My husband and I currently own a 2004 Ford Focus with 78,000 miles. We recently were presented with an opportunity to buy a 2005 Volvo S40 with 68,500 miles for $10,000. The Volvo is in good shape according to the owner (a family member). They are only selling it because they had a chance to buy someone out of their Mercedes lease.
Anyway, our question is: Should we consider the upgrade? Our thinking is to buy the Volvo that will hopefully have another 100,000 miles in her. Does anyone know if that is true of the 2005 Volvo S40? Is a 2004 Ford Focus just as likely to be as reliable?
Please help with any helpful input. We have about a week to make a decision…
unless that’s a T5 with sat nav, HIDs, headlight washers, heated leather seats, stability control, and automatic, it’s over priced. That’s about what edmunds lists it for in clean condition as a private party sale. trade in is less than 9k and dealer price is 12k. Add $1k if it’s AWD.
You could upgrade to an 07 or 08 Focus for the same amount of money. Volvos will tend to cost more to fix should something go wrong.
Ford to Volvo is an upgrade in panache only.
“Ford to Volvo is an upgrade in panache only.”
They are both Fords anyway…
The Focus will likely be more reliable, and will cost much less than the Volvo. If reliability and cost of onwership are your main concerns, stick to the Focus.
Only reasons to “upgrade” to the Volvo would be styling/performance/ride quality, but you’ll sacrifice reliability and $$$ for the “upgrade.”
If you’re happy with the Focus, stick with it.
PS…another reason not to buy the Volvo: if it goes bad on you, you might not be so happy with the “family member” who sold it to you…