Hey everyone,

I need some advice. I am a Saab guy but I love Volvos too. I have a car back in Massachusetts and I am at school here in the West coast and I may have come across a good deal. I think the Volvo 240's hold their value well so I want to see if knowledgeable people think it is a good buy!

What I know:

1981 Volvo 240 with Manual 4-speed.
$1500
Claims to be well cared for

The guy is getting rid of it because he has too many cars. It was originally for his son, but his son got his own car so now it doesn't need this. This is true because I saw the ad by his posting of the ad on the University Facebook group.

He has replaced the Battery and all four Struts.

He bought it four years ago from his trusted mechanic. It has a "Rebuilt" title, not a Salvage title. It's "Rebuilt" because I guess it was backed into at some point by a high vehicle which hit the top of the C pillars from behind. This has been all fixed and everything, no frame damage, you can just tell by the slight different color of the respray. The owner has driven it four years without issues, had put 20,000 miles on it bringing it to a total of 197,000 miles.

At some point the transmission had a leak from the seals. They spent 400$ to replace the rubber seals and now it does not leak.

He said the exhaust does not smoke, and it consume any oil. In the time he owned it he changed oil every 3,000 miles.

The car does not have a stereo in it. Not a big deal but worth mentioning.

I am going to be calling his mechanic tomorrow to get more info about it and what the mechanic has done to it. The guy was nice so far and is willing to drive it 2.5 hours to me. I talked to his son who is knowledgeable about Volvo 240's and he seemed really confident about the car. He said it drives and shifts very smooth and a lot of common 240 problems like the power locks and the electric overdrive work flawlessly.

The only thing he could think that is currently wrong with it is that on one of the blinker housings it's mount is loose so he rigged it on there, but it works. This is cosmetic and didn't worry me, I could epoxy it on if I needed. The other thing he said is that the last couple times he opened the hood it was a little hard to pull the release cable. I talked to the son, and he said at some point the car had some little timing quirk that hasn't resurfaced for a couple years.

I have the three pictures he included. I don't have a car right now over here, but I live in the city. I want to buy this car if it's a good deal because I will probably eventually need a car and I think that these 240's are rare and sought after enough that I could recoup my money without much difficulty.

Your thoughts? Thanks!!
Nils


ADDITIONAL INFO:

Apparently the interior is in very excellent condition despite it being old, except that the white headliner is a bit dirty.

 

$1500 for a running wagon is hard to beat, if its not a total trashpit.

OTOH, 1981 is *old*, that car is probably K-Jet (CIS) rather than LH (EFI), not many mechanics anymore know how to work on K-Jet systems. I do believe I'd be tracking down this guys mechanic if you buy tihs car, and using him for service

btw, on a wagon, the rear pillars are the "D" pillars. A pillars are by the windshield, B pillars between the front and rear doors, C pillars behind the back door, and D pillars at hte back of a wagon. no big deal, just thought you should know.

not sure I'd want to epoxy a turn signal unless there's still a way to change the bulbs. I'd be more likely to use bailing wire from behind to secure it, and RTV/Silicone if it needed some glue to keep it from flopping.

 

"Rebuilt" is the same as "salvage"! First it gets declared Salvage, i.e. costs more to repair than the car is worth, then someone buys it and rebuilds it cheaply, passes a rudimentary "brake and light" inspection, and the car is back on the road. That said, with today's high costs, it takes very little to salvage a $1,000 Volvo which could be perfectly serviceable in spite of the scarlet Salvage on its title.

Hard to tell by the pictures but a car in this price range, hard to look for too many faults... If it runs and drives, etc, and if you like it, and if you need it, what else is there?

 

Thanks for the responses so far. Yes, my bad, it is the D-pillars that were hit. Didn't realize Rebuilt title was the same as Salvage, but it makes sense. The son sounded very knowledgable, and was very adamant that the accident was just to the top of the car and that the car's frame is not bent. He seems to have owned a few 240's as it's a passion of his and he was pretty confident that the car I am interested is a good running car. Again, tomorrow I will be calling the mechanic to hopefully get a better idea on the car's mechanical history. I will update it here when I do. It's really the 1981 part that scares me at this point... I like the sellers well enough and it seems like a good car for the price, but it's old. Maybe this makes it nice and simple, maybe this makes it a disaster waiting to happen. The son was pretty confident that any/all issues I will have down the road will be little annoying things not working or little quirks, rather than serious driving problems that would leave me stranded or unsafe. It being carburetor rather than EFI troubles me, but I suppose I could use the mechanic he uses. It's a 2.5 hour drive away though, won't be always an option.

The thing is that I could easily walk away from this, I don't actually need a car, but I didn't want to pass this up if it was as good of a deal as I was thinking. I have the money for it, and I will probably eventually need a car out here. For example, i am trying to get an internship this summer. If it's close by in the city, the buses will take me where I need to go easier and cheaper. But if it's not, then I probably need a car. It would be nice to have a car but at this immediate moment i don't require one. But man, that light blue paint suits her very well. I am torn!

Thanks for the advice so far.

 

its NOT carburetor, its CIS aka K-Jetronic injection. this is a sort of mechanical injection, where airflow is measured by a metal plate, and this plate modulates the fuel pressure, the injectors spray constantly rather than being electrically controlled.

