spotted this one about a week ago in a Northern California wrecking yard surrounded by billboards advertising Bay Area rapper E-40’s new malt liquor. The demand for Volvo 140 parts isn’t so high, so not many parts had been picked from this ’71.
It had the look of a car that had been sitting for a few years before being towed off to this sorry final parking space. Inside, I found part of the cover of the May 2010 issue of SF Weekly, the one with the story of Epic Beard Man.
Murilee Martin is the pen name of Phil Greden, a writer who has lived in Minnesota, California, Georgia and (now) Colorado. He has toiled at copywriting, technical writing, junkmail writing, fiction writing and now automotive writing. He has owned many terrible vehicles and some good ones. He spends a great deal of time in self-service junkyards. These days, he writes for publications including Autoweek, Autoblog, Hagerty, The Truth About Cars and Capital One.
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Four photos? What, are they cutting Murilee's budget? Jeez...
I just don't get the cult-like appeal of these cars. It must be a Jeep thing.