Hey everyone. I recently purchased my 3rd Volvo, a 1995 960 Wagon. I got it for $1500 yesterday with a reported 119k miles. I had an experienced Volvo mechanic check it out before I purchased it and he said he'd buy the car for that price. So I felt pretty good about the car.

Anyways, today I ran a Carfax and AutoCheck merely out of curiosity and I believe the car has had the odomoter rolled back at some point. Neither report seems to match up from 2003 on as far as mileage goes. The last mileage report for Carfax is 132k in 2004 while Autocheck reports 108k in 2003 and then 63k later in 2003. Kinda fishy, but hey the car is $1500. It runs like a top but looks to have been used by a painter as a work car at some point as it has some paint splotches on the back and a few on the interior.

Anyways, on to my question, is there a way to verify actual mileage via the compter in the car? I saw a post about doing this on a 850 but can't find any info about the 960. Called a dealership and they said no, but I don't 100% trust what they say as they seemed to be annoyed by my asking.

Thanks in advance.

 

No, not on that car, as there is no chip to record mileage. Obviously the mileage is not correct which is quite common, a lot more than people think... Your odometer was replaced or may be tampered with on purpose. but that's not fatal. People put too much weight on miles, usually because that is the only think they can use to judge a car by, and it is wrong! All things being equal a lower mileage may be better but all things are not equal. I see plenty of 50K miles failed motors (not usually Volvos), and plenty of 300+k milers going strong (quite a few Volvos in this category). So, if it's a nice car, enjoy it! Just do a good service and change the timing belt.

 

Hey lev, thanks for the response and answering my question. But yeah, the car was so cheap I'm not too worried about the mileage, I was more wanting to know for my own curiosity. It's running pretty good. I'm going to get the timing belt changed shortly, as well as an oil change, brake pads, and a couple new tires. It's just a car to cruise around Chicago in, mostly used to haul my guitar amps and drum kits around. Should serve me well.