Edition: U.S. / Global  They Call Him Volvo Bob  Published:
November 17, 2002  BOB KARPEL, 57, is a tinkerer and a good
Samaritan and an engineering whiz. He also has a deep and
desperate passion for cars, which is why he owns 81. Yes, that's
right, he owns 81 cars.  These aren't antique cars or fancy
cars, they're just regular-guy cars, the kind you leave at the
train station all day or lend to a teenager. All of his cars are
recycled: Mr. Karpel has not bought a new car since 1968, and he
still has that one. In addition, almost all of Mr. Karpel's cars
are Volvos, except for ''a gaggle of BMW's, two Mercedes and
four Citroen Maseratis,'' he said.  Thus, he's ''Volvo Bob'' to
nearly everybody who knows him. The guys at the local repair
shops call Mr. Karpel ''Volvo Bob,'' as do his children, his
wife, his brother, a cousin in Connecticut, close friends and a
former boss.  A modest, gentle man with a graying mustache,
Volvo Bob seems more like a favorite uncle or a not-so-famous
stand-up comedian than a car n