From Italy With Boost: Sean’s Love Story With a Swedish-Italian Turbo Wagon

What started as a late-night online search during Covid turned into a transatlantic love story between a graphic designer from New York and a rare Italian Volvo 245 Turbo. A car that perfectly combines understated Swedish design with unlikely turbocharged character.

Before we get to your gorgeous Turbo brick, how did you come to choose a classic Volvo in the first place?

Sean: I’ve always been a fan of the boxy design of the 240 series. I’m a graphic designer, so I appreciate the utilitarian design aesthetic and the restrained beauty of the shape. Years ago, I drove a friend’s 240 sedan and just thought it was so cool. From that moment on, I knew I’d own one someday.

Actually, my love for Volvos started a bit later in life. For years, I was more of a muscle car guy and owned a variety of Ford Mustangs and Dodge Challengers. It wasn’t until we moved to New York about ten years ago that I really started shifting away from American muscle and into Swedish Volvo boxes, although I’d always had a soft spot for the 240 series, even back then.

There was nothing else that looked like a 245, and I’ve always liked driving cars you don’t see every day. That’s probably why I enjoy older cars more than new ones. Even during my muscle car years, I never really cared how fast my cars were. I just liked the way they looked! That translated perfectly to Volvo because, obviously, they’re not exactly known for speed. Even the Turbo isn’t a speed demon. But I loved the idea that Volvo built a turbocharged version of their wagon. It always felt like such a wonderfully quirky combination.

And how did you end up looking for a Turbo, and in Italy of all places?

Sean: My search for a Turbo really started during the height of Covid. At the time, I was completely in love with my 1990 245 DL, but I wanted to move up to something even more unique, and, dare I say, somewhat rare-ish. I spent a month or two searching in the U.S., but I wasn’t finding anything worthwhile. Most of the Turbos I came across were pretty rough: rusty, beaten up, and clearly used as daily drivers that had lived very full lives.

Then I stumbled across a website called „Das Parking“, which completely changed the search for me because it opened things up worldwide. It’s basically an aggregator that pulls listings from all over the internet. That’s how I found the car in Italy.

There were actually several cars I was considering at the time. One in Portugal, one in the Netherlands, and another in Spain. But the Italian car was the only one with air conditioning, so naturally that became the one I focused on. It was a very low-mileage, original and unrestored example, which was exactly what I’d been hoping to find. As it turned out, the car had been traded in to a Volvo dealership in Italy back in 1996. Instead of selling it, the dealership placed it into their private collection and stored it in an underground garage, where it sat untouched for 21 years.

That whole “barn find” aspect immediately got me excited. I knew it would probably need some work after sitting for that long, but thankfully the collectors I bought it from had already made a really good start bringing the car back to life.

Honestly, I’ve never been afraid of buying cars sight unseen. I’ve actually done it several times before and somehow always had good luck with it. Of course, it’s a bit of a gamble, but I usually get a good feeling about the people I’m dealing with, even when there’s a language barrier involved.

Thanks to Google Translate, we somehow made it work. Six years later, I’m actually still in contact with the guys I bought the car from. We still message back and forth in Italian, and they’re always asking me when I’m finally coming to visit them in Italy.

So, it’s gone well obviously. After all that anticipation, how did it feel when it arrived? It’s quite a different experience from a 1990 DL, isn’t it?

Sean: It was so exciting! I picked it up at the port in Newark, New Jersey, then drove it into New York City with the Italian plates still on the car and took some photos in front of a few nice spots, though it was a pretty quick in-and-out. I was worried I was going to get a ticket the entire time, which honestly just added to the excitement.

It was such a surreal feeling seeing the car for the first time in person after it had traveled across the Atlantic to get to me. I felt like a kid on Christmas morning. The car absolutely did not disappoint. It started right up and made the two-hour drive home with no problems at all.

It was also pretty cool thinking that when I stopped for gas, that would be the first tank of U.S. fuel the car had ever had. It definitely felt a bit livelier than my ’90 DL, and made even more fun with the M47 manual.

Now I’m curious: how did your car make it onto the cover of Hagerty’s ‘Bull Market List’?

Sean: I already had another car insured with Hagerty, a 1962 Cadillac Series Sixty-Two Six Window Sedan, so when I went to insure my “new” ’83 245 Turbo, I mentioned the story of the car. They were really interested and wanted to do an owner’s profile in an issue of Hagerty Driver’s Club magazine.

After that profile, I was contacted about the “Bull Market” issue. They were looking for a nice 245 to feature and had seen mine in that earlier story, so it was really just perfect timing. On top of that, they liked the fact that it was a Turbo with a manual transmission and in spectacular condition.

That shoot at Lime Rock Park in Connecticut over two days was a lot of fun, and it was even cooler seeing it in print afterwards. It was also featured in another magazine called Jakob’s Magazine in the Netherlands the year prior. I was the cover car and feature in their No. 20 issue (04–21).

The Italian wagon is also a popular prop: it’s already featured in a TV advert, appeared in promotional videos, and has also served as a (background)-model in a number of campaign photo shoots.

And how are you today with your 240 Turbo? Some loves may fade over time, but let’s be honest: who’s lucky enough to have their absolute dream Volvo sitting in the garage? I haven’t seen it on Instagram much lately, but that’s no reason to worry, is it?

Sean: I still love it just as much today as I did when I found it online back in April 2020. I’m originally from San Diego, California, and I’ve only been in New York for about ten years, so the idea of not being able to drive a collector car year-round was new to me.

The roads here in winter are so bad that I would never want to drive the 245 with all the salt, so it gets stored for about six months of the year. That’s one of the reasons I haven’t been very active on Instagram lately. Well, that and I’m trying to be a bit less “online” and live more analog, kind of like my 245.

I still pop in for a post now and then, but there’s no need to worry. The 245 isn’t going anywhere, and my love for it is just as strong as ever.