I’m going to be making some kind of a move with my current lineup of cars sometime soon so I’m starting to think about what I might do.
My wife has this thing about Volvos. She’s always wanted one. I’ve never owned one - driven them on occasion. Nice cars to drive. Safe, of course.
But I would be buying older, higher mileage because that’s what I do. (Say 5+ years old, 100K + miles). Lots of people say to just stay away from them. Nightmares. Lots of $$ to keep rolling in their later years.
If I relied exclusively on paying shops for repairs & maintenance I’d never consider it. But I am a DIY guy. I’d buy an older, well maintained wagon and a factory service manual at the same time. I’d then do most of my own maintenance and repairs myself.
But not being familiar with Volvos I just have to wonder where all of that repair and maintenance money goes in the waning years of a Volvo’s life. Is it that parts are hard to find and expensive? Crazy specialized tools? Bizarre things like having to remove the entire engine to replace a spark plug? All of the above? I just don’t know.
I do have a friend of a friend who spent a long time in a Volvo service dept. I can get him to give me the inside scoop on different models/years. I can also check out a car for its condition & maintenance history on my own (and with his help if needed).
So assuming that:
- I would do most maintenance & repair myself
- would not buy a known problematic model
- would not buy a poorly treated old heap
…what say the CarTalk boards about buying a used Volvo? Is it likely to be a headache no matter what?
Cigroller, you know more about cars than I do, so it’s kind of presumptuous for me to give you advice. But can’t you talk your wife into something more reliable? An old Volvo? Oh boy…even if you do the work yourself, you still have to buy the parts, and they’re not cheap.
From what I’ve seen and heard, unless your a skilled mechanic with good European car experience, stay away from European cars that are older than 10 years old. The electrical gremlins in the various expensive modules mature and play havoc on these cars that is both expensive and time consuming to diagnose and fix.
PS–How about a Lexus?
LOL - unfortunately no aspect of her attraction to Volvos is in any way rational. I’ve had her in older minivans for years and she’s happy with them. But it would be a purely mental thing for her. I could show her a Volvo and another car identical in all aspects of features, performance, safety, etc. and she’d never see the similarities. It just wouldn’t be “it.”
I have not brought this up for discussion though, so I am not setting myself up to get into something I don’t want be in the middle of. Frankly, the most likely hing is another minivan.
It sounds like middle age crazy, not that it is bad. Why do you want do tempt the jaws of fate when you could be sublime with a Honda or Toyota? Sure go for it if it makes you happy, and don’t blame us for the busted knuckles and another repair gone right, many upcoming. I reiterate don’t do any thing you will regret and don’t regret anything you have done.
I agree with all the other posters. My sister fell in love with and absolutely had to have a 1998 Volvo S60(?) with around 98K miles. It has been nothing but a money pit. Admittedly she has has to pay a mechanic to work on it, but even then I don’t think they’ll let her park in the shop parking lot for less than $300.
As an aside, I think she has a serious head gasket leak (milky oil in the crankcase), but she’s basically ignoring it, despite my repeated warnings. I suspect she’s afraid of the potential repair cost.
Good luck with the wife.
Can’t add much to what’s been said about maintenance. I owned two Volvos through the 1970s and 1980s, and they were constantly in need of attention. IPD in Portland (Oregon) was a great discovery for parts that were cheaper than elsewhere and often superior (e.g., aluminized exhaust system to improve on the one that seemed to require yearly replacement).
Roller, have you gone soft in the head?? Volvos are more than a make of car…They are a state of mind…If you drive one, you become one…I noticed you said this was your wife’s idea…That’s okay, but you don’t have to go along with her…Years ago, if the automatic transmission failed in a RWD car, you had it repaired…Today, a Volvo and many others on the wrong side of 100,000 miles are prime material for transmission failure and, my friend, you are not going to DIY on that one…Suddenly your cost-per-mile equation goes completely sideways…
There was a television show about eight years ago called “The Education of Max Bickford” which starred Richard Dreyfuss as a history professor in a rather snobbish small college. This college professor drove a Volvo which, as I remember, broke down in a couple of the scenes. I think the implication was that snobbish college professors were apt to drive Volvos.
LOL. I guess I’ve been here long enough I should have already known and saved everyone the time. I actually look forward to seeing things aired out though. Often all you hear is “don’t do it!” without any elaboration.
A couple of points:
- there is some mid-life crisis in it. Not exactly mine - more like me thinking of the wife’s. My midlife crisis purchase would be the oldest possible 4WD pickup I could find in restorable condition.
- I am occasionally soft in the head (and that often seems to be on a Friday evening for some reason). But I can’t convince the wife that she should pine for a Crown Vic (@ Caddyman). As for transmission rebuilds - like I said, we’ve been in minivans for years. I don’t know how to buy a used car without figuring in the cost of a transmission rebuild at some point
- I don’t do the Honda/Toyota worship (though it wouldn’t work anyway). The best vehicle I ever owned was a '95 Caravan. Up until my current Olds Silo, the worst was a Toyota pickup. I think that Honda/Toyota worship made some sense in the 1980s.
