BaT Auction Success Story: Summertime Volvo You Should Know
This Success Story comes to us from BaT member ennisk1, who won this 1985 Volvo 245 DL wagon from JetstreamRider in a April 2025 BaT auction:
What do you hope for when you buy a car that is on the other side of the country? For it to be as good as described, I suppose. I bought this 40-year-old 1985 Volvo 245 to use as my family’s summer car in Montana. I live in Florida, and the Volvo was in Seattle. Fortunately, the seller, @JetstreamRider, is a great guy who knows his Volvos. I’d say he under-described the car.
I won the auction on April 4 and had it shipped to The Auto Works in Bozeman, Montana. Zach looked the car over, and together we found a couple of minor items to address since I wanted it to be ready for summer adventures. Without even asking, the seller chipped in to help cover the cost of repacking the front bearings. After this work was done, the Volvo was stored at a friend’s warehouse in Bozeman, and it was the end of June before I finally laid eyes on it.
By the time my wife and I arrived in Bozeman in late June, I was convinced that I had probably made a mistake. My constant thoughts were things like “I paid too much,” “something will go wrong with the car,” “does the A/C really work?” Shortly after landing, my son drove me over to the warehouse, and the moment of truth came… It was BETTER than I had expected! Our summer adventure was ready to begin.
For the next five weeks, we used the Volvo as our daily driver and experienced summer snowfall in the Hyalites, incredible roads to Glacier National Park, a weekend in Red Lodge, the Beartooth Pass, and Yellowstone National Park. In all, we traveled over 2,000 miles, and the car never missed a beat. It didn’t burn oil, and the A/C was ice cold.
Were my worries unfounded? Totally! Best of all, my wife loves the car, and loves driving it. In the end we shipped it home to Florida, but it will be returning to Montana next summer, where it will remain as the permanent car for our Montana home.
A big thank you to JetstreamRider and BaT for helping us create great family memories. We love our Volvo!
If you have a Success Story about a car you’ve bought or sold on BaT, please send a few lines and pictures (or a video) to community.content@bringatrailer.com, and we’ll send you a $50 credit to the BaT Gear Store when your story posts to the site.
We love to hear from satisfied BaT buyers and sellers, and a Success Story feature is a great addition to any car’s history when you’re ready to sell.
