When Joseph Zadeh spotted this 1995 Volvo 960 Executive Limousine on auction on Hagerty early last year, he bid on it as a joke – but turns out, not many other people were bidding, and he ended up winning. As he’ll learn over the course of the next few months, owning an old stretch Volvo limo is both a gift and a curse.
Built by Nilsson Special Vehicles in Sweden as a Volvo factory-approved product, only 20 of these 960 limos ever came to the U.S., and they were interestingly all one order. The modifications made to the 690 for limo duty were carefully executed to feel very much like they came from Volvo itself.
Unfortunately for Zadeh, this particular example did not come with a warranty. Flying down to Savannah, Georgia to collect the car and drive it back home to Ohio after winning the auction on $8,293, Zadeh recalls discovering a problem with practically every one of the 960’s systems.
There was a dead transmission speed sensor, a faulty fuel sender, and a suspension “in shambles.”
“Lots of fun stuff happened, like the wipers not working, a load of trim flying off the instant it hit the highway, the parking brake just not working, and finding out all the other little failures with the car.”
The non-functional wipers proved to be particularly problematic considering the thunderstorms that Zadeh would encounter in North Kentucky. Then, the transmission started to slip after hitting the Tail of the Dragon (where he also learned that the brakes were “almost down to nothing”):
“Why did [the transmission] start slipping? No fluid in it. I had to stop at an Advance Auto in Sevierville to try and fix it. Ended up paying a man named Johnny Cash, who proclaimed himself to be Elvis’s third cousin, to fix it. He jacked that thing up on the spare tire jack and went under it. Glad the jack held. Otherwise, Mr. Cash would’ve become spare change.”
In the days and months thereafter, the 960 limo’s reliability would not meaningfully improve, stranding Zadeh on the side of the road once, thanks to a dead alternator, and “mak[ing] sure to punish me every time I drive it by breaking something or having a bit fall off. Right now, it’s leaking oil from the pan because you’ve gotta drop the subframe to drop the pan, and third gear is in the early stages of slipping.”
“Everybody I meet loves this car. I cannot stress this enough: it’s like driving a DeLorean. People’s necks snap when I go by. I can’t really get rid of it because it’s something that everybody loves. It still runs … mostly. So I’m gonna drive it and enjoy it.
“It’s definitely in the shitbox category, but it’s also a shitbox that everybody loves.”
If you ever find yourself in North Central Ohio and want to see the lovably shitty 960 limo in person, you can hit up Zadeh at @aboveaverage.joe on Instagram.
Top graphic images: Hagerty/Deremer Studios
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