I recently came across a 2004 V70 2.5t with really high miles (193,000). I looked at it anyway, took it for a drive, and kind of fell in love. It's really clean inside and out and has had reasonable service and maintenance, so I decided to have my local Volvo mechanic look at it. He was also really amazed with the shape of the vehicle and commented that it was more like vehicles with a third of the miles shown. The big thing he recommended was a timing belt job as some oil was present from the cam seals; but found very little else requiring immediate attention. Drives, accelerates, and shifts very well. Obviously I am sold, but wanted to know if there is anything in particular I should look out for on this vehicle; or if I should run away altogether. We'd be trading a 2002 Dodge Caravan in on this (about 80,000 on the clock); that's actually treated us very well - but both my wife and I would like something other than a minivan. This Volvo is at a dealer, and we're looking at paying about $2200 with our trade-in to get it; (was $2700 but they are knocking $500 off for the timing belt job). Any input appreciated - Thanks!

 

Your initial reaction of it appearing to be in fantastic condition is to be trusted, especially as it has been confirmed by your mechanic. More frequently, my problem with buying cars is allowing myself to ignore the big picture that is told by numerous little problems that are obvious during inspection. It's the curse of the DIY - thinking "I can fix this...and this...and this. At some point, you need to say "I _could_ fix this, but it's obvious during my cursory inspeciton - why didn't the PO fix it, and what else is hiding underneath the surface?"

In your case, the one problem noted by the mechanic sounds like one that would not be obvious or noticeable without lossening or removing the timing belt cover to inspect. If that's the only issue, and you really like the car, go for it! There's never a guarantee that you won't have problems with a vehicle, but this one appears to have been well cared for. Either that or the dealer did a lot of work on it, but normally they don't have the budget to make a real problem car into a gem, as that's just not economically feasible if their plan is to ultimately sell it.

 

If there's oil on the belt, make sure the leak is fixed. Of the cam seals are leaking, replace them and check to make sure the PCV isn't clogged so you don't blow out the new ones.

 

Thanks much for the replies. Couple of responses in a different forum also mentioned the PCV, so I'll definitely follow up on that. The carfax shows pretty consistent maintenance (the biggest gap I can see is 8 months); and it looks like all fluids (except transmission) were changed; motor mounts, control arm bushings, and turbo oil line seals replaced at 125k. Getting a bit complicated now as my wife is not sure if she wants this V70 after all; but I'm still really hooked. May look into trading my 2001 S60 (has less miles, 130K) against it to see where that gets us. I've been real pleased with my S60 - but I just loved the 2000 S70 I had before it; and this wagon reminds me a lot of that.