Hey guys new to the site and am going to be in the market for a new to me commuter car. I have always loved the look of the Volvo especially the wagons. I am looking to find a decent used 850R or v70r possibly even xc70 all with the awd due to living in the PNW but my concern is the transmission. I see so many nicer low mile Volvo with bad transmissions .....? Can anyone shed some light on which years are best for reliability and or what to look for when trying to purchase a used Volvo I’m fairly mechanical however never wrenched on a Volvo so this will all new experience for me . Thanks in advance for your help!!

 

If I were to go AWD, I'd look at 2005+ years. The 850Rs are basically an 850T with some body trim and a slighty stronger ECU tune so its a very maintainable car with good parts supply. V70Rs and 850Rs are more rare than the T5s and you can always add a mild tune to a T5 to get the same performance. With that said, it comes down to your budget and finding a well maintained car. Each year newer, cars get more reliable. Sure there's the usual problem areas (ie the 00s started getting electronic throttle bodies and more was added to the CEM which can burn out relays etc) but all around the build quality improves with each year.

 

I guess I should have added that to the equation I’m being super cheap lol... I just recently got my family debt free other then house payment of course lol. I am looking to spend no more then $3500-4K I no that’s not much but I wanna spend cash only knowing what ever I buy may need some attention tires etc etc etc. I will keep an eye out up here I’m near Seattle and awd cars are insane here just because they say AWD lol

 

Don't understand your focus on AWD - aren't you in a (very) wet but relatively mild climate (assuming you're not commuting from half-way up a mountain) I'm in Baltimore - we get a little snow and ice but nothing that my FWD Volvos (2003 V70, 2009 V70, 2016 V60) were not/cannot handle assuming decent tires.

Disclaimer: I grew up in upper New York state, went to school in western Mass and lived for 14 tears in Chicago and northern Indiana so my view of bad weather driving might be slanted.

 

We live 20 min out of the main town and our roads can get very sketchy at best for a few weeks a year and ice is the biggest issue we will have 3-5inches of ice for weeks at a time due to the snow and then 80mph winds that follow with sub 30 degree days the snow plows cannot always make it to our roads at times so awd with some good snow tires are a must to even get me to work.

 

I don't think you can generalize which year is best and buy certain year. It should be case by case. There are good cars in bad year and bad cars in good year. It's best to test drive it yourself, feel how the transmission shifts. open the engine hood and check engine noise to see if there's anything unusual, check if there's any service light on.. Main focus should be to make sure no major engine and transmission problems because those two are the most expensive to fix. High mileage car with new model year is a good idea. 7 years old is a good number.: materials are relative new and car is tested because it's been driven for so long. It wouldn't last that long if there were big initial problems.
I bought a 2012 XC60 3.2 AWD with almost 20,0000 KM 5 months ago and no major problem.I test drove it for 10 minutes and bought it right away. I am not a mechanic but use logical thinking. Minor problems that I didn't find out during test drive but fixed after purchase at small cost: missing 12V socket fuse, broken side mirror heating element. Empty AC refrigerant, PRND shifting vibrations, sluggish transmission shift. I had a hunch it just needs to change the ATF.
The transmission fluid was never changed and dark in colour. There's a slight delay shifting when accelerate(like fraction of a secs) I extracted and refilled about 70% with new transmission oil and now it shifts like new car. I also asked mechanic to change the serpentine belt, water pump, belt tensioner. The belt tensioner almost seized so it just in time. Water pump still looks very good but changed just in case.
I DIY changed the main left and right engine mounts, brake fluid, differential/transfer case oils.It uses timing chain so no need to change timing belt.. The car is now super smooth. The car was very neglected by previous owner. The engine bay was full of dust and tree leaves. I think the previous owner only did oil change. It surprised me that it lasted 200k KM. New model year with high mileage is better than old model year with low mileage. Car is meant to be driven.

This high mileage XC60 cost slightly cheaper than a low mileage Tucson with similar year but I get better material. It's much safer in crash rating. I bought Volvo mainly for safety.

 

I kind of backed into 850's about 5 years ago, and bought 7 of them for $500 each. You really can't do that now.

As you've probably learned here, they are very durable and very maintainable. But, they are old and they're going to be high mileage. It will just vary what you find out there in your local market. I would say read the 850 new owners thread. The death of these things is the head gasket and timing belt failure. I personally don't see a lot of transmission issues with them, but they don't last forever. Everything else is super easy to fix. Since they're oh-so-exotic you can easily find one that somebody parked because it needed a $50 repair and nobody would work on it. They are so easy to work on.

That is, if you're into that sort of thing like I am. Congratulations on becoming debt free.

Full disclosure - I got rid of all mine, thank goodness, and just kept a 1998 T-5 5 speed. I am going to keep it until either it dies or I die. It has about 162k miles on it.

I advise you to completely avoid the volvo AWD at all costs. Avoid it. It's unwise for cheap guys like us to consider maintaining it. Just a bunch of frustration for nothing.

 

P.S. I should elucidate my hatred of AWD. Volvo chose not to have any toque splitting between the front and rear. They used a power takeoff from the front final drive, which if you search this forum, you will find was quite unreliable, but it's manageable. They then used a shaft to send power to the back, and the back could decide what to do with that power. The shaft is unmaintainable. The stuff in the back of the car is controlled by a computer that won't talk to your code reader and all that fun. Later ones run on CAN after it became available.

If you could get a Canadian 1997 850 AWD that would be okay. This is the 850 (not available USA, all manual transmisions)
These had low tech AWD, but then on the other hand it's a one-year product with lots of unique parts, etc.

The later ones are all Haldex and I just don't want to live with that in its old age. If you find one that is working perfectly then fine, just don't have long term expectations. The haldex uses a clutch pack in place of the viscous coupling, and then they had a bunch of other components that had to apply that clutch. Since there's no torque splitting, you can see that you can't get AWD during normal driving. It would just generate too much heat.
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