Buying Advice

[dburbach85]

Hey guys, I've never owned an XC90 before, but I've always wanted to. I'm going to look at a 2007 3.2 AWD with 75k on it this weekend. Anything I should look for? How much should I budget for maintaining this car? Any other buying advice? I've stayed away from these for awhile because of the transmission issues, but those seem to have been ironed out aft 06 or so, but I could be wrong about that. Thanks!

[oragex]

Hi and welcome.

At 75k it's early for larger problems, but you may expect the normal wear items - endlinks, tie rods, spring seats and perhaps control arms to need attention. The 3.2 may also need by now a thermostat - a little expensive but this item likes to fail and overheat the engine, at 12 years old it is good to replace it. In the future, it is good to read about R.E.A.D (google), not very common but costly issue. May be good to have 1-2 spare ignition coils inside the trunk (no need to replace them all) with 1-2 wrenches to replace on the spot if these fail. We usually buy parts from sites like Fcpeuro, Ipdusa and look specifically for brands like Lemforder, Sachs, Bosch. Having 1-$2000/year on the side for the first years would be a wise thing, not necessarily it will need them but it also depends how the car was maintained until now.

One easy thing I like to do when looking to a car is to undo the oil filler cap (Engine off), and look underneath: it there's a thick layer of crud it may meant the oil wasn't changed timely on that car. Some oil varnish is normal, just not a thick dark crust.

[dburbach85]

Great advice, thank you!