The first, last, and only Volvo I ever owned was a 740GLE wagon, automatic, '86 model, and I bought it off a friend who was having money trouble for $160. I got involved in some personal drama and never got around to fixing it up. It burned oil, wouldn't shift into overdrive, had several electrical gremlins preventing the use of things like the windows, the fan, and the radio, and although it looked great, I couldn't spend the time with it that it needed. The city impounded it before I could get around to working on it.

So anyway, I'm here because I found what I think may be a good deal on a used 850, and I want to soak up a ton of information on the car and common problems before I drop $800 and dive in headfirst.

The car is a white '93 850 sedan with 229K on it, non-turbo, automatic, cold air, runs and drives, passed state safety and emissions inspection, and it's missing the lower half of the front bumper. Tan leather interior all tore up, but very clean inside and out, and it's being sold by a curbstoner in Austin. But I don't mind all that, it's the condition of the car that ultimately counts.

So I'm off to go read stuff here, on turbobricks, and matthew's, and see what I can learn before I head down to check it out.

 

Welcome. Read through all the 850 posts to see what challenges you might face. Plenty of parts (seats, door panels, engine parts etc. on ebay and other sites.

 

Welcome to the club.

I've left 2 replies in the following thread that may be of some use for you:
https://volvoforums.com/forum/volvo-850-16/new-volvo-850-owners-read-important-thread-also-applies-s-v70s-9266/

Note, that the 93 model was unique and requires different parts as compared to later models, and the timing belt has to be changed at every 50,000 miles/5 years.

Generally speaking, the problems found in the 850s are common and I believe we have solutions to 90% of all troubles (unless the car has been involved in a collision(s) or the owner did some mysterious modifications)

Good luck,


JPN

 

Thank you JPN that thread is pretty comprehensive and helps deal with a lot of items I would expect to check out on a 229K mile car. As the seller is neither the previous owner nor a licensed dealer, I don't expect to get much in the way of service records but again it is an $800 car so my abilities during inspection/drive testing will be heavily taxed and will have to determine if the car is truly roadworthy or something he pieced together to resell for a quick profit.