{"id":4721,"date":"2014-11-20T07:03:10","date_gmt":"2014-11-19T21:03:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.privatefleet.com.au\/?p=4721"},"modified":"2024-10-18T19:41:16","modified_gmt":"2024-10-18T09:41:16","slug":"my-swedish-love-affairs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/makes-models\/my-swedish-love-affairs\/","title":{"rendered":"My Swedish Love Affairs"},"content":{"rendered":"

Go somewhere else if you are expecting to find a sizzling read about my steamy encounters with tall, blue-eyed blonds with angular faces and high cheekbones.\u00a0 For one thing, although I have had a couple of male friends from Scandinavian countries, including Sweden, I never even flirted with them. What\u2019s more, the blue-eyed blond I married is from Down Under, and I\u2019m not going to spill the beans about that.\u00a0 This is supposed to be an automotive blog, so for anything steamy and Swedish, you\u2019ll have to wait until I put out a Mills & Boon romance with a hero named Eric. Instead, this is about two of the nicest cars I have driven, both of them Swedish.\"2014-New-font-b-Couple-b-font-I-LOVE-YOU-font-b-Heart-b-font-font\"<\/p>\n

First of all, there was the Saab <\/a>9000, a.k.a. The Valkyrie.\u00a0 This was a deep pewter grey sedan that some of my friend dubbed \u201cThe Euro Beast\u201d.\u00a0 This was my first encounter with Swedish cars \u2013 I had already encountered my share of French (Simca), German (VW<\/a>), British (Morris, Austin) and Italian (Alfa Romeo<\/a>) vehicles and was prepared for this new European model to be similar. It wasn\u2019t. \u00a0It was better.\u00a0 It had such an excellent blend of practicality and luxury that I forgave it all of its quirks, like the way that the interior cloth lining fell off the roof because it had been designed for the colder Swedish climate rather than the warmer one down here.\u00a0 I forgave it the way that it had to sit in the garage for yonks every time it needed a spare part that had to be imported and took three weeks to arrive on the boat from Europe.\u00a0 I loved that massive boot, the heated leather seats and its super-responsive acceleration.\u00a0 It was roomy, it was beautiful, it was fun to drive, and I was really sorry when the day came to trade it in for an Isuzu Bighorn so my husband, the blue-eyed blond mentioned above, could do a bit more with his contracting business and take the family on 4×4 outings.<\/p>\n

Now, I have my new love.\u00a0 This is a Volvo <\/a>\u00a0S70 sedan, dark blue and nicknamed Hilda (from the letters on the rego plate).\u00a0 I have only recently picked up this little beauty for much less than it was worth and I am in love with Swedish design all over again.\u00a0 So far, its only fault has been that it has a tendency to creep over the speed limit when I\u2019m not paying attention (it doesn\u2019t have cruise control).\u00a0 The alarm is also a bit on the quirky side \u2013 yesterday, it decided to set the alarm off when I opened the door to get out of the car after driving for 45 minutes \u2013 but I\u2019m figuring this out.\u00a0 It has the smoothest gear changes I\u2019ve ever felt in an automatic, it corners like a dream and it is nicely frugal on the gas.\u00a0 I\u2019m not sure exactly why the Frenchman I bought it off said that \u201cZis is a woman\u2019s car\u201d.\u00a0 There\u2019s nothing particularly girly about the mag wheels or those comfy leather seats.\u00a0 Is it because the boot is big enough to take heaps of groceries?\u00a0 Is it because the back seat is wide enough for plenty of kids needing to be taken to school?\u00a0 Is it because of the lighted mirror on the passenger side sunshade?\u00a0 Is it because of the multitude of storage compartments around the place?\u00a0 \u00a0Is it because it has the Volvo reputation for safety?\u00a0 I\u2019m still trying to figure this one out. \u00a0Anyone else got any ideas?<\/p>\n

I am also hoping that this latest Swedish love affair will be a long-lasting one.<\/p>\n

Happy driving whether you\u2019re in a Swedish car or not,<\/p>\n

Megan<\/p>\n

http:\/\/credit-n.ru\/offers-zaim\/viva-dengi-credit.html<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Go somewhere else if you are expecting to find a sizzling read about my steamy encounters with tall, blue-eyed blonds with angular faces and high cheekbones.\u00a0 For one thing, although I have had a couple of male friends from Scandinavian countries, including Sweden, I never even flirted with them. What\u2019s more, the blue-eyed blond I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4721","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-makes-models"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4721","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4721"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4721\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15695,"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4721\/revisions\/15695"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4721"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4721"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4721"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}