Hello
A family member of mine was in a very bad car crash.I will not give any details of family members injuries because of legal issues.The crash involved a 2000 Ford windstar which is mine and it was hit by a honda sedan not sure what make.Now my windstar performed fairly well but it did not have side airbags.If my family member would have been hit in the side they surely would have been gravely injured or killed.I have doing research online and have seen that most volvos from 2000 on have standard side airbags.I work at Ford motor co and do almost all my own repairs on the ford and gm cars I own.The questions I have are

Are volvos hard cars to work on?
Are the parts more expensive than american built cars?
Are parts hard to get?
And what is the least expensive older volvo with side airbags?
Reason being I plan on replacing 4 cars and buying volvos because of their outstanding safety record.
I am looking at the s80 and the xc90 suv.Like I said I am going to buy used as I am not wealthy enough to afford 4 new cars!
Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

Hi and welcome to the forum.

Volvo began installing SIRS (side air bags) in 1995, I believe they were the first. This was in some Volvo 850's. In 1996 I believe all Volvo are equipped with them.

I believe the lowest maintenance Volvo since 1996 is the 960/S90. Try to avoid the '99 S80. The '01 - '03 cars were under the command of Ford and had issues, mainly with the transmissions. I would avoid them.

The cars are easy to work on in my opinion. I have a '95 850 with 263,000 miles on it and I'm about to embark on my 4th cross country road trip in it this year.

Part are pretty easy to obtain. If you get a 850 or x70 car, try to get one with a turbo, very fun to drive and has lots of standard features. Parts are reasonable when purchased from Volvo parts suppliers, usually online. I do not recommend buying aftermarket parts for these cars.

 

Thanks for the info.I am going to go with a xc90 because of carrying capacity and its a suv.