'03 V70 T5 Is this car worth taking a look?

[dosbricks]

Hey all, I'm marginally interested in this vehicle and will be in Houston at the end of the week. It happens to be located in an area of the city on a hwy. which I will be traveling anyway and near my destination. So if it is still available Sunday, I will enlist my BIL and we will give it the twice over. At 150k it probably needs all the stuff I just finished doing to both our cars and more, so I'm not fixating on this--just curious. Interestingly, the drivers seat looks nearly new.
http://houston.craigslist.org/cto/4674060072.html

So three questions:
Was the Magnetti Marrelli ETM debacle corrected by 2003?
What should I look for so as not to get burned on a turbo car?
And is this a fair price for a 11y.o. T5?

[j-dawg]

look for oil smoke out of the exhaust on hard acceleration to assess turbo health. also look for excessive oil dripping around the turbo itself.

ETM problems were cured by 2002.

[JRL]

You're in the wrong forum, go to the 01-07 forum (below this forum) and you may get more responses.
Price is about right for the miles in fact it may be a bit cheap so be careful.

From the (poor) pictures it looks clean and loaded
There are too many things to list to look for (do some research) but if it seems to drive well, have a VOLVO mechanic go over it first.

Drive it for at least 30-40 minutes, get it HOT and see if it shifts as well hot as it does cold.
Any weird clunks, shift flares or bangs, up or downshifts, walk away
Pull the dipstick and see if it's smoking at all out of it.
if it is, it needs a complete breather system.
Ask the seller if it has service records

[precopster]

On turbo cars the throttle was sorted by 2002 with the Bosch system.

[timmybdaddyof3]

x2 to all above, but i would also ask the owner to allow you to cold start it and listen for anything odd (depending on how long its sat cold a little lifter noise is okay. Then drive it nicely till it warms up, once its at temp find a freeway on-ramp where you stop on the shoulder, have you BIL watch out the back window while you put the hammer down and run up to about 75, there should be no smoke, and it should shift firm and solid, as you drive back vary your throttle inputs and make sure things are still as smooth as when you started.

My money is on both front seats being recovered...could be the pictures, but on the ones of just the drivers seat the grain doesn't look right, and the one from the rear left door even accounting for the shadows the fronts don't look the same color shade as the rears

[timmybdaddyof3]

I also think he is a silent car flipper....Google the phone number and it is primarily architectural crap, but there are several hits for various vehicles on other venues
Not saying bad, but when you ask about history if there are no receipts I would be thinking BS

The more I look at it I am thinking repo auction flip - see what the story is, then check the title issue date and see if it lines up

[matthew1]

I flag flippers if I know they are that, and they post in For Sale by Owner in CL. I too Google their phone numbers on occasion.

A big tip-off is missing license plates.

[dosbricks]

Thanks guys, I posted in this forum because you know my handle and I know your creds. After I posted, I too noticed it had no plate on front but appears to have one on rear, which could be Oklahoma, but out-of-state is not good either. I might take it for a spin just to get the T5 experience and wasting the time of a flipper that lists under FSBO is not something I would feel too bad about.

A Carfax is always nice because you can spot a hurricane flooded car because it will have sat somewhere for 6-8 months with title unregistered, then shipped across country.

Thanks for all your insights. I will print out the above and file it in a "car browsing" folder.

dos

[jreed]

When I pasted the ad contact phone number into google (https://www.google.com/search?q=8326773954) , the third result in the list shows that number is associated with a dealer:

Motor Vehicle Dealers List - STEVEN CRISTO - TxDMV.GOV
http://www.txdmv.gov/dealers-portal/mot ... -r-gay-inc
MAILING ADDRESS 2. MAIL CITY, SUGAR LAND. MAIL STATE, TX. MAIL ZIP CODE, 77478-5410. PHONE, 8326773954. LICENSE TYPE, MOTOR VEHICLE.

[rmmagow]

In RI this would be called "curbstoning" (I think that's the term) and is illegal for a dealer to sell like that.