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Volvo 240 Series 242 GT
Looking at a 240 Series for sale?
Put in the asking price and the odometer reading. You will see what this model should make at that reading.
No Australian sale stands behind this value, so treat the figure as indicative.
Price history
The verdict
Recorded sales
Score breakdown
The working behind each factor: baseline and drivers ↓
What it costs to own · about 2,796 km a year
Specification
What moves the price on this model
Condition, history, originality, ownership, delivery and modification multipliers apply to every car in the library. They are applied automatically when an advertisement is analysed, and the schedule is set out once, on the analyser page.
Projected value in five years
The case for and against
Volvo sold the 242 GT here through to 1981, a year longer than in any other market, and that is the local story that makes this the Australian pick over the 240 Turbo. The model is estimated to have gone from a $6,000 car to a $25,000 car, with boxy Volvos among the strongest percentage risers of any classic since about 2020.
There is no Australian sale of any kind behind this figure and turnover is under ten cars a year, so a single result would rewrite the whole picture. Rust is $11,000 on a $25,000 car and the interior - cracked dash top, sagging headlining, worn cloth - is near-universal at $3,500.
Known faults and risks
Similar cars, and what they cost to run
Volvo sold the 242 GT here through to 1981, a year longer than in any other market, and that single fact is why this is the Australian pick of the fast boxy Volvos rather than the 240 Turbo. The Turbo shows no evidence of official Australian sale at all: local cars are overwhelmingly private imports, many of them left-hand drive from the United States or Europe, trading at roughly $20,000 to $38,000 driver-quality and $45,000 to $70,000 for an exceptional two-door. The GT was sold here properly, though the volume and the original local price were not found and are left at zero rather than guessed.
Read the rest of the evidence notes (4 more)
The Shannons archive carries P1800 prices, and the P1800 is a different and more collectible model that cannot be used as a comparable for a 242. Nothing else was reachable, and nothing has been published locally since Shannons left the auction business in November 2023 in any case. The estimated move from a $6,000 car to a $25,000 car is a direction read off the broader boxy-Volvo re-rating since about 2020 rather than a measured local series, and it should be read with wide error bars.
Turnover is under ten cars a year in this country against an estimated one hundred and twenty days on market. At that volume a single strong or weak transaction moves the average by more than any genuine change in the market would, which is why this record is carried as research and why the projection band around it is deliberately wide.
Four-doors and wagons wear the same 240 badge and are worth far less. Australian-market 242 GT colours and trim differed from the American Mystic Silver cars and are worth verifying as an identification point on any car offered here.
Rust - strut towers, inner guards, jacking points, sills, rear arches, boot floor, screen surround - is $11,000 against a $25,000 car, the interior is $3,500 and near-universal, and a warped alloy head on the B23 is $4,500. Two ordinary findings account for more than half the value of the car, which is what a cheap classic actually means. Total 242 GT production was not found, so the built figure here is zero.
No Australian transaction stands behind this value. A spec-adjusted figure built on it would look precise and would not be, so the report is refused instead of sold with a caveat. That goes for this car and 87 others. Everything above is free and stays free.
One line of email when this desk publishes a call on a Volvo 240 Series 242 GT, or records a new Australian sale of one. Nothing else, no schedule, and on a quiet model you may hear nothing for months, which is itself worth knowing about a car you are chasing.