Newly Grad looking for an old car.

[scot850]

All good advice, and I always say there is never a cheap old Volvo. Typically a poorly maintained Volvo will take $2-3000 to get to stage zero (fully operational and all servicing up to date). However, once there they often only need regular servicing like any other car. Age is what costs the most for repairs as things like rubber bushes and the like start to degrade.

If you have good junkyards in your area with lots of old Volvos of the type you plan to buy, then parts costs can be kept lower.

June makes a lot of good suggestions. FWD are generally cheaper to maintain, as are non-turbos. I bought a 2000 base Volvo V70 and then spent close to $3000 (CDN) on bringing it back. We don't have annual inspections of any sort here so people cheap out and just don't maintain their cars. If you live in an area with regular inspections for condition or emissions, then the costs to bring to stage zero may be reduced considerably.

I wish you luck with whatever you go to buy, and if it is a Volvo there are people here to give guidance.

Good Luck.

Neil.

[Richard99]

My advice is simple. If you meet one of two the following qualifications you can and should purchase a volvo:

Option 1: gainfully employed or with residual savings/passive income to afford about $5000 per year to spend on car maintenance that you can give to a mechanic.

Option 2: gainfully employed or with residual savings/passive income to afford about $2000 a year to spend on maintenance, but you have the ability, space, tools and desire to work on your own vehicle.

That's my experience with Volvo's.

100% agree with this.

[Richard99]

My advice is simple. If you meet one of two the following qualifications you can and should purchase a volvo:

Option 1: gainfully employed or with residual savings/passive income to afford about $5000 per year to spend on car maintenance that you can give to a mechanic.

Option 2: gainfully employed or with residual savings/passive income to afford about $2000 a year to spend on maintenance, but you have the ability, space, tools and desire to work on your own vehicle.

That's my experience with Volvo's.

100% agree with this.

I would like to add however, that this should, at least in theory diminish after a couple years.

[abscate]

Ive got about 7 years of maintenance experience on "Elizabeth' , my T5 in the maintenance thread. I have 99% of all repairs there, including the money I put in 2013 to repair the car from 140k deferred repairs - very representative of what one might buy today