Hey folks, I have a question that I haven't been able to find an answer to just lurking in the forums so I thought I'd throw it out here.

I'm looking at Volvo wagons as a reasonably economical vehicle with pretty good gas mileage to use as a road trip/camping vehicle with some in town use. I have a motorcycle for commuting, so this isn't a daily driver, but I also don't need to commit to a full on E-350 mondo camper van either. I need a vehicle that will get me where I need to go without racking up huge gas bills, carry camping/climbing gear for two, and sleep two in the back when needed. I'm willing to (eager to, actually) remove rear seats and fab up a sleeping platform/storage compartments to facilitate this. I won't be doing any rock crawling in this thing, but it will be bounced down rutted dirt roads and driven through snow and up mountain passes regularly.

So, with that in mind, I'm looking at all Volvo wagons from the 245 through the 850 (850r really). I know the old red block RWD and later turbo FWD wagons are very different beasts, but I can imagine owning and enjoying either.

Which wagon do you think has the lowest operating costs?

I can do mechanical work myself, but there are still parts costs and service intervals to consider. The later wagons get better gas mileage, but require running premium gas. Etc. Lots of variables here, and I'm hoping that makes it a good question for this community to chew on.

Thanks!

 

Well, I answered part of my own question with a little math.

If I assume that the 245 gets 20 MPG (combined city/highway) and the 850 gets 22, but regular gas is selling for $3.80/gallon and premium is $4/gallon, than the 245 is cheaper to fill up despite it's worse gas mileage. These are back of the envelope calculations, of course, and there's huge variablity in terms of the gas mileage people get from their machines and the cost of gas from one city to another, but from what I'm seeing 850s aren't doing much better than 2 or 3 mpg better than 245s. Even if my estimates for each car's fuel economy are low, the difference between them should be pretty close.

I'm also feeling pretty confident that a RWD drivetrain will be less money in the long run than FWD simply based on complexity. So, I'd still love to hear other people's ideas, but it's looking like the old 245 is going to win this competition. More room for me to sleep in the back too, from what I've read, so that's another argument for it.

 

My red block 740 cost me $173 per year to run, excluding gas. Those 700/200 series cars are the lowest maintenance cars ever built.

I believe the 800/70 series cars will cost you about $70 per month just in parts. They are 2 totally different cars. If you can work on the car yourself, you'll really like the 800/70 series cars, get a turbo.

Welcome to the site.

 

Hey, thanks for the info. The practical side of me is leaning towards the 240, but I just found an 850r for a good price. Oh, 850r and your turbo whine siren song. I'll be working out some more numbers and posting them here, but, but...850r.

 

LOL, as long as you can and don't mind working on it monthly, a 850 R is a real fun car.

 

The white block does not require premium.