Thanks for all the reply’s. I have been away …driving…Here’s the scoop. The car is driven for personal use and work travel, lots of work travel. My employer recommended I lease a safe car one that would be more expensive than I would buy on my own and he would reimburse me in cash a fixed monthly amount towards the cost. I am driving on expressway’s all the time and chose the volvo wagon after checking around. I was aware of the mileage limit, there was no choice to raise the limit at the time so this was not a “cheap” lease and I was well aware that I would go over on the mileage. I had intended to try to buy the car out as based on what I personally put into it I would be getting a relatively new but with high miles…my high miles…$42,000 car for the buyout of $22,000. But I would be off warranty and volvo’s are expensive to repair, but even if my repairs amounted to $2,000 a year I could not get as good a car with car payments any where near $200 a month and my employer is not offering the stipend again as I will be moving into a new position with no more company driving. I could easily buy it and resell it which seems to be the prevailing opinion but this has been a great car and this would be a chance to get a car that is way over my budget
otherwise. The oil issue is serious and I was in bumper to bumper traffic on a elevated highway when the light came on in an inner city area around 11pm, I did get off and look for anything open to buy and add oil and found nothing, of course I had money. The light did not stay on and did not come back on after i stopped and restarted the car on one of my many attempts to find oil as I drove towards a place that I could safely leave the car. Which is what I did. The next morning I drove the car straight to the dealer which was about 40 miles from where I left it, after talking to the service department, whcih told me that the light comes on way before there is really no oil, so don’t drive too far and get it here. The light did not come on again. They do not know why there was no oil there were no leaks and they chalked it up to the car using it all…I Know I questioned this too, but I have had the car meticulously maintained by Volvo with oil changes done on a regular basis. They also said that there would be no way of knowing if the engine had truly been damaged until I drove it. Which I quickly obliged and have since driven it another 5,000 miles and the only change I sense is the acceleration is sluggish and the overall sound of the car is a bit louder. I am due back very shortly for 60,000 mile service and I will question all this. The 75,000 miles is what I anticipate I will have on the car by July…but it might be higher. I feel like it’s 6 of one half a dozen of another and how do I truly know if the car has sustained any engine damage? thanks
I forgot to add that I am working on my employer to pay the over mileage fees but he has said so far that i would be getting a very good car for a good price and that I should just buy it…which of course saves him $9,000…so I will keep trying.
Hi please see my reply below thanks
Hi I replied in length below but inresponse to your reply the light came on and went off and did not stay on and did not come on again after I shut the engine at the first stop I made in an attempt to get oil. Volvo claims that the car used the oil and I do check the oil and change it every 5,000 which is now and I am ready for a change. How can I tell if the engine has been damaged and do I ask Volvo to do this inspection for me?
If they think I will be buying the car which I did mention to them wouldn’t they just let me. Not to say they are unethical but they could just say no problems so far.
Hi see scoop below I replied to the last comment which a full explanation. Thanks
You can have an independent mechanic check out the engine. From your statement do I gather correctly that you check the oil evey 5000 miles?
If you used enough oil in 5000 miles to drop the level to the alarm point, that may be normal consumption. If it dropped, say, 2.5 quarts out of the 5 quarts in the sump in 5000 miles that would be normal for a lot of cars.
If you checked the oil every second tank of gas (1000 miles or so), as most people do, and it dropped 2.5 quarts, that would be bad!!
We want to advise you what your best options are; If the engine is OK you should buy the car, and drive it for a few more years. If the engine is bad and on its last legs, it may still be your best option since you have that $9000 mileage penalty ,and you still would have to buy a new car.
I change the oil/filter every 5,000 miles and don’t check it every 1,000 miles more like 2500 miles and occasionally in between when i’m taking a long drive which for me is over 400 miles in one day. My typical day is approx. 150 plus miles. i have checked it a couple of times since the incident and it hasn’t been down oil but as i said before the acceleration is rougher and engine sounds louder. there was no visible oil leak where i park the car. The car was about 3,000 miles overdue for it’s 50,000 mile checkup because i was out of town on an extended trip and was waiting to get to my local dealer for the maitenance, It was on the return from this trip that the oil light came on and the next morning the car was in for service. I think I should start checking the oil with every fill up and make an appointment with an independent mechanic to check out the engine.