CIS was very popular in the early 80s.. my 1984 and 1989 VW's used it, so does our 1991 Mercedes 300E, but Volvo switched to EIS (Electronic Injection) very early, in 1982 or 83, with the LH (hot wire mass airflow meter) system

 

Interesting... I have been reading a little about K-Jet. How reliable is this system? These days EFI is such tried and true technology that it makes me nervous to have something different and weird, but I am someone who likes weird and I will embrace it if it's not stranding me on the side of the road. I am 20 years old, this car is 13 years older than me!
Do you think $1500 is too expensive for such an old car? It should be noted that he was originally at 1700, but he would accept my offer of 1500 cash.

It sounds like the engine and transmission work well. Doesn't burn oil or coolant or too rich of a mixture, and the gears shift fine and the electronic overdrive works very well. The interior is in good shape, struts/battery are new, some new transmission seals. Seems like some pretty important old volvo bases are covered. My gut is afraid of buying such an old car but I have always admired these cars and I have never been a risk taker so I don't know if it's just me. I respect these old volvo's a lot, but I don't want to go through the hassle of getting my license transferred to this state, registering the car, finding/paying for a place to park it, only to have it be a money pit. Thanks Pierce for your input so far.

 

I'm a lousy one to ask about car values. I just bought my wife a 20 year old mecedes wagon for $3000 that's undoubtedly going to need a few $1000 in odds and ends to bring it up to snuff.

anyways, CIS is incredibly robust and simple as long as its working. only CIS systems I've seen problems on are ones that were parked for 10+ years and rotted away with bad gas inside.

I'm pretty sure 1981 is *before* Volvo's bad-wiring-harness era (82 or 83 to 87), so it probably won't have too many electrical gremlins othre than generic 33 year old ones.

That 4 speed manual gearbox is a tank, although its too bad its not the overdrive version (or is it?)

afaik, things that wear out like the seats, you can get a set of seats from any newer 240 and they should bolt up (probably should verify this, I've only done this with 7xx/9xx seats, eg, putting late 960 seats into an older 740). everyone's favorite trick is to get two right seats, and swap the cushions of one of them onto your left seat frame as the passenger right seats are almost always in better shape than the driver left seat.

 

Apparently the interior is very good. I haven't seen pictures but the son said that most of the other 240's he has seen and owned have had bad interiors and this one is pretty good in comparison. No pictures to verify, but obviously I would refuse the sale if it rolled up with a garbage interior.

Yes, I believe the 81' predates the harness issues based on the cursory stuff I have read.

Yes, it does have overdrive, and apparently it works very well.

 

Well I won't say , if you should buy it or not however , It would be something I would have been interested in when I was looking for a 240 for myself. Rust ?? Rust? Rust? This would be one of your biggest battles here in the NE. and unless your prepaired to fix rust you better look real close for it.

 

Due to age; any 240 fuel system is liable to be gobbledygook to most shops. I would suggest you find a good VW or Volvo specific shop in your area that services cars of this vintage and have them take a look at the car pre- purchase (very similar systems). Any car can leave you stranded- I see new Audis and hondas on the side of the road all the time. The benefit of an older Volvo is; that in most cases with minimal tools, basic skills, knowledge and reference materials + a few spares on hand- you can be on your way.

The fact that they will drive the car 2.5hrs says a lot in my book.

That said; if you are not interested in investing in the time, tools and research to become proficient at basic maintenance and repair then you cannot afford an old Volvo (or any other car). (I only say this because you are at a $1500 price point.)

This was one of the safest cars in 1980. No old car is "safe".

 

You definitely need to familiarize yourself with the car as any old car can be a money pit if you run to a shop every time something goes wrong... In fact that's why many old Volvos are so cheap, repairs are simple yet shops charge high prices for their time making it impossible to make sense of the deal. For example a heater core r&r is over $800 for a 7/900 car, water pump $250, brakes can be several hundreds! In most markets you can buy a running 940 for a grand or less. So, many cars get junked over a minor thing but this is the way it is. It takes a couple of routine maintenance jobs to run up a grand repair bill these days unless you do it yourself which is the only way to own an old car economically. And it goes beyond the pure economics of the deal, one has to enjoy doing it or it's not worth it... Otherwise you buy and old Volvo for a grand, spend $3-4000 to make it barely roadworthy and you got a money pit you'd never crawl out of! Why do that? And the repairs on an old car never end... But if you enjoy the nurturing, tinkering part, then it's a hobby and it's OK...

This particular car, this salvaged 240, I'd offer them a grand; I think they will take it. And a running 240 wagon will always be worth that, so you are safe...

 

Hi,
I agree that the rebuilt title is same as that of the salvage title.But there are various reasons for a car to have salvage title. What matters is understanding the salvage title first with proper inspection. So I feel you should first do proper inspection about the car and then think about having it or not. If you want to know more about it click here.

 

A car can be declared "salvaged" for many reasons such as collision, flood, vandalism, theft, fire, etc. Sometimes an inspection won't even reveal the cause. The worst is that once given the scarlet letter of "salvage" all view it as undesirable and this affects future values, justly or not.

BTW, this is another bit of automotive nonsense practiced in this country only: in the rest of the world a car is inspected and it passes or it doesn't; it's roadworthy or it's not! No point slapping a label on what may be a perfectly fine car while many other jalopies are on the road only because they never hit the insurance pool!

 

I think it's a little expensive for a rebuilt title. $1000, probably less is what I'd value it. Unless you don't care for resale. Then $1000 would be acceptable. I will admit, I really like the car. A manual makes it better. I saw a 1980 242 go for $450 around here. It did only have the M45 (4 speed only), and it I thought was in pretty good shape. I ended up meeting the guy who bought it later.