This might be the cleanest Volvo 240 estate left in existence, and it’s coming up for auction

Need a new family car but not a fan of modern-day crossovers with their annoying active safety systems and incessant bonging? Welcome to your new family car. Except it's not new.

Though, having covered just 11,934 miles under the stewardship of a single owner, this minty 1993 Volvo 240 Tørslanda estate is basically a new car. A 240 would easily get you to the moon and back (and back again when you realised you forgot to take a selfie), so of course we’re going to wheel out the old cliché that this one has barely been run in.

It’s coming up for sale too. Yep, Bonhams is auctioning this excellent slab of Swedishness with an estimate of somewhere between £15,000 and £20,000. Seems like a bargain to us – you wouldn’t even get half of a new XC60 for that.

And would you just look at that interior. The 240 is being sold by a relative of the car’s late owner, and said owner was “a very particular man who liked things to be neat, tidy, orderly and just so”. What a star. In fact, the Volvo was kept so tidy the plastic seat covers from the factory were never removed from the blue tweed upholstery.

It's only ever been serviced by the main dealer that originally sold it, and according to the auction listing there are “no bills covering repairs or non-service maintenance for the simple reason that it’s never needed any work done”. You won’t be surprised to hear that it’s also got an MOT with no advisories.

Of course, the Tørslanda edition – named to celebrate the town where the 240 was built – was essentially a run-out special at the end of the car’s life, although the town itself was called Torslanda and the ‘ø’ was only added to make it seem more Scandi for British buyers. Amazing. Available in red, white or silver, the Tørslanda came with excellent additional stripes, 15in alloy wheels, plastic exterior trim and even heated seats.

Is this the cleanest 240 left in Britain?

Photography: Bonhams|Cars