98 S70 An Embarrassing Situation

Post by **rmmagow** » 25 Jun 2014, 08:44

I'm supposed to know about cars as I've got permanently stained fingers and drive to 200K at least on most of my cars. I bought a 98 S70 for my wife, 124K, seemed sort of OK runs very well. I was much to hasty, paid $2600 for it. The short story is the car is a POS big-time, broken exhaust manifold, collapsed driver's seat, rattly struts and shocks, an old timing belt and now a leaky rack. All fixable for roughly $2000.00 or so. It is an N/A and runs and shifts perfectly. I'm wanting to dump it and get her a nice S60 (or Audi A4). I posted on CL for $750.00, guy offers me $350.00 but I'm thinking a good NA motor and tranny should be worth more than that. Would these good mechanicals be worth something to a Volvo mechanic? I can actually junk the car for $375.00 and may do that but I hate to waste a good motor and transmission.
What do you think it's worth? I don't feel like fixing it.

nodeerforamonth · Post by **nodeerforamonth** » 25 Jun 2014, 09:38

I had a 98 S70 with the same array of issues with about the same mileage. I got $1000 for it with a blown head gasket a couple of years ago.

On a side note I also had a 2000 Audi A4 and even doing all the work myself it was a horrible money pit. I got it with around 100K on it and had nothing but problems with it. Nothing was ever an easy fix with this car, the parts are expensive and the electrical system maddening.

Post by **cn90** » 25 Jun 2014, 10:38

At 124K, it is young!

Spend another $1000 (struts, shocks, seat etc. etc.) and the car is new again...

Post by **rmmagow** » 25 Jun 2014, 10:58

Thanks for the info. I'm going to shoot the Audi idea. There's a small dealer near me sells just Volvos primarily. Good rep and a few 98 S70's in stock. On the expensive side but with a warranty for 60 days. I'm going to bite the bullet and get my wife a nice 98. She likes her Volvo and I can fix it as needed. On the plus side, the guy at the dealership said he may be interested in taking this car off my hands.

Post by **erikv11** » 25 Jun 2014, 11:32

Your ad price seems on target, I would expect there to be a buyer at that price. I suppose I might take 550 if I was in your shoes, with some wincing, but 350 is just too low.

Post by **rmmagow** » 25 Jun 2014, 11:51

Yeah, I haven't really tried very hard, no pics even. End of the driveway this weekend, $1200.00 on the sign I'm pretty sure it'll be gone by Monday. Hell, it runs and my wife drives it every day and it's even inspected for another 12 months or so.

Post by **850 LPT** » 25 Jun 2014, 11:55

Sorry, but I have to put in my 2 cents on this.

First off, I wouldn't call the S70 in question a POS at all. All the stuff you mentioned are common repair and maintenance items on these cars except for the collapsed seat maybe.

If it runs and shifts well as you say, and is cosmetically in good shape, you won half the battle. Question is: how long do you plan (or your wife) to keep this car? I would say, if you're in for the long haul, fix it and enjoy it.
The timing belt can wait until 140k, that's when it's due. You can probably find a good seat at a junkyard. Bite the bullet and fix everything else now.

Don't kid yourself, any of these cars is now 14 to 16 years old. I don't care who sells it and how good it looks like. And even if you have all the maintenance records, stuff is going to break, and yes, it will cost quite a bit of money to keep it in shape. It's a reality with these cars.

If this was a 5-speed, I would come get tomorow

Dirk

Post by **abscate** » 26 Jun 2014, 04:26

If it were a 5 speed, tomorrow would have been a day too late...

Post by **rmmagow** » 26 Jun 2014, 06:57

Actually the replacement 97 (an 850) I am looking at is a 5-speed and as far as I can tell it is pretty well sorted. The one I've got really isn't all that bad and if I find I can't get a reasonable amount for it, I will gradually fix it as a replacement for my son's Saturn when that bites the dust. My wife expressed an interest in learning to drive a 5-sp so I'll probably do that for her.