- and as it turns out, I actually am a snobbish college professor :-0 But in a very blue collar sort of a way. So I think that if I buy an old Volvo it should have some rust on it and at least one bald tire.
Anyway, this is just something the wife mentions once in a blue moon. She hasn’t brought it up and I’m not saying anything.
Frankly, at the moment she’d be thrilled if I got her back into a Grand Caravan after we both have been suffering through an Olds Silhouette.
Thanks for the input. I look forward to more.
I see it now, a Christmas present! I’ve got a big red bow I can loan you. You know the upcoming pain but to see the wow I love you too is irresistible.
and as it turns out, I actually am a snobbish college professor.
I would like to be a snobbish college professor. My colleagues who ‘have arrived’ drive Mercedes Benz automobiles. I haven’t quite arrived even after 44 years of teaching. When I attend social functions that involve the administrative dignitaries, I arrive in my 1978 Oldsmobile so that I don’t appear to be overpaid.
My dad was also a college professor. In his day, the proper car for a college professsor was a Nash. Did the Volvo take the place of the Nash?
I’m with you (though I can’t boast 44 years, and my dad barely got out of high school).
I drive up in my '97 Ford Escort with almost 275K on the odometer.
People do have very strange ideas about what kind of pay the job brings. I sometimes think I should just fix cars. I wouldn’t make any money at that either, but at least I could leave the work at work. I think I make about $3 an hour, partly as a consequence of having to carry the “shop” in my head - 24/7 on duty.
Those with an itch for a Volvo would not be CAUGHT DEAD in a Crown Vic…They gag when they see one…So I didn’t waste any ink on that possibility…
My Volvo experience is based on 2 that I owned. A 2000 V70XC wagon and a '98 V70XC wagon. The 2000 was purchased as a certified used Volvo from a Volvo dealer, it had about 26K miles on it. Had it for 2 years and it went to my ex-wife in the divorce. She gave it to her son. While I drove it it was OK. Just expensive for routine service, for instance it needs things like new plugs, wires, cap, etc. every 30K miles. After another year with my son it was causing him problems and he sold it due to the cost of repairs.
Once on my own I purchased the '98 with about 165K miles on it. When it was good, it drove great. When it went bad it was expensive. The parking brake hardware was a mess and all the cables from the front to the back needed replacement. This meant taking out the seats, rear seat, and carpeting etc. It needed brakes, pads and rotors about every 10 to 15K on the back and about 20K on the front. The front to back drive shaft went bad, $800 for the part, discounted price on line. Fuel pump went bad, $900 part only available from Volvo. 2 gas tanks linked together, when the gas guage stopped working it was an estimate of $1,200. I used the trip meter to know when to buy gas. I fixed the AC controller and radio myself by switching out units bought online. Cost for a Volvo repair was over $500 each. Power seat buttons were erratic, but I found setting seat memory to a forward position worked to avoid buying a new switch. Switches for power windows failed, but available cheap on ebay.
You will be able to do a lot of the repairs on your own, so it will help you keep the costs down. I don’t know if you’d want to tackle every job all the time. The bodies hold up great, the seats are wonderful. The motors are ok, but the turbo’s can go bad. The transmissions on older Volvo’s are prone to failure. One mechanic said he’d never seen a V70XC make 200K miles without replacing the transmission and he was a Volvo specialty independant shop.
I won’t recommend it, but you can give it a whirl.
Girl at work says that she will not own any car that sounds like it was named by a Sweedish gynecologist. What’s next? The Patella KNE?
Well, I’d be fine to have a Volvo (if it didn’t become a nightmare) - but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t find myself eyeing up those Crown Vics on occasion. You sell their virtues well
Absolutely right in the case of the wife though. I don’t think I could get her into one. Maybe w/ a little candy-apple red paint, lowered, and some nice mag wheels - ? Of course, she is heavy-footed with a throttle. I’ll bet she’d love a Vic the first time she went WOT.
Thanks UT, for some very concrete information from experience. Not that the general peanut gallery chatter isn’t a ball of fun.
As you describe yourself, you are the prime candidate to be the happy owner of an older European car. Parts are available from a number of good suppliers on line, and Bentley makes good manuals for many European cars.
I also am a DIY guy, and I drove a couple of old rear-wheel drive Volvos up to the 300k mile mark. I got rid of them because I simply got tired of them. Life is too short to drive the same car for more than 20 years. Time for something different. They are probably both still on the road.
We still have one old Volvo S70 in the family. It has gone through a lot of electrical problems - window switches, door lock actuators, antilock brake controler, and the plastic parts in the interior tend to spontaneously disintegrate, but it has been a reliable, comfortable car, and the outside looks great.
Car buying is more of an emotional decision than a rational one. As long as you do a little homework and don’t get a known problem car, I say, get what she wants.
For people who pay someone to do all their work, I agree with the consensus here that you don’t want anything European with more than 100k miles. On the other hand, I just drove my daughter’s 14-year-old BMW back to my house this evening. It is just about to click over 250k miles, and it is a great car, beautiful, reliable, and fast.