Here in California, 20 year old cars are often rust-free, but rare cars are still rare. In November 2015, I set Craigslist and Autotrader search alerts for a V70 T5M. Six months later, I finally found a clean example. I bought it for $2000, and I've had it for 2 weeks now. Here it is:
It's a one-owner car. I have a giant folder of receipts from the original owner, including every oil change for 201,000 miles. He replaced the timing belt on time, and it's clear that he took great care of the engine. The interior is well maintained, and there are no cracks in the leather.
But, it does need a few things...
1. The struts/shocks are worn out. There are no receipts for replacing these parts, and I wouldn't be surprised if it's running on all the original suspension parts. I have Bilstein shocks/struts sitting in my garage, and I will be installing these soon. I may do the front strut mounts and spring seats while I'm at it.
2. The cruise control wasn't working. Unlike the 1999+ cars, my 1998 V70 has the vacuum-actuated cruise control. It turned out that the cruise control pump under the battery and its vacuum line were both bad. I replaced these, and the cruise control works now. (It looks like it may have had a leaking battery at one time, because there is some corrosion under the battery tray, and the car has very little rust elsewhere.)
3. The power locks don't always go up and down. This is somewhat low priority for me, but I'm servicing the heat sensors in the locks in my spare time.
4. The clearcoat is peeling on the roof and hood. The black paint on the roof rails is peeling, too. I haven't decided what I'll do about this yet.
5. It came with aftermarket slotted rotors, and there is some vibration under hard braking. I serviced the front brakes with Zimmerman rotors and Volvo pads, and I plan to do the rear brakes soon.
Why am I putting money and effort into an 18 year old car?
Volvo doesn't sell manual V70's in the USA anymore, and they certainly don't sell the P80 body style now. I bought this car for way below my budget, and I've allocated a healthy amount of funds to maintenance. My wife and I do have other vehicles, but I really enjoy daily-driving the V70. And, using the V70 as a daily driver keeps me quite motivated to it in top condition.
In the stack of receipts from the original owner, I found a window sticker which says the MSRP was $37000 in 1998 dollars, or $54000 today. My plan is to treat this car as if I had just bought it for $54000 new.
