2nd May 2007, 03:17

I very much enjoy this car, because I have got one myself. At first you think this car is not that tough and can't go hard, but once you put the pedal to the metal it starts to fly. I have not had many problems with the car so far, the only problems would be checking the oil and refilling it with petrol. my fog light have stopped working as well as my speed-o-meter. but that doesn't really affect the driving experience.

27th Jan 2009, 01:05

I own the above car, had it four years now. Have done 24,000km in that time, a good bomb to have sitting around and not use too often, though I don't have a problem using it more or doing long trips.

The instrument panel lights have given up working, a loose connection I am sure, for a while they came good again with a hit. No other problems or expenses. I top up the brake fluid from time to time, maybe once a year.

Fuel economy can be a bit dismal if doing a lot of short trips, but if you don't drive much you don't use much fuel anyway.

27th Mar 2009, 07:35

I bought a 1986 Volvo 360GLT (MK3) back in September last year for the sum of A$1300.

It's been totally reliable since then, with only one exception when I hopelessly flooded it one morning (later found out that wrong spark plugs were fitted...)

Good Points:

Reliable.

Interior is a fairly nice place to be, bulletproof B200E engines - mine is up to 225,000k.

RWD, can be fun in the wet and "GR8 4 Drifting" could be a plus or minus, I'll leave that to you! But rear-mounted gearbox gives positive handling.

Can be fairly quick. 1st and second are where it's at, but a yawning chasm between 2nd and 3rd sadly, though if revs are kept high enough this is surmountable - maybe due to the 240-sourced gearbox

Bad points:

Only minor things caused by age of car really, interior trim tends to fall off/break/disintegrate.

Intermittent crunch on selecting reverse - probably down to me!

Steering is fairly heavy, maybe power-steering needed to have been fitted from the start...

Total lack of credibility amongst the hoon/boy-racer fraternity - probably not a bad thing since it's capable of quite some level of surprise in the right situation.

Availability of parts, major parts - panels, light lenses, window glass, still available at breakers yards and Volvo specialists, other items such as brackets, mounts etc have to be imported or fettled up. Maybe a serious Owner/Enthusiast would have a spares car in the garage..

Overall, a good car for those in the know... A worthy attempt by Volvo for a serious rally-capable car.

8th Feb 2012, 23:44

I bought my Volvo 360 GLT 1985/86 last year, from a local guy who sold it pretty cheap, but without rego and road worthy. He came from Queensland.

There's not many of them left, I've only seen 3 in Vic., so that made it hard to find parts.

My tail lights have cracked because the tail lights wouldn't turn off. I suspect that since it's a Swedish car, its fog lights continuously stay on. So I replaced my tail lights, and now it looks odd with an aftermarket and original left side tail light LOL.

But I haven't figured out how to fix the problem? Can someone help me out?

1st Nov 2017, 12:21

I had a Volvo 360GLT that was a hybrid of the '84 and '86 version, originally built for the Australian market (long story, but I got it from the factory when I was living in the Netherlands).

Purchased in '86, this was the time that the regulators were looking at catalytic converters. As ever, Volvo went a different way. Originally, my 360GLT was fitted with a very clever exhaust system. Volvo claimed it gave less emissions than a catalytic converter. Essentially, it recirculated the exhaust gases back through the engine to give a cleaner burn and more power to the two litre injected engine. (Don't ask me: I know nothing about emissions technology, but the Swedes and Dutch were keen on it before everyone else...)

Anyhow, my problem was that after the catalytic converters came in, getting these 'special' replacement exhaust systems became a problem. Eventually, even the Volvo main dealers no longer had them. And why was this a problem? Well, the GLT lost a lot of its performance with a standard exhaust! It wasn't just my imagination, because after the Volvo garage had fitted a couple of standard Volvo exhausts (which also didn't last as long) I managed to source an original GLT exhaust, and my GLT's performance came back.

So, if you've got a Volvo 360GLT, it might be worth getting a custom made exhaust for it; always assuming Volvo will let you have the design spec.

I had my 360GLT for 15 years from new. Great car, especially for towing, deep snow (cheap Swedish/Norwegian snow tyres), and ascending/descending steep Continental mountains (torque and engine breaking)... I now drive a classic Land Rover 'Ninety'.

Rick.