We've committed mentally. It's all in the bank's hands now. It shouldn't be a problem, but stranger things have happened. [8D]

Wish us luck!

 

I wish you the best of luck. Come back if you need technical advice on your new 850.

Regards,


JPN

 

NICE!!

I'm fairly certain those are 17" Volan Wheels just like I have on my T5R. Unless they are some sort of aftermarket, which is not necesarrily bad. They look real good. Bet your not getting that one for $4,000. The saying is that you get what you pay for though.

 

Actually, not that much over , in the grand scheme of things. My wife and I talked about it last night. We have to be absolutely sure this is the right decision. And I totally agree, you get what you pay for. We had considered buying just a cheapo beater car that we could drive anywhere and not worry about, etc. But the more we talked about it, the more we didn't want a project car, and we don't want to buy two cars because the first cheap one blows up too soon.

Reliability, safety, fun to drive. For the price, there's nothing better than a Volvo. [sm=smiley20.gif]

 

If you think about you are not really paying that much if you get a decent car for around $5,000. When you compare that to the price of a new car today. You can't get anything decent for under $20K. You are looking at cars that cost around $35K new more than 10 years ago, and payinga small fraction of that.

Plus I just think the 850 is one of the best looking cars on the road today. And to this day, I will never forget the look on a guys face in a Vette who took off from a traffic light only to look over and see a Volvo right next to him. That's when I was driving the 94 850 Turbo and it was a real sleeper. I know for a fact my son beat a Mustang 5.0 with it too, and with myson driving it and me driving a 1980 Porsche 911SC we went side by side up to about 110 mph. My Dad was in the Porsche with me and was just saying "Oh my".

 

>the first cheap one blows up too soon.
Been there & done that; '87 Ford Escort (the worst car I've driven in every possible way). Glad it wasn't a Pinto[8D].

>Plus I just think the 850 is one of the best looking cars on the road today.
Agreed.


JPN

 

Well, this is hard to post... but after much thorough discussion with my wife, we have decided to wait a bit on an 850-R. As much as we need a second car, and as much as the New Mexico 850-R sounded like "our" car, it was turning into an emotional decision, not a rational one. We stepped back, took a breath, and evaluated where we stood. We want a car we can enjoy without being strapped for cash, and because my wife was without a paycheck for 4 weeks, we're still playing catch up with every day expenses. It wouldn't be wise to compound that with another payment to a bank.

I think we'll take a breather over the summer, put a little money into our current 850 GLT. It's coming up on the 140,000 mile service and we need to do a complete tune up, timing belt, trans fluid change, as well as an ABS module and whatever the A/C needs. I don't think we'd be able to do that if we bought another car.

Thanks for all you guys input and wisdom. I really appreciate it. Without your viewpoints, we might have made the wrong decision and gotten in over our heads for the time being. *phew.*

Becuase it's a sweet 850-R for a good price, I'll share the details with you. Maybe another Volvo enthusiast here is looking for this car: http://albuquerque.craigslist.org/car/340953530.html

Don't worry though. Our sights are still set on an 850-R and I know there's one out there with my name on it. haha.

 

^Aw that sucks. Someone should definetely ****** that car up!

But are you going to be doing the maintenance yourself? These car's aren't very affordable otherwise.

 

The maintenance all depends. If I have time, I hope to do the tune up myself. Plugs/wires/cap & rotor. I've never done a timing belt, so I'd probably just have the dealer do that when they do the A/C recharge. My wife and I just have a tad too much on our plate at the moment.... That, and I have a Typhoon I'd like to have running by September for Syclone Typhoon Nationals. If it's going, it has to be tip top for the 9 hour drive to KC.

Not to worry. Like I said, there's an 850-R in our future, sadly, it's not this one.

 

92Typhoon,

Your wife is lucky that she married to you. Not many men have the kind of perseverance and understandings as you do. And as far as your current situation is concerned, the decision seems to have been very rational and logical.

Don't worry, it's just a car. And a few hours after you've posted the pics of the beautiful red 850, the seller must have received at least 10 checks.

Anyway, come back for your current GLT's maintenance; we'll be happy to help you.

Sincerely,


JPN

P.S: Is it just me, who thinks it's time that Volvo get serious aboutstarting a new car development project fora re-designed 850 with a new name? There is something about the car that grabs your heart.

 

Thanks for the kind words. I will definitely be around. I have a forum addiction problem. haha. I spend way too much time on them. At least now, I'm active enough on herethat I can split my time between here and SyTy.net. [8D]

And if time allows me to do my own repairs on the 850, I'lldefinitