Which older volvo do you recommend? [merged]

[scot850]

Not really. At least you don't have a prop-shaft and rear differential!

The 5 cylinder white blocks are pretty hardy if maintained. Just avoid the AWD's unless you are nuts like me and abscate!

Neil.

[volvolugnut]

In my opinion, FWD is more maintenance. You will have to replace front axles or at least CV joint boots sometime. I never had to do any rear axle work on my RWD Volvos. But I did some drive shaft work on them.
volvolugnut

[scot850]

June's new purchase to herself, now has me thinking especially when you see a car like this and at a great price:

https://www.kijiji.ca/v-cars-trucks/cal ... 1636046607

Not a turbo, but love that color and what an excellent survivor it is!

Neil.

[June]

SOme of the recommended cars are FWD. I have no experience with them. Is this an issue?

My experience with my 2004 S80 FWD 12/2003-3/2016 0 miles to 110K no extra repairs needed. So 12 years 100K on a FWD Volvo is the low cost safety zone, beyond that prepare yourself to replace the entire front suspension, both axles, and all the engine/transmission mounts. Sagging mounts cause vibrations and premature CV joint failure. FWD naturally puts more torque on things like control arm bushings. Control arms are gone every 100K. Or so. My car got a pair at 110K along with both axles then again just shy of 220K. At both those replacements I had been long having pops, bangs, and increasingly hard to keep steady on the interstate symptoms.

Also be prepared for expensive strange cooling hoses in nightmare locations such as the oil cooler mounted to the oil pan, turbos, even the heater hoses are not simple. God forbid you buy a model with the octopus radiator hose,,, even the PCV hose assembly has a coolant hose bundled in it. Past 130K you play Leakey hose bingo. By 150K both radiator and heater core will be leaking or getting ready. Past 200K any FWD auto transmission is on borrowed time. Sure it might make 300K before it completely dies. You will find no shortage of posts on here about all the annoying symptoms including bandaid fixes for these transmissions. Everyone will break their fingers touting only the T6 has "bad transmissions". The correct term is transaxle since the differential is incorporated with the transmission. My T6 transmission gave no trouble during its lifetime. Actually around 160K the engine rear main seal ruptured. It seemed stupid to put a 160K 16 year old transmission back in as it was removed. I opted to install a replacement Volvo unit which came with a lifetime warranty parts and labor. I had already payed the labor so it made sense to me to spend the extra money.

Those who warned you away from AWD are correct as it's lots of extra money out of warranty, with extra needs like perfectly matched sets of tires. Ie 20K on a set of tires and one goes to a road hazard, all 4 must be replaced together or the new tire must be shaved down to match the remaining 3 tires. I had a 1998 V70 AWD new. Had it not been under warranty my whole time of ownership I would have spent a fortune. Supposedly the newest computer control AWD system is more robust. Personally I'll pass on AWD.

Recently I purchased a 31 year old 190K 740 Turbo. I preemptively replaced all 5 tires, transmission mount, carrier bearing + mount on the drive shaft, and coolant. All that cost me around $1,000. Yesterday I changed the thermostat myself in 5 minutes. I can't even see the thermostat housing on my S80... a couple more bucks spent. I have put a little over 4K on this car without any issues except the thermostat not closing properly and removing the resonator due to rattling. The muffler system was completely original. Replacing from cat to the rear muffler cost me $220. That's been it. Absolutely everything works properly.

In my opinion any Volvo is better than anything else. Go find a clean well maintained example of any model that interests you. Have you found parts hard to find for your 240? I just was wondering why you don't want another 240? June

[msloan]

Thank you very much for that detailed post. It is not that I don't want another 240. It is just that decent examples are rather rare where I live. I'd prefer a wagon for my second (older) one. And I did not want to limit my choices through my ignorance of other models. And I admit to complete ignorance.
The only real issue with my 240 was the amount of rust in the floors, wheel wells, and one spot on the frame. All of the other repairs have been simpler. I strongly suspect that my 2011 xc70 is NOT going to last as long as my 1992. So I'm planning ahead. I need an automatic (my wife is not keen on manual transmissions) and a car that mechanically matches my shade-tree mechanical abilities.

[Sveedy]

Well like most of my age, I come from the RWD world. The first time I popped the hood on the FWD Volvo, I was a bit perplexed. But once you get your head around how they are set up, I can honestly say that they are a very easy car to work on. This being a '96, it doesn't have too many electronic gizmos to deal with, which helps. Plenty of clearance for big hands, mostly. By the time I had done all of the basic maintenance, I felt comfortable with the engine sitting sideways.
Still, I think a RWD 5cyl. turbo 850 would have been a cool car to have made.

[volvolugnut]

Still, I think a RWD 5cyl. turbo 850 would have been a cool car to have made.

Yup. With a manual.
volvolugnut

[scot850]

850 AWD with front drive axle shafts removed?

Neil.

[June]

Why not swap the 6 for a 5 in a 960? June

[scot850]

So a S80 AWD, or if you want one a P3 2015-6 XC70 T5?

I have considered the former a couple of times but with 2 large dogs they are not ideal.

Neil.