The Brilliant Volvo 480 Car

The Volvo 480 is a great car. I've never owned one but I have always had a soft spot for them. When it first came out it was such a futuristic looking car for the time but these days the 480, with it's box like shape has actually gone full circle. With anything Retro making a huge comeback in recent years the 480 is a seriously cool looking car. You don't see them around all that often anymore.

And if you do it's mostly either a 480 enthusiast or an older gentleman who has owned the from new behind the wheel. With some slight modifications Volvo 480's really do look superb with it's vintage, box-like sharp angles. Volvo 480's are now considered as a classic older car but still remain very stylish at the same time. They have a growing cult following. Just check out the Volvo 480 dashboard below. It looks awesome with the Turbo dials.

 Volvo 480 Dashboard / Cockpit. Click image to Enlarge

The choice of engines is either 1.7 or a 2.0 Petrol. A 1.7 turbo version is also available. Both engines are great and do have decent power. However, the 2.0 is the more desired engine out of the two. There are various different models of Volvo 480 but the most sought after is the Celebration model. This version has many extras fitted including the very impressive full leather interior. The Volvo 480 is one of the few cars that I think actually looks good in almost every colour it was produced in.  

 Black Volvo 480

Like most cars they do suffer from a few faults. One being the pop up front light mechanism stops functioning properly. General electrical faults and also rust are quite common problems with the Volvo 480. There are other small niggles that are exclusive traits of the Volvo 480 like leaking lights / boot that can cause the inside of the car to become wet. An Erratic idle can also be an issue.

There are other small issues and I'm sure there will be a Volvo 480 expert along shortly to this post to fill us in on all the faults that 480's suffer from. I think a lot of the small problems are just down to the cars age. Overall, the Volvo 480 are reliable little cars as far as the engine is concerned. Even if they were made by Renault. They're also fairly safe cars for their age, having side impact bars fitted when they weren't a very common addition.

 Volvo 480 ES

The Car weighs around a Ton, so Scrap value is around £120 - £160. Although scrapping a Volvo 480 is not recommended! Both the 1.7 and the 2.0L cars are in fairly high insurance groups (Group 12 - 14) so they can be quite expensive to insure for a younger driver. Classic insurance might be an option, but classic insurance is quite picky about a drivers age and annual mileage so you may have to get normal insurance instead.

If you're looking for a trouble free, great on petrol, low insurance car, then the Volvo 480 is probably not for you. But if you don't mind spending a little bit more on things like insurance and fuel to have a rare car and an enjoyable motoring experience, then the Volvo 480 is a great choice. There is nothing else like them on the road. Some people, including myself, just love these cars. And I hope one day I end up owning a nice one. Do you own a Volvo 480 and want your cars picture added to this post? Leave a comment here and I'll add it to the post.

Google Car Insurance Comparison Service

Google have now entered the car insurance market. I'm not sure how new the service is but it's new to me. Well, there not actually offering car insurance cover through themselves but they are offering a comparison service. If you go to the Google search engine and type in "Car Insurance" the first result you should see is a sponsored link by Google for there car insurance comparison service. I have not seen this advert by them before. Have I been living under a rock? Or do I just have Ad blindness.. Anyway, Google must have checked out the profits made by other other comparison websites such as Confused.com and thought to themselves, We need a slice of that pie.

Google have snapped up BeatThatQuote.com, so they are not only doing car insurance comparisons but also offering compare Credit Cards, Saving Accounts, Mortgages and Travel Insurance. They really are trying to get a piece of this marketplace. Of course, it's the same as any other comparison website, they make money (Commission) when you sign up for one of the compared services through them. Bottom line, it's all about more profit. The profit margins must be huge for this type of business because apart from the website hosting, comparison software, and marketing / advertising budget, what else is there that Google doesn't already have in place.

A comparison website, once set up, is pretty close to being able to run on auto-pilot. And if any staff are needed I'm sure Google have that covered. They have a huge infrastructure already in place. Any which way you look at it, the cost of this service is totally dwarfed by the profit margins. If it wasn't Google wouldn't be getting into offering a comparison service for insurance.

So, is Google's car insurance comparison service any different or any better then the services already out there like Confused.com Compare the market etc. Well, no it's not. It's basically a direct copy. For car insurance they currently have 127 providers who have joined there service. Google claim that almost 98% of people who use their service could save money. And that over 50% could save over £200 based on there research. However, when I went through the process of getting a "cheaper" car insurance quote I wasn't surprised to see that my results were very similar to that of Confused.com. The same companies that offered me insurance on Comfused.com were offering it to me on Google's comparison site - At the same price.

So Google say that 98% of people could save money, but then again, isn't this what all the comparison websites say? It's just a marketing tactic. They say you can save money so that you take the time to go through the process of getting a quote because they know, you stand a much better chance of signing up for car insurance through them if they can get you to complete the first step which is actually getting a comparison quote list. I bet that easily 50% of people that complete this first step of getting a quote list actually end up buying car insurance from the comparison list.

Google compare have a lot of the same company's that the rest of the comparison services use like Bell, eCar, IGO4, GoSkippy, Kwick Fit, LV, and Swinton. Surpisingly, Asda is not yet part of the list. There was however quite a few insurance companies that I have not seen before on other comparison websites like Thames City, Santander, Peoples Choice, Bullseye, and quite a few others. Perhaps this could be due to these previously unheard of insurance company's being so expensive on other comparison websites that they were too far down the list to be noticed.

If you are tired of using the same comparison websites give Google insurance a try. There are a few different insurance company's on there. A quote came back at the same price for me but it might not for you. There are so many individual factors when it comes to car insurance that the cost and quotes are different for everyone. You may be able to save some money, or maybe not. Might be worth a go. Check it out here. This service has now been discontinued.