I was working as a foreman of a small country garage when I heard that Egertons of Ipswich had been acquired by Lex and were going to import Volvos – a car I had hardly heard of previously. It must have been early in the sixties when a local customer brought a bright red 122S and brought it to us for servicing.

Collecting spares for the car I came to know the large building in Raeburn Road, Ipswich which Volvo Concessionaires had set up to house spares imported to supply their rapidly increasing network of dealers in the UK. I must admit that I thought that the Volvo rather solid looking compared with the contemporary Rover and Triumph 2000S, but when our customer was involved in a major accident ending up buried in the front of a bungalow, from which he walked unscathed, I realised that solidity was a virtue.

In 1965 my peaceful country garage was taken over by Mann Egertons whose manager was only interested in new car sales. My workload – especially paper work – went up but my money did not and I was desperate to find another job. Lex had decided to convert a part of the big stores building into a Car Importing Centre and had a car wash, several hoists and a low bake oven installed. They needed mechanics to run the pre-delivery check line and I was soon one of them. The opening of this PDC Line coincided with the introduction of the 140 series.

The first one hundred and forty of these were held back to be sent out in convoy through Ipswich whence they dispersed to the Volvo Dealers throughout Britain. A mixture of 120's, 1800’s and 140’s arrived at Harwich Docks and were ferried to Raeburn Road by drivers of a delivery firm, who had little regard for speed limits or new engines. Fortunately Volvo engines were run in at the works and never came to any harm.

I should have explained that the site chosen for the Volvo building was not flat. Raeburn Road led to nowhere but the Ipswich Power Station. On the left was a fairly flat area later to be occupied by a malodorous sewage water cleaning plant. On the right side of the road a hill rose to several hundred feet and into this hill was bulldozed a flat area on which stood a massive two storey building. The lower level doors opened on to a flat concrete area level with the road. The upper storey doors opened onto a higher flat area dug out of the hillside. At each end of this long building concrete roads ran up to the top of the hill which was still a wild field and was used as an overflow car park for Volvos and employees cars.

So, when I started work as a mechanic on the check line, half of the upper storey was car preparation and the remainder Volvo spares. The later arrived in trucks, which off-loaded down below and were mostly carried up to the storage racks above. ‘Clear’ cars ready for delivery were collected by ‘ferry’ drivers who either made their way to Ipswich from the dealers, or were recruited locally and supplied with money for return rail travel, which they usually avoided using by hitch-hiking. Several of the works and stores staff ‘moonlit’ as delivery drivers doing overnight and weekend deliveries all over the country. Volvo Concessionaires management had offices over the fire station in the centre of Ipswich, and the day to day running of the checkline was in the hands of the General Manager, who had a heart of gold and ran a really happy shop. He had three failings: he was a workaholic, never took lunch breaks and he seldom stopped smoking or swearing.

For a year or two this system worked well. I suppose we must have checked about 15 or 20 cars a day – we worked a 40 hour week and were allowed to bring our own vehicles in on Saturday mornings and make use of the rectification section equipment, This privilege stopped suddenly when one of the stores chaps sprayed his old van in the paint oven and wrecked the heating plant.

Egertons closed in or about 1970 and many of the staff joined Volvo Concessionaires. One of the Receptionists came and helped me with the servicing section. By this time the top of the hill had been covered with tarmac. Colemans had taken over car delivery and collections – mostly by car transporters – and sales were going up and up. To cope with this, pre-delivery checks were passed on to the dealers, and the whole of the top layer of Raeburn Road was used for cleaning and checking the cars for paint faults and damage, and rectification thereof.

Meanwhile bulldozers enlarged the upper level and an imposing Office Block was built. This eventually housed the Training School, Customer Relations and Warranty Department, Publications, Canteen and the offices of various Heads of Department.

The next major upheaval came when the Parts Department moved to Crick, leaving the lower floor at Reaburn Road empty apart from a supply of current model parts to service the check line. Before long this contained a well-equipped Customer Servicing Section, Unit Overhaul Section, Warranty Claims Investigation Department, and our first proper canteen run by an independent caterer and provided cheap and palatable lunches.

