Just wondering what you all think is a fair price for a mint condition 1987 240 DL with 35000 miles. I can't seem to find an accurate valuation. Thanks.

 

any car that old with that low of a mileage, I would want a full history on it. was it in storage for a long time? if so, how much was done to restore it when it was brought out of storage, how many of those miles are recent? if its barely been driven the last 5+ years, then it likely needs a whole lot of restoration, new rubber bits all over under the hood, all fluids and filters flushed and replaced, put a few 1000 miles on it, and then do it again for good measure, etc etc.

the fair price is what the buyer will spend. wagons are often worth more than sedans. a very low mile 'time capsule' 240 wagon recently sold for $14000 on B-A-T (bringatrailer.com) but it had been gone through end to end and brought up to snuff so it was ready for immediate duty as a daily driver.

 

yes, as pierce has said there is a lot of good info and recent actual sales history here :

https://bringatrailer.com/volvo/240/

 

The public makes way too much of low miles since this is the one factor that appears to make a car "like new" than any other. A car showing 35k miles by itself means nothing. What counts always is the condition, and to a lesser extend the history; the history may be faked, even the miles especially on a 240 known for bad odometers. Even a true 35k car may be a POS if left outside rotting in a field with fluids never changed, rubber deteriorating, seals drying up etc. Even garaged, a car needs to be used regularly to be kept in good shape and not just started and idled but brought up to operating temperature and driven at least 30 minutes using all of its features. A quality brand car like a Volvo may be better with pampered 300k miles than a neglected 35k one. Too much is made of the engine condition of the Volvos but the Red Block with regular maintenance can go 500k easily--internal engine wear is minimal, indeed everything else can be falling off while the engine keeps chugging along unless overheated at some point. The 240 that just sold on BAT was not only well maintained but refurbished and somewhat upgraded. Is it worth $14k? Hard to say but where do you find cars like that? The rarity makes it possible to justify the price, besides, what can you buy for that amount that is comparable?
Bottom line about the question, what is a 35k 240 worth, no way to tell unless you can judge all other factors besides a meaningless "35K miles".

 

From my experience with low mileage cars they often require suspension work, steering lubrication, new rubbers, in fact I once had a Volvo 240 wagon with just 100k on the busted odometer, costed an extra $800 or so to get the suspension, water pump, and exhaust back into shape (and that was after skipping one of the front struts), thankfully the car was cheap. Still needed tires after all that too, and this car had records to go with it. Had a valve cover oil leak too, some electrical issues, and speaker trouble (some dum dum tried to install aftermarket stuff quite badly).

Mileage means more wear, but it also means that the car was used and more likely had maintenance done to it. I prefer to go for 150k stuff myself, but as Lev said condition is the most important factor.

As far as value goes though, I wouldnt pay more than $2500 myself. 1987 Is still thin rods iirc, weak AC system, no airbags, and as much as I like 240s I dont consider them collector cars other than the elusive 242/262 and Turbos.

 

the one thing about low mile cars that were stored in a garage, the interiors are generally near perfect.