2004 V70 R w/Atacama - value case study POLL - what's it worth?

[matthew1]

My first reaction:

Completely normal, late-life 2004 V70R that needs the usual amount of work. But the curveball is Atacama. Interesting sample here.

2004-v70-r-atacama.jpg

Seller's Description
2004 Volvo V70R · Wagon · Driven 130,775 miles

So I got this ‘04 VR end of last year thinking it would be the perfect big man on campus car. It totally is, however, i am in college and cant afford the maintenance. This post is more of an interest check/ is this a fair price point to ask for this car?
I’ll start with the cons:
May very well need new angle gear (I do not have VIDA/DICE)
Has surface rust on driver side rear fender arch (photo will come later today)
Small dents in various places around the car (all less than 1mm in depth)
Needs alignment (tie rods inner and outer rusted to shit, needs new tie rods)
Head unit dials are loose (the steering mounted controls all work)
Headlight wipers are temperamental
Small exhaust leak coming from directly

Pros:
Atacama interior in good condition (will have photos later, no tears in any seat, no seam splits, driver and passenger seat could use a little love in places but the interior is solid)
Recent oil change (700 miles ago)
Brand new All Season Kumho Ecsta pa/51 (700 miles on them)

82003190_1399856393530648_6455820386918465536_n.jpg

81861539_1399856403530647_4781084712607154176_n.jpg

81676940_1399856420197312_2361623158236119040_n.jpg

Then

Then he posted these:

82128308_1399981923518095_4354624344496799744_n.jpg

82092017_1399982003518087_4324692635806597120_n.jpg

And I said

Just saw the closeups you posted... ouch... those make put it outside (below) the normal V70 R pool of available cars. I'd say it's worth the value of the Atacama + $500-1000.

It's halfway to a parts car.

[abscate]

Wait until he finds out those temp tags arent legal in NY.

I think this is a total flip attempt.

Get the VIN and I bet he bought it a auction.

[oragex]

That fender rust - accident damage repaired with low cost parts - not the best thing. I would closely inspect the chassis on that side and drive behind the car see if it's drives 'sideways' which would main a severe rear geometry problem. I'd make sure all check lights come on with the key in POS II. As matthew says, the guy is pretty honest about it, but it looks a little like a car near the end of its life.

[- Pete -]

I never saw mention of the trans. I’d assume for that asking price/location it’s Aisin.

As Oragex said, it doesn’t look very good overall, but I honestly don’t think it is end of life. Hard to tell from just 3 pictures.

There’s a lot of really easy/cheap/free fixes on it & just as many labor intensive/part hungry fixes.

Atacama is a neat interior, but it won’t sell me on a car that has a high price tag & needs a lot of work. If it wasn’t rusty, didn’t need an angle gear, & was a 6speed auto but still had all the other issues needing to be dealt with, I’d cough up $4k. I’d need to do compression/leak down on it first though.

[oragex]

Same here, Atacama was a great color but somehow of an unicorn: you either like it or not. Makes me think of the red wine BMW interiors

[abscate]

Don’t forget it needs 4C on all four corners.

I wonder how the Al rear sub axle frame is?

[- Pete -]

Don’t forget it needs 4C on all four corners.

You must be able to see the actual listing I'm guessing. Yeah 4x 4C would really scare a lot of people away. They handle really turd-like even if just the rears are blown out. The shocks really don't seem to have a very long life span. Looking through the paperwork on mine, it shows that all 4 4C were replaced (2 times for fronts, once for the rears) prior to me acquiring it at 141k miles. I also replaced all 4 shortly after buying it. Hardest part was paying for the shocks, closely seconded by unplugging the old right rear shock electrical connector & plugging in the new one. Oophta.

I wonder how the Al rear sub axle frame is?

What's that you're onto there? Was there a steel weldment-type rear subframe in some P2's? All I've seen have been the cast Aluminium looking subframes, all have looked fine except for the trailing arm bushings, all of which look identically cracked. I have a little pile of new ones waiting to be installed, just need to rig up a press-type tool & do it. I'm definitely not gonna remove the subframe to replace bushings.

I'm kinda thinking along these lines.

[RickHaleParker]

Perhaps the question should be: How much is the interior worth?