Have you ever been to the Ashland Food Co-op and found yourself battling for parking space? It is a funny phenomenon that seems to happen around lunch and dinner time. You find yourself craving a hemp soy protein smoothie with a wheat grass beet juice shot chaser and decide the co-op is your lunch destination. It is a few minutes before noon and you jump into your Prius to beat the lunch rush in spite of the fact you work only two blocks away. Too late, the parking lot madness has begun. All spiritual calmness and love thy Zen brother rules go out the window when it comes to this parking lot war zone. You aim your sites on a spot and politely use your turn signal to indicate your parking intentions only to have a fellow Prius driver snag your space. The only solution is to back up to the space you saw at the bank on your way in only to find that space is gone and a line of Subaru’s are blocking your path. Bullocks! You then try to move forward and find that path is blocked by someone attempting to back out of a spot but can’t because another person has claimed that space but isn’t allowing enough room for the said backer to back out. Parking lot gridlock has dashed all hopes for a super smoothie lunch.
As you order your milk shake from the Wendy’s drive-through feeling dejected from the Co-op parking fiasco you vow to return armed with the ultimate urban assault vehicle or UUAV. This UUAV can be non-other than the C303 brought to by the makers of the safest civilian automobile in the world, Volvo. Yes ladies and gentleman this parking lot bruiser is civil enough for a woman because it is after all a Volvo, and man enough because it will cause Hummers to run and hide. Someone steals your hard earned parking space, no problem just hook up the wench and drag them out. Chances are when they see you coming they will give you plenty of room and your parking problems are all but a distant nightmare. The C303 has plenty of room for the family and organic groceries. The C303 will also feel right at home battling for armory parking space at the Tuesday growers market. Can’t find a parking spot at Lithia Park just drive through the park and make one. The C303 doesn’t care if you drive it through the duck pond or through the creek. Where you park it is where it’s parked!
This Volvo beast was spied in Ashland’s railroad district and is ready for any mission. It was built somewhere in the mid 70’s to early 80’s and is powered Volvo’s tried and true B30 6 cylinder engine. This gas burning power plant boasts a modest 125 horsepower and can propel the C303 to a top speed of 62 mph. I-5 commuters beware! There were 8000 C303’s built and 75% of them where slated for the military. That makes this rig very rare indeed and truly unique. Ironically it is called the Cross Country like its popular civilian wagon cousin but where the newer wagon may drive “across” country the C303 drives through it.
Happy motoring!!!
