well. to start...
I grew up at a cowdairy in the south of the netherlands, near the river maas and maastricht as one of 4 kids.
My elder sis could drive very well, because she is very easy nervous, so after a small fortune she passed het drivers license, but in automatic dribve only.
Dad bought a red volvo 66...
I thought it was very ugly.. but some how I accepted the tough little car..
It was built in a car factory near the village i live now ( holtum , part of born )
This factoy was built bij mister van Doorne of D.A.F., a truck builder. With loads of subsidise, because the local coal mines had closed in the 70 and lots of people were out of job.
Later on, because they couldn't compete the factoy became part of volvo AB of Sweden, and minor part dutch gouvernement.( later to be 100% owned by daimler chrysler doughter mitsubishi called NEDCAR) ..
In that time i had a fridays job there , after school for some extra cash... I spotwelded volvo 300 bodies.. Hard work, but good pay, and a perfect motivator to keep out of this factory and study harder.
about 4 meters from my spot, 480 's bodies came by... Some times i helped. (front bumper fittings)
One day i sat in a brand new 480 turbo at the factory, having lunch... it had all.. leather, moonroof.. Yum yum....
....whow what a suberb car ! I dreamt of owning one.. It took me about 10 years 
Sorry if one member still has bread crums in his car hahaMy sis... volvo 66 didn't have a long life, and dad kept the wreck, and bought a daf 66 ( exact the same car).. It was on the farm... and could choose.. this car, or none.. It became my hobby.. perfect... simple to work on.. and never a problem.
after an accident for which i wasn't to blame I bought a ' 74 daf 66 1300 marathon coupe. I still drive it., because its very cheap to drive an old hobby car in NL ...
At home dad drove a merc. 300 D and a nissan patrol jeep ... Later I had two 340 's... they made a whole lot of km's as being old.. But the look of it, wasn't very satisfiing.. a bit of an everyday's old farts car.. But I will never forget it.. it were the best cars I ever had. ( both ran on LPG )
Than I married ( very wrong.. and a bad year for me!) and we had some money..
Being an ambulant service engineer i could sleep one night, because i saw one 480 smiling at me somewhere and I could remember were.. It kept me bussy for some time.. and I had to buy it.. It was full of water, had immitation OZ wheels on.. and in a bad shape... But it had leather, turbo, and a special altered chip by nothern german firm "haas"
I had a love hate relation ship with it.. always something to complain on it... but i am a handy guy... Specially to complain was the chrismas week I had to switch the gear box 3 times... big repairs.... cost me a lot of money..It seemes the only slightly altered renault fuego gear box coudn't handle the turbo and in my case a lot more torq because of the tuningchip ! I had one specially rebuild for my car..
My wife never liked the car, but then again she always complained..and our marriage never lasted longer then the car
then again... I met allot of nice people having it.. and wrote a lot to this site.. as one of the first ... at the time this site was still blue and had about 20 members
I always liked driving it .. I never had the fun with any other car... 275 NM torq.. Its like a bullet compared to the 225 hp volvo 850 i drive now.. you can realy feel and enjoy the power in this light car (1000 kg instead of near 1500 for the 850 T5 )
I still miss it.. it is the only 480 t i have had.. It survived a very bad ttime in my life.. On top of a burnout at work i had a problem with my rh retina.. At the time, being a diagnosis technician.. i didn't sleep for months asking my selves what it was.. The hospital turned me inside out.. U can immangine what this kind of stress does to some one. It took me years to get through stress and medication. My marriage stalled.. but it was never much.. I was home on my own for about 7 years .. and several years not allowed to work or drive. A operation to the retina only helped partwise and I had to live with being partly blind. It took me a very long time to get on my feet again. In the end i came out better. In the end it was made clear it not cancer or any other disease, butt a blow to the head i had years before in a car accident.. I am thankfull its that, and nothing else. I could have been dead !
I got the licenses ( also truck in time) back because it was not a idee-fixe or hoax i had, but realy an existing problem, which i was helped on.
I reintegrated on the job market as a milkrobot engineer. A job I still love very much
The cars and the home became mine after the divorce... but it was still very hard at the time being on wellfare. After two years I at first got my drivers license for car back. .. The first thing I did was drive north ... and kept driving
I enjoyed "MIddsommar daget " in the north of Sweden very much... going some where it never gets dark had a special meaning for me.. It cost me 14 full petrol tanks but I came home another man.. whow... what is nothern sweden beautifull So I am fine now.. and a better man. Thanks to this club I met a lot of new friends, some i got to now personal... I liked the luxemburg meetings very much, and gained a lot of very neccesary support and 480-confidence on this site..
This spring the engine tuned '88 car had 300.000 kilometers... It had a series of little trouble.. the clutch wasn't all to best, it had bubbles in the cooling fluid, brake fluid leakage and some minor dammage on the body.. I asked my garage for advise.. The boss, mister Louis Savelkoul, always helped me correctly and gave me his keys from his '93 850 T5
Its a real well (better! ) build big volvo and a totally different car.. Inspite of 225 hp , about 100 more, you don't feel the extra power, which has logic : its more luxerious (you hardly feel you drive ) and a lot heavier ( killing accileration) At the time i had a van from my boss for work, so the 1 liter every 8 kilometers average wasn't a big problem.. At the time she has saved my life in a car chrash...but the 1400 E dammage will be fixed.. Its a good and tough car .. U should have seen the car that din't have a right to drive on my path...! I like the 850 T5 very much ...
Once a volvo always a volvo ! I never drove something else than one from the volvofamily !
What about the 480 T ??
I never expected it make more than 1000 E so I kept it. In a special regulation called " schorsen" in dutch .. I still own it on my name with license, but don't have to pay for MOT, TAX,and insurance, if i promis not to drive it and keep it inside ... So it waits for better days...still drivable and complete..
I didn't post for a while, but will be near to come by here , watching u
The 480 took me to the hardest time in my life...I will never sell or forget it
thank U all !