thinking of buying a volvo

[Guest]

as a current owner of my second saab, this one is rusting beyond repair. low on funds, like the solid sweedish style and i don't have money for a new saab. do old $1000 or less volvo's make good cars? as with all cars is there a buyers guide? what should i look for? thiking along the lines of a 244 or something? what is a good model and year for cheap? how are the engine tranmissions, drive line, and brakes? any advice would be much apreciated!

[LaRy]

Volvo and SAAB are both Swedish. Here in Sweden it is of course a lot of old Volvo's and SAAB's running. SAAB has always been more advanced and complicated, but at the same time definitely a more nice car to drive. More advanced and front wheel drive is at the same time equal to higher costs for the owner. SAAB is definitely also rusting like other cars.
Volvo has always manufacured reliable and safe cars, something that maybe makes it booring to drive.
It is very clear that the construction of the 740 and 940 series is maybe the best car that has been built, if you look at reliability, rust and costs to repair.
Sothern Sweden is rated to the second worse rust area i the system car industries use for deciding how much rust protection a car needs. In this area most of the 740' are still without rust. If you find rust, it will be Volvo's from 1984 - 87. We are talking about cars that are close to 20 years old without rust problems, that is good. The 240 series was not really designed to avoid rust, it was protected against rust. The 740 and 940 series is really designed not to rust. SAAB is definitely rusting much more than Volvo, maybe it is equal to the 240-series.
Someone said once, Volvo is a small car maker. They have to use simple well proved technology to make an advanced car. They have succeded.
Maybe the sparepars are cheaper over here, but the 740 and 940 is probably the cheapest car to own, because everything has good quality and if something needs to be repaired, it is in most cases very easy to do the job. The impression I got is that normally you don't have to do anything with the engine, tranmissions and drive line before 250.000 - 300.000 miles. The brakes are really good, escpecially those in the front. They are designed to work in a country were we use salt for 4 months every year.

[Sharpy]

Having just brought a 1981 244gl for 600 bucks they are a good car. What else is there at the same year that has fuel injection,rust-proofing,4 wheel dics's,4 pot calipars on the front,alloy head,over-head cam,shim valve adjustment,cold air intake system. I got a deal i reckon just to bad it has a bad name over here in Australia. That i can live with as a good F-off normally does the trick.

[Guest]

i would definately buy one, the ones from the '80's have features that neew cars dont, like heated seats on the 740 (my car), 2 and 4 piston caliper front and rear (standard) best paintjob, extensful rust proofing process that no other car company can match, they are the safest cars on the road, if you buy one from 1984 with 150,000 miles on it you will probably still have it at 250,000.
Volvo For Life

[VolvoQueen]

Well it's all a matter of opinion, but I'd go for a 740 series. I had gotten a '90 740 GL in November as a gift, it was $2,000. It had 163k miles on it, and according to Volvo owners the car is still a "baby" even though it is 15 years old. This is because, as I've been told, the cars are workhorses and will run until they drop....been known to get 400k or even more before the engine goes! Talk about reliable...and as for appearance? Holy cow, that paint job looks brand spanking new. There is not a speck of rust anywhere either, only some common places on the underside of the vehicle...but even that doesn't look bad. Under the hood the engine is IMMACULATE. I could be wrong but I feel I got one heck of a deal on that beauty.

I just spent $800 fixing mine, but I consider money well spent since a fixed Volvo is a happy Volvo...and they don't often have major problems. (The replaced parts were all original, by the way.) It doesn't have a lot of power (it's not Turbo) but power is not an issue for me. The car is peppy if it wants to be....I find the Volvo to be far more peppy then my last car...a '91 Ford Tempo that I finally was able to get rid of at 245k miles. (Boy did that car get me places.) That boy was in serious need of fixer uppers, but I couldn't afford it any more nor was it worth putting anymore money into.

So if you just want a basic, safe model go for the 740 or 940 series.
Just my own two cents as a new, happy owner!

~Ami~

[40 years in Volvos]

In my opinion you can?t go wrong if you can get a decent 240. I recently sold my 240 which had 190000 miles on it . Sold it for $500.00 was and is a darned good car.