Gord had been a customer here, and a Volvo enthusiast for a very, very long time. Actually, Gord was enthusiastic about everything in his life that he approached. He was an active member of the cycling community, with involvement in mountain bike racing, recreational riding, and mountain bike trail advocacy/maintenance. Gord was riding his bike on Sunday at Durham Forest near Uxbridge, and died suddenly due to suspected heart failure.

As Gord was an avid photographer/videographer, and very tech-savy, he gifted me with many hours of his time developing the website that you are now viewing. Gord figured that we had something good going on here, and he wanted to share it with people. "Volvo Bits" was born.  It wasn't about making more money, or growing the business. He just wanted to share. Gord was just that kind of guy.

Today I picked up Gord's V-70 from the place he had left it to go and ride. His muddied bike was in the back with his helmet, and shoes, and the wool hat with the big pom-pom on top was wedged between the front seats. It was a difficult, surreal experience for me. As I turned the key and the engine roared, I smiled and cried a tear. He was supposed to bring me the car this week to fix up the exhaust leak.  Just wanted to let you know Gord, the car is nice and quiet now, and  this one's on the house...

Gordo, we'll miss you dearly,

Les

Carolyn, Teagan, and I are anchored here at the Dry Tortugas National Park, while the crew takes care of your Volvo. Awesome!

I'm very grateful for my crew at work for taking care of things there, and just wanted to say thanks to them for gifting me with the ability to have such an incredible adventure. Harry, Charlie, Trent, Rod, John, and Sherri, thanks a million.

To all of our customers, thanks for your patronage, and see you in a couple of weeks!

Les

Illuminated deer at Festival of lights

Its officially winter and the people of Newmarket turned out to enjoy the snow and view the Christmas lights and decorated trees.

Newmarket Festival Of Lights from Gordon Wyatt on Vimeo.

Canadians experience a cold dramatic winter. We like to get out in the snow and celebrate the solstice and Christmas season. The festival of lights celebrates the return of the sun as the season moves past the longest night of the year and the days grow longer. A moment of hope though the coldest part of the yearis still ahead.

There are some limitations to this site. The schedule only goes back to 2003 models, and schedules for higher mileage cars are often not available. Also worthy of mention, this guide is intended for the Canadian marketplace specifically. USA service schedules are usually much less intensive.

Maintenance Schedule, Click Here!

Amy gestures with a pencil

Today we published the new video features at Suters autoservices' site.  Read on as we introduce the cast.
Les stars as the auto mechanic with a talent for people and a love of old cars.
Jamie provides a cameo appearance as the transmission expert and irrepressible wit.
Amy muses about baby names.

Stay tuned for the next gripping episode as Les test drives the vintage Volvo, Rod goes to the races and what about Amy?

Volvo 144s transmission repair from Gordon Wyatt on Vimeo.

In this episode: Les changes the transmission on his Volvo 144.  Jamie from Aurora Transmission arrives to offer his advice and Amy muses about baby names.

Click the posts' title to see the video.

As there can be surprises at any time with old cars like this, I decided that one of the more rural local drives may be the place to start out. Within two or three stoplights of the shop, I was on a beautiful, rolling county road. The 43 year-old Volvo ran like a top. It was a beautiful day, the windows were down and I was really taking in the ambiance of the moment. There was that "old Volvo" smell. There were all of the sounds of the "old Volvo" engine. The feel of the wind pressing the warm wind on my chest (remember "no-draft" windows?).

Then, there was a not-so-good feeling as I rose up a gentle incline in the road. The feeling of pressing the accelerator, while Ol' Red continued to lose momentum, until finally coming to rest, somewhat on the shoulder.

Good thing I brought my cell phone.

After a quick inspection, it was apparent  that the engine had a fuel delivery problem, so I called the shop to have the fuel delivery man (Rod!) deliver some fuel and a new fuel pump (which I happened to have on the shelf at the shop).  As it happened, the fuel pump wasn't the problem, rather the fuel gauge had stuck at 3/4 full, and basically, I'd run out of gas.

As I sat on the side of the road, munching on a bagel, waiting for my road-side assistance to get there, I couldn't help but enjoy myself. I also realized  that the likely-hood of any of my clients having the same appreciation of breaking down, is slim to none.

Not to worry folks, the newer Volvos are much more reliable   ;)

Long-time customer John Switzer called me up a couple of weeks ago and asked me if I was interested in a car that he wanted out of his garage. He called it a "rust-free" 144s that needed some engine work and brake work. John didn't want much for it, and it had an interesting history that came with it, so I went to Beaverton to have a look. The old red 144 looked like a really good one, and I figured that it would be a great car to put in the collection of old Volvos that my Dad and I have. In John's driveway sat this mildly crashed, white 240 that John's wife Rene absolutely adored. The 240 had been replaced by a late-model small Hyundai which they clearly weren't attached to. They wanted the 240 back on the road, and I wanted a red 1967 144s. Did i mention that I have a nice parts car that I could use to fix up their wagon?

The rest is history...

These vehicles do not use hybrid technology, rather, they are equipped with  a low carbon emissions diesel powerplant.  Apparently, according to the European spec Volvo fuel consumption numbers,  the Volvo V70 diesel that you buy in Belgium would consume up to one half of the  fuel than the same V70 (gasoline powered) purchased in Toronto.

This wouldn't be a big deal except for the recent interest in saving  our planet here in North America.  And the rising fuel costs. Not to mention the auto-industry bail-outs that many speculate are because the industry isn't providing the consumer with the product that they want.

My question is, why the hell can't I buy the Volvo V70 here that gets 4.9L/100km?

Would some of you not like the option of purchasing  a V70 that consumed half of the fuel of the North American V70?

Most speculate that the reason that we can't get these cars in North America is due to our strict emission control standards in North America. If, indeed, the reason has to do with emissions standards, I think we need to take a closer look at our emissions standards.

When testing a vehicle for emissions at the tailpipe, why is there no accommodation for the efficiency of the vehicle being tested?  In other words, if the diesel V70 is being tested and emits 20% more oxides of nitrogen than the gasoline powered V70, but the diesel powered car is capable of travelling twice the distance of the gasoline powered V70 on the same amount of fuel,  should we not be making an accommodation for the diesel powered vehicle with our emissions standards?  Am I mistaken in assuming that you will still emit less carbon (when making considerations for the range and efficiency) with the diesel powered Volvo?

How much more  energy does it take to collect and refine 70litres of gasoling compared to 35litres of diesel?  Is this not important?

For fun, here's the fuel consumption numbers as released by Volvo,

for the 2010 fuel efficient Volvos in Europe...