Should I trade for an older volvo?

[combhua]

I seek the community wisdom on this one. I've been working through the options related to selling my current car and purchasing an older, cheaper one for one purpose - I need more cash on hand for some difficulties. I need help discerning whether it would be worth it in my situation and identifying good options.

The current car is fully paid off. What I'm unsure about is whether I have good choices about finding an older Volvo that's going to be similarly or more reliable than my current car for less than $5000 after repairs and catching it up on maintenance.

My current car

Volvo S40 2007 Sedan
According to kelley blue book,
Trade-in value approx $12,000
Private sale value approx $14,000

I don't really care about the car's looks. Only its reliability and safety as I'll be driving my daughter around in it. I've seen a wide range of years and models for sale under $3000, but I don't know which models+years would be best to seek. While I'm passably handy, I'll be trusting a local mechanic to take care of it for me so I should not plan on long term savings by doing repairs myself.

Can you suggest good models and years to consider?

Thanks very much for helping me

[FCPEURO]

You can definitely get an older Volvo that is reliable. How old were you looking to go? Th most reliable Volvos I have ever owned were the number ones. I have had a 240, a 940, and an 850 and all of them were tanks. All of them had over 200K on them when I sold them and they were all still running beautifully.

[combhua]

I'm happy going back that far. I assume any creature comforts will be replaceable over time (e.g. radio, torn seats, etc). As I live in Texas, we rarely have any issues with rust and I'll have a selection of reasonable choices that are rust free.

It's very encouraging to hear specific models that will be reliable. Do you have any particular years to suggest? If I can keep it under $5000 after purchase, repairs and catch up maintenance, I'd be happy.

[Nuttydriver]

I can understand what your looking at doing as far as money goes. But I don't know if it's such a good idea considering your car is already payed off. With any used car it's hard to know what your actually getting until long after you already have it. With the car you have now you already know what you have and how well it's actually been taking care of. With that being said are you only looking to buy another Volvo or would you consider other makes as well? If your tight on cash even some of the older volvo's can be expensive to maintain when something breaks. You gotta consider the cost of parts and repairs on an older vehicle. Maybe someone on here can offer some good advice on some of the older volvo's as far as parts prices go, my 98 v70xc can be very expensive to repair. On the other hand I have an 81 chevette that is dirt cheap to maintain. It might end up being cheaper to just keep what you already have.

[Nuttydriver]

Another thing to consider is what if something major breaks and you can't fix the car that day? Do you have another car to drive? If not you might want to consider a beater car as well.

[jblackburn]

I'd say keep the 2007. A car that new is going to be (generally) less problematic than any Volvo with more years on it.

They become less and less reliable the older you go unless you go WAY back to the old brick ones.

[combhua]

How far back is that?

[jblackburn]

Any of the old red block 4-cylinders. 940, 240, 740 (meh).

1987-1993-ish are good years. I quite like the 940.

Though, honestly, having owned an older car known for their "reliability" (an 88 Honda), it was a piece of crap. I had it 3 years and sunk over $4500 worth of repairs into that thing.

If it's straight up reliability you're looking for, trade the S40 for a Camry - you can probably get an even trade for an 06-08 model.

[shiloh51933]

It sounds like you need some of the money from the sale of your S40. If you spend like 5 grand on a good S70 with low mileage you should be alright, obviously you'll need your mechanic to go threw the entire car B4 buying. If you go too cheap then your going to spend more dough on repairs. We all know spending more money doesn't mean something is better either. You have to find an owner who took great care of the vehicle with maintenance records if possible. I'd go as old as an 850 model, anything older is going to be real hard to find in good condition with low mileage. There's some Platinum edition 850 models out there that have been well kept with low mileage that I've seen for around 5 grand. Owners tend to take better care of limited edition models for some weird reason, maybe cause there really nice or something. If your not willing to go that high in price you can still find some decent 850 models for around 2500.00. Good Hunting.

[rspi]

I feel your pain. I recently sold my 960 and yellow 850 T-5R to get some $$$ and another car. I picked up the wagon I now have because of the deal I made on it.

The thing about most Volvos is that you can usually drive them into the ground. I mean drive them a lot with many problems. That being said, there is minimum maintenance that needs to be done to keep them on the road. I purchased this car with a bad transmission. I believe that I could have driven it for years with it like that but decided to get it fixed.

The real reliable Volvo tanks are the RWD cars. My experience is that the 960/S90's are the best kept because most of them were purchased by more mature people. I picked my last one up for $500, had a broken water pump and that was about it. Interior was like new. I did the timing belt, water pump, sealed the sunroof seal, installed tires and replaced a few light bulbs. If you would have had to pay for everything at a shop you would have shelled out between $800 - $1300. So for less than $2,000 you would have had a car that should have lasted 4 years easy. That one had 157,000 on it. The 960 I purchased before that one only had 53,000 miles on it when it was 11 years old. Volvo's flag ship car and I was getting 24/33 mpg with it on 93 octane.

I also had a 740 GLE that I put 405,000 miles on. Cost me but $175 in repairs per year. The 940 replceced that model. Got 24 mpg in it no matter how I drove it.

Don't get me wrong, I really like our S70 and 850, but they require a lot more maintenance being FWD and having that funky breather system. If you plan to pay for maintenance try to get a 960, bigger than you probably want, but you'll fall in love fast.