Hello Volvo friends,
I am sad to report that the timing belt on my 1998 Volvo V70XC Wagon broke the other day. I am even more disappointed to say that I recently (about a year but only a few thousand miles ago) spent $3200 at the dealer to redo the entire cooling system -- radiator, hoses, water pump, etc. I invested because the vehicle only had 150k original miles and I have owned it for 14 years. I was maintaining it/saving it for my son when he turns 16. Alas, the car is toast. The dealership changed ownership, so there is no one to take responsibility for not recommending a timing belt change when I did other work. Can anyone recommend the best way to handle this situation? Should I try and sell it for parts? Donate it? Try to find someone to put a used engine in it? I don't know what to do. Thanks for any advice!
Caroline

 

If it's in good condition otherwise, then a junkyard engine would probably be the best value option for saving it. If you are going to pay mechanics to work on it, though, I would not keep it. I don't think anybody should be trying to maintain a 20 year old european car using mechanics.

If finances were the only concern, then parting cars out is always the right answer. In fact you should buy 10 more and part them out too. However, that's hard work, and if you don't like to work on cars, I wouldn't do that either.