I am looking at maybe getting a used one. Would you guys recommend it? Is it a good car? I bought an S80 that sturned out to be the biggest POS ever! And i dont want to make the same mistake twice.

 

What year was the S80? I really have never owned a Volvo post 1998, I'm actually afraid to. I have purchased 3 960's if that tells you anything. I have given 1 away and sold 1 at my cost to help a college student.

The one I gave away was only gassed up for about 19 months and died because the kid let the radiator run out of water and over heated it. The other one that the college kid has will likely run for 4 years with no issues.

Great cars, go for it but if you do NOT do your own work, have it checked out before hand. Any 10+ year old car can need a lot of work if it has been englected.

 

The S80 was a 2000 model.. This car is at a volvo shop so I would assume that it has been fixed and ready to go. They want 4500 for it though. Thats way over blue book value!

 

Why do you say it's WAY over blue book value? You haven't posted any information here about the car for anyone to help you judge it.

Back to the original question, the 960 is a great car. I would purchase another one any day of the week for the right price.

1999 were the worse years for the S80's. Not sure what the issues were for your '00 but I really don't care for the 1999 or 2000 S80's.

I usually use www.NadaGuides.com for value information.

 

I posted above that he wants $4500 for it. Has 136.000 miles

 

Doesn't say anything about maintenance records, the year it was built, etc. NADA shows a '96 with 140,000 retails for $4,250.
http://www.nadaguides.com/usedcars.a...5903&mi=140000

 

Thanks for the help rspi!

 

my take on the 960s, having owned a 965 and a S90 (both my wife's cars, both maintained by an independent volvo mostly shop)...

very smooth very nice engine... however, if it tosses a timing belt, its big bucks. really big bucks. ditto anything like blown hoses, if you don't shut it down IMMEDIATELY you're looking at major dollah to fix. early 960s had more trouble with the timing belts, they upgraded this stuff twice, and I believe you can retrofit the improved belts and pulleys to the earlier cars, in fact, the first version should have been updated to the 2nd version by the dealer under a service bulletin.

decent transmission. early car's shift points were a little funky, the sports mode was silly. if the tranny fails, big bucks to fix (didn't have this happen, but was warned by mechanics). AFAIK, most(all?) of these had limited slip rear ends, which can be a life saver in snow etc.

very nice body build, solid, quiet, great ride quality, decent handling, fantastic turning radius. interior is very comfortable, but the little things start to break and get annoying, like the plastic clips that hold things together. luckily, all these little bits are readily available.

rear ends on sedans are IRS, this is a little more complex than the live axle rear and I'm not sure really was that big of an improvement. a live axle wagon would certainly be better for towing, I think.

The wagons at least had nivomat rear self leveling shocks, when in good condition, they are great, but when they wear out they sag rather badly and are rather expensive. you can replace the coil springs on the 960 wagons with the springs from a non-nivo wagon and put regular shocks on it, or just bite the bullet for nivomats, they should last about 5 years or 100K miles of moderately heavy driving.

the last year 960-II and the S90/V90 had transverse leaf spring rear ends, these would be much harder to do any sort of suspension tweakery if you're of that mind bent.