Planning to buy Volvo 240DL 1990 year 250000 miles
 

Hello Guys,

Thanks for allowing me to join this forum.
Am new to this forum, and am new to USA. Firs of all I fell in love with Volvo 240 the moment I have seen the car, so planning to buy one Volvo 240 DL, 1990 year make. 250,000 miles on it.
Could you please guide me guys How to know the condition of the car, I have seen couple of videos from your tube, but I thought should know from you guys before buying one.

Thanks in advance for taking time to read my post and providing your valuable inputs.

Thanks & regards
Vemula

same as any other car, inspect its physical condition, inside and out. look for signs of rust on the undercarriage. look for signs of water leakage in the interior, trunk. ideally, the car has service records, so you can verify its had its timing belt replaced in the last 60K miles, spark plugs in the last 30K, water pump in the last 120K, and oil changes every 5-7K miles. tires should have even wear, if they are worn out, figure $400-500 for a set of quality tires.

It should start easily on the first crank, idle smoothly. Test drive, make sure the car drives straight, no slop or vibrtations in the steering, no vibrations in the chassis, braking is smooth and strong without shudder or lurching, the transmission shifts smoothly through all gears. assuming its a automatic transmission with overdrive, when at highway speeds, say 45MPH or above, push the button on the shifter, and the yellow arrow should light on the dashboard, and the transmission should shift out of overdrive, so the RPMs will rise... push it again, the light should go out, and it should shift back into OD, with the rpms dropping. make sure the heater works once the car has warmed up, verify the A/C blows cold air if you're in a part of the country that gets hot in the summer (thats pretty much everywhere). check all the interior stuff, windows going up and down smoothly, seat adjustments working smoothly, door locks working.

if you're unfamiliar with cars in general and volvos specifically, you might find a reliable independent volvo mechanic in your area, and pay them to do a 'pre-purchase inspection', this will typically cost around $100 and take about an hour if they are thorough.

Hello Pierce,

Thanks for taking time and providing your valuable input and suggestions.
Will follow the above given instructions.

Once again thanks a ton.

thanks
Vemula

did I mention interior smells? if the inside of the car smells nasty, moldy or whatever, you'll never get rid of that.

Hello Pirece,

Thank you again, will make a note of it.

Thanks
Vemula

On a car of this vintage all I'd care about is body rust and cosmetics such as dash, seats, moldings, door panels, etc. The mechanicals are easy to do and correct, this drivetrain is bulletproof as long as it is basically healthy, no smoke, rod knock, etc. I personally don't care about records but after 50 yrs of this, you just know... Still, count on spending some $ on this and that regardless...

Does the car have a driver side airbag? To pass a safety inspection in VA, I had to fake the SRS light into thinking the airbag was fine by putting the proper resistor in the connector that would normally go into the air bag.

huh, i don't remember our 87 ever having any overheating issues, even in stop and go traffic when it was 100F out.

My 1990 never ran hot, but the AC didnt work so there's that.

Vemula, please be aware that this car is almost 30 years old and a lot of parts and systems are close to or past their expected service life. A common joke on here years ago was that these old Volvos are all $5000 cars. Sure , you may pick one up off craigslist for less than $1000; but you may have to put another $4k into it to make it a safe and reliable car. Of course, if you have the skills, tools and garage to do much of the work yourself, you can cut that amount in half or less.
Make sure that the previous owner has gotten the Safety certificate or Smog Test done and they have the certificate to prove it. Many times these cars are unloaded onto unsuspecting buyers because they won't pass Smog or Safety tests. Depends on your state.