Dave - Chicago, IL

I knew I was in the market for an old classic Volvo. The usual car buying apps just didn’t have what I was after. I wanted a super clean, well maintained, classic Volvo without rust or other unwanted surprises. A model whose interior and exterior had been expertly restored to the pinnacle aesthetic that met with my discerning standards. Did I mention it had to be a stick shift? No small task, until I found Matt of Auslander Volvo about an hour west of Chicago. Scrolling through my now defunct Instagram account I was introduced to Auslander Volvo’s breathtaking images of prior Volvo restoration work done by Matt and his team at Auslander. I have to admit, from what I was seeing on Auslander’s Instagram page, I was impressed. But looks aren’t everything when it comes to buying a 30 year old classic Volvo.

So, I decided to give Matt a call just to gather some information on the car that was listed on his website as “Berwen”. To my surprise, during my first phone call, Matt spent over 50 minutes talking with me about not just Berwen but more generally about his passion for Volvo restoration work and the nationwide community of “blue hairs” who love their Volvos. Matt’s no exception. I never met a more enthusiastic Volvo evangelist. Matt’s expertise spans decades of Volvo models and is matched by his demand for restoration work that is authentic and executed with care and attention to detail. He also just nerds out pretty hard on all things Volvo down to the stickers under the hood... no really, the actual warning label stickers. There’s no detail too small when it comes to an Auslander restoration job.

A few days after talking with Matt on the phone he picked me up at the local Metra station a few miles from his place so that I could check out the car in-person and of course take it for a test drive. Within 5 minutes of the initial walk-around I knew that Auslander was the place for the very best stock of fully restored Volvo 240 inventory in the country. Matt and I spent about two hours that day going over everything he’d done to the car, its history, his personal connection to the driving Berwen himself, and we even spent some time just comparing and contrasting Berwen with some of his other inventory. A thorough test drive confirmed what Matt had told me from the first day I talked with him, namely that driving Berwen was the best example of what the driving experience for a manual 240DL ought to be like. It was unlike any other late 80’s era Volvo 240 I had ever driven. After driving it, I knew it had to be mine.

Ten days later, I was back to finalize the purchase and take the keys, a process which was really easy, especially since I had never purchased a car from a private seller before. I was thrilled! And then, as I drove Berwen home that day the power windows and the windscreen fluid pump stopped working along with the AC which was like an Arctic blast when I had driven just a few days ago. I knew that on a 30 year old car anything was liable to malfunction at some point, but I had just test driven it 10 days prior. That these two components would fail on my drive home after the car was bought and paid for seemed uncanny and indeed it was. But that was just my opinion.

I got home and texted Matt to let him know about the issues and to inquire about whether perhaps I had done something wrong or if there was a quick fix that might resolve the problems. Matt insisted that he have his technicians take a look at it even though the car was officially mine at this point and I had made an appointment with the service department at a local Volvo dealership. As it turns out the AC pump had failed and because it shared an electrical circuit with the power windows and the windscreen washer pump, those two components shorted out causing them to fail too. Right off the bat I was looking at a $700 repair, mind you, I’d owned the car for less than 24 hours. Without my solicitation and at Matt’s insistence he covered half the cost of the repair since he felt that in spite of the coincidental timing of the failure, he just wouldn’t feel right about the situation unless we tackled it together.

And that’s the way it’s always been with Matt at Auslander Volvo. Every time I have a question or concern he’s there to help and advise me. Buying a pristine Volvo restoration from Auslander is more than just about the car itself, it’s about the experience and support that comes after the purchase too. It’s about the adoption into a broadly diverse Volvo community of people that simply love the brand, the cars and the experience of driving and maintaining them.

Matt and his team at Auslander Volvo have ushered me into the Volvo family of enthusiasts but more than that they’ve been there for all my needs after the purchase which has made this experience so incredible. There’s so much to learn and the people at Auslander Volvo know it better than anyone else. Their scrupulous restoration work and the kind of personal service that Auslander Volvo offers are attributes that you just won’t find anywhere else in the Volvo restoration world. If I had to do it all over again, I wouldn’t change anything!