Sounds like the right approach! Since you drove 5000 miles after the incident, and the oil level is not going down fast, there may not be much engine damage. The idepnedent mechanic will be able to tell you.
By the way, any reputable garage can do the 50,000 miles service, and they usually do it for much less than the dealer. You are not legally obliged to have this service done by the dealer. US consumer law is very specific about this! The only exception to this is if it was in your lease contract and you signed it. Just keep all your bills when you have the car serviced.
Good luck!
It sounds like you are stuck. If so, buy the car. You could have the compression ratio checked to see if there is any blow-by of the cylinder rings. Did the car overheat after the oil light came on? If not, warping of the heads or other engine components may not have occurred.
Are you implying that the stipend is $200 per month? It should be more like $2000 unless they reimburse you for mileage as well at about $0.485 per mile. If you drove 50,000 on business and 25,000 personal, the reimbursement rate at $200 per month is 4.8 cents. The stuff about giving you an expensive car is hogwash. You could buy an identical car from the dealer for the same price (probably less) whether you leased it or not. Your finagling boss has some 'splainin to do. Big time.
I agree (the IRS limit is $0.505/mile as of January) $200 per month is not adequate compensation to buy/lease a more expensive car. I would probably just buy it, them sell it if it becomes too expensive to maintain.
The car did not overheat and started right up the next morning I added 3 quarts of oil it could have taken more so I don’t really know how many quarts it was down and drove to the dealer. What else beside the compression ratio check should I look into.
The stipend is $500 a month towards the car payment which is $390 a month and he pays for all the gas and of course my time. This has been the first out of pocket expense as it has been under warranty until now and he paid for that also. This is a small casual company and while fair my employer is not over the top. Basically he’s giving me cash so i could get a good reliable safe car at the same time treating the car as mine to buy, which was the original plan. What he is not willing to do yet is have me not buy it and him pay the overmileage fee, he wants me to buy it refinance the balloon and own it. I am worried about buying it now because of the oil issue and because the book value is less than the buyout. What I meant to imply was if the cars yearly maintenance after I bought it amounted to approx. $2000 or $200 a month, that amount =$200 a month would be about what I would spend on a new car payment and I wouldn’t be getting a Volvo for $200 a month. So it really boils down to what if any damage has been done to the engine, can that question be answered, what should I have a mechanic check out and if all is well should I pay $22,000 for a 2005 Volvo XC70 with 75,000 miles on it and what kind of maintenance is ahead of me. After I buy it I could always sell it and recover most of my costs. So far the car hasn’t really cost me much except new tires . What I want is to keep it and have it last 5 more years without enormous repair bills.But i also want to know what repairs would cost in the future. Maybe this is unanswerable and i just have to get the car checked out decide and go for it .
You did not say what options are on it, so pricing can’t be done accurately. If you have just headlight cleaners and leather seats, the sales price to a private party would be about $18,000 after a $1900 deduction for mileage. You can get a better idea of the value by going to this URL and filling in the options and condition. I chose “clean”, meaning that there are a few minor wear and tear items that might need to be fixed, but no major problems.
http://www.edmunds.com/used/2005/volvo/xc70/100458960/options.html
You won’t be making customer calls at nearly the rate you were, so your mileage at the end of 5 years should be around 125,000. Without engine damage that is easily done with your car. I would still buy it and then consider keeping or selling. I lean towards keeping it.
At 25,000 miles per year and 22 MPG, your gas costs about 14-cents per mile. You are getting about 5.3 cents per mile for depreciation, maintenance, and repairs. That’s less than 20-cents per mile, yet the IRS allows you to write off 50.5 cents per mile for all car-related business expenses. Your boss is more than 30-cents per mile short on what he owes you - 60%! That is $21,000! He’s getting off cheap at $9000 for the mileage penalty. Maybe you should tell him that. In your usual, tactful manner, of course.
Thanks, the car came loaded. I will go to the site you mentioned and get a more accurate resale price and I will point out the discrepancy in the numbers to my boss if after I get the car checked out I am advised not to buy it. I can be very persuasive , but it seems that if there is no engine damage the general consensus is to buy out the lease and at worse resell it privately. If I spend 22,000 on the balloon and resell on the conservative side for 18,000 I think I would be very successful recovering the $4,000 from my boss.
I still don’t know what happen to all the oil.