2000 V70R parts car - worth buying and fixing up? Topic is solved

[eee]

Are you sure you are getting a title?

Selling for under $500 makes no sense, it is worth more parted out.

The owner has sent me a photo of the permit (permit = Canadian title) and it's legit, not a salvage or anything. Still going to make sure everything is good when I see it in person. He wants 750CAD for it, and I'm hoping I can get that down. The thing is sitting on his driveway in a nice neighbourhood, I wouldn't be surprised if he lowers the price just to get rid of it.

[eee]

So I've talked to the seller and learned more about the car. The front brakes have been taken off, so it's missing rotors, pads, calipers, caliper brackets etc. Original rims are gone and it's currently sitting on some ugly steelies. The car also has a "new" motor with ~150,000km on it. The car has some rust on the passenger rear wheel well, which seems quite uncommon on Volvos and might be a bad omen for what lurks on the underbody.

I'm going to take a look at the car in person, but I'm growing more skeptical of the feasibility of the project. I wrote up a quick cost estimate, in rough order of priority, which I've put below. It basically boils down to the costs of restoration massively outweighing the cost of the car, so getting him to drop the price really doesn't matter since the car is in a poor state to begin with. Getting the car to stage 0+ will cost at least 4000CAD, even if I use salvage/used parts where possible. It just seems foolish to drop that kind of money on a car with a 340,000km body.

I think that I'd be better off waiting for a more expensive but more complete example to pop up on the market rather than spending tons of money working on this. The shame is that V70Rs, especially P80s, are very rare in Ontario and importing from the USA is a hassle.

Let me know what you guys think.

Code: Select all

| Item                                      | Cost |
|-------------------------------------------+------|
| Car                                       |  750 |
| DICE dongle                               |  100 |
| Used K24 Turbo                            |  300 |
| Turbo rebuild kit                         |   50 |
| Tune for new turbo                        |  800 |
| Used wheels                               |  400 |
| Front brake rotors and pads               |  300 |
| Front brake calipers and brackets (302mm) |  500 |
| Air/oil filters                           |   50 |
| Spark plugs                               |   60 |
| Timing belt, tensioner, water pump        |  150 |
| Front suspension refresh                  |  800 |
| Driveshaft                                |  500 |
| Used M66 transmission                     |  600 |
|-------------------------------------------+------|
| Total                                     | 5360 |

[abscate]

You can’t make one of these cars worth more than cost of repairs, parts are too expensive. Search Neils posts for his saga of his 2000R and NO longer available R parts.

Getting a tune on a 2000requires a remarried ECU as the electronics on ME7 cars are much more integrated than -1998 models.

If you go for this, leave the turbo and tune off until you get to Stage 0

[FLXC90]

Did you verify that the "NEW" engine is the right one? The VR 2.4 was a one-year one-model engine, right?
How about hoarding parts and building a 99-2000 AWD or AWD SE up?

[scot850]

If it is the correct engine it should be a B5244T2. But that may be hard to tell if someone swapped the timing belt cover for the original. You could confirm if the data on the timing belt cover is not the original engine # with a dealer from the Vin#. They may also be able to tell you from the engine # what it is.

Neil.

[j-dawg]

not worth it. if you're going to run it as an FWD automatic, start with a working T5, and spend the time and money on making it faster instead of making it a working car.

I've always thought the Rs are a little overrated. given how many of them are FWD by now, there's not much advantage over the T5 besides the seats, and you get all the problems of the AWD rear subframe with none of the benefit.

[scot850]

+ 1 j-dawg. As the long suffering owner of an 'R' I can attest to that. Mind you probably won't by another P80 as around here folks run them into the ground and sell them. Then even FWD are too expensive to bring back. If you live somewhere where there are annual testing then that is a different viewpoint.

Neil.

[callahanoffroad]

personally, I wouldn't touch that with a ten foot pole.

There are so many great cars that come up for sale if you're willing to fly and drive. There's a pretty good condition 1998 Turbo V70 with a manual transmission in the classifieds right now. I don't know what it takes to bring a car from the US to Canada but that may be a better bet if importing is as simple and driving it across the border. Just a thought.

[eee]

Yep, went and saw that car today and it's definitely more trouble than it's worth. You'd basically have to rebuild the car top to bottom and do a lot of body work to get it in good shape. Only worth using it as a parts car, so I politely declined.

not worth it. if you're going to run it as an FWD automatic, start with a working T5, and spend the time and money on making it faster instead of making it a working car.

I've always thought the Rs are a little overrated. given how many of them are FWD by now, there's not much advantage over the T5 besides the seats, and you get all the problems of the AWD rear subframe with none of the benefit.

Yeah, I've come to the same conclusion with the help of you guys. What you suggested is definitely the better approach. Only problem is that P80s are few and far between up here in Canada.

+ 1 j-dawg. As the long suffering owner of an 'R' I can attest to that. Mind you probably won't by another P80 as around here folks run them into the ground and sell them. Then even FWD are too expensive to bring back. If you live somewhere where there are annual testing then that is a different viewpoint.

Neil.

Thanks Neil for telling me about the subframe rust issue, it was the first thing I looked for and what I saw wasn't pretty. Without your advice I would never have thought to look.

personally, I wouldn't touch that with a ten foot pole.

There are so many great cars that come up for sale if you're willing to fly and drive. There's a pretty good condition 1998 Turbo V70 with a manual transmission in the classifieds right now. I don't know what it takes to bring a car from the US to Canada but that may be a better bet if importing is as simple and driving it across the border. Just a thought.

Have you got a link? I checked the MVS classifieds and couldn't find it. It's not too hard to import into Canada if it's old and cheap.
Edit: I think I found the car you were talking about, the 2000USD V70 in Mountain View.
Edit2: Only '03 and newer Volvos are admissible for import into Canada.

[tryingbe]

I think that I'd be better off waiting for a more expensive but more complete example to pop up on the market rather than spending tons of money working on this.

Yup, almost always true.

I was a little surprised I made $$ on this.

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