I was now normally in charge of customer servicing and on the monthly staff payroll. We really bent over backwards to keep our customers happy – collecting and delivering cars from town and country and taking commuters to Ipswich Station after they had brought their cars for servicing and listening to the rattles etc. on the way. I also road-tested cars after they had been through our workshops.

Up above us the cars were coming in thick and fast – steam cleaning was no longer needed as Volvos were using lighter wax which was removed in the ordinary car wash machines – there were two of them side by side, leading to three hoists for lower body and underside inspection and a brilliantly illuminated bodywork inspection area. There was still a small mechanical rectification centre, for faults to drastic to pass to the dealer but ‘clear’ cars went straight out of the building where a ‘jockey’ would drive them to the dispersal area up the hill. This parking area had been at least doubled by the purchase (?/leasing) of another section of the hillside, and a separate enclosure was made for employees cars. There was a large corrugated iron shed for two wheels, which included my moped.

Cars with paint or body faults went into a big area rather like a car park to wait for panel beaters or polishers to be available to deal with them. Dirt in the paint would sometimes be polished out and a ‘ding man’ might tap out a dent without the need of paintwork, but usually it was a case of reshaping, filling and passing a car to the spray bay whence it was slowly pulled by a hook on an endless belt through the long low bake oven and out to final inspection before parking for dispatch.

Somewhere around 1970 the General Manager relinquished overall control to a workshop Manager and a Quality Control Manager, while he became the Chief Inspector.

By this time there were no more 120’s or 1800 Coupe’s coming through. I remember having a lot of trouble with an 1800ES's bodywork, mostly with the fit and water tightness of the doors and tailgate. 164’s arrived in 1969.

I fell foul of the law twice while testing cars. The first instance involved a 142, which was getting water in the rear foot wells or boot. I suspected a leak in the floor or wheel arch and went out on a wet day, looking for puddles. I spotted a beauty close to the pavement and swerved left to get a good splash. Too late I realised that a Policeman was standing on the pavement. I took my time about the test but he was there when I got back – all muddy splashes and with up raised arm. He gave me a lecture about his uniform being taxpayer's property to be treated with respect, but accepted my apology. I never found where the water entered the car. On the second occasion I was testing for a slight vibration on a deserted town road when out popped a 'Copper' who told me that I was doing 43mph, I was fined £13.

I wish I had kept a diary, but I think it was in 1970 that a couple of avid unionists joined the workshops and they soon began to recruit Members to the TGWU. The Management tried to keep us non-unionised but then Lex ran into financial trouble and ordered a 20% reduction in personnel countrywide. Volvo Concessionaires’ answer was to close the Servicing Section and most of my mechanics were sacked, and those left suddenly realised they needed a union to fight for their rights. The local Co-op took over the Volvo Agency and I was told I could have a job with them or become a Paint Inspector. I chose the later. I believe it was in 1973 that Volvo was the only profitable branch of Lex and we were putting through 100 cars a day.

An innovation in mid 70’s was the Minor Body Repair Section, which was so busy that a separate shop was set up on a local industrial estate some miles from Raeburn Road. This held about 12 cars and had its own paint oven.

In 1975 Volvo took over DAF Cars and I bought a DAF 46 from a consignment that had been standing on Harwich Docks for a year. It cost me £1,125.00 – and was my first new car I had ever owned. I wasn’t too happy about the single belt drive but it was so cheap and my old Jowett Javelin was desperately in need of a rebuild. The DAF served me well for my last four years of Volvos and was so light on fuel that I gave up my Moped.

When the 340’s started coming from the DAF Factory, they had so many faults that the first consignment was sent back! The paintwork was awful and water came in the body all over the place when we put them in the wash.

I had the job sitting inside the cars as they went through the wash with a large lantern and a clipboard noting where water came in. One of the worst faults was a complete lack of sealing off the joint between the bulkhead and the inner front wings, resulting in a steady trickle of water on the front feet. There was obviously a feedback to the makers as the build quality improved and my water watch ceased. The 240-360 Series arrived in 1975. I’m afraid I did not like the big fat shock absorbing bumpers.

Lex was a really good firm to work for. Just before I retired they started a non-contributory pension scheme based on years of service, which I part converted to a lump sum, which purchased a 345 for my old age, 25% off basic price.