so im in need of a car and my girl friends uncle stopped using his 2006 volvo s60 bc he wanted a car with more room so he bought a subaru and he knows im in need of a car so hes offering me his for $800
but the issue is it needs 1 part thats around $70 and easy to fix but it also has 310,000 milles theres not like a inch of rust on it it ran and drove half decent it just needs the part and im only trying to look for a car that will last at least 1-2 years anyways would this be worth it? hes been on top of everything has a book with all the recepts of what he has done to it.. im in need of a car but worried this might only last like 6 months or something
the only issue is it needs a exhaust valve soilnoid or what not oil has been changed on time every time

 

as with any used car, there will be repairs/maintenance items.so the question is how much of the work do you expect to do yourself? I don't see a reason why the car would suddenly die after 6 months unless there's symptoms going on. My advise would be to do or pay for a full inspection and review the maintenance history. Things like 1) when was the timing belt last done? 110K/10 years is the interval including the tensioner. 2) is the PCV in good shape? try a rubber glove test or have a shop measure crankcase presssure 3) what is the compression like? 150 PSI for a turbo, 180 for NAs are the "target" but cars can run ok with say a 10% loss. Look for consistency. 4) How are the mechanicals? Any worn suspension bushings/oil leaks from shocks? Brakes etc ok? 5) what are the conditions for all the fluids? any change history? Start with the transmission fluid - black or burnt smell? any signs of shift flares or slippage? 6) Any sludge in the coolant - is it a green or blue color or murky with red/brown?

Finally, what will you be doing with the car? short local trips to a job or school? Long highway cruising or in city driving? Can you afford downtime time to do repairs? I think the $800 is a fair price, and considering you probably have a CEL for the VVT solenoid, you may want to factor another $600-800 in the cost to replace the solenoid ($150 for the part) or you may need a VVT gear ($200 which can be done as part of a timing belt job).

 

I agree with making the decision about if you have long or short distance trips. The price is low risk, worst case scenario you sell it for parts/scrap metal and someone will pick it up and give you 500 cash and tow it. Hey, if you get 6 months out of that it would be cheaper than using uber right? Plus you would get back 500 from probably some junkyard so that is 300 for several months of transportation.

first thing I would make sure the brakes and tires are ok, safety is first. then if you want to take it a step further put some good synthetic oil in it.
maybe this:
https://www.searchforparts.com/oil-c...-b5244t5-turbo

My engine in another older vehicle seized and it had a book value of around 3500 and the engine was a loss. I put an ad on craigslist and I got tons of calls, someone picked it up for junk metal/parts and paid me 1000 and towed it, a bunch of other calls would offer 500. So the low risk aspect/wont break the bank aspect is a plus at that price!

good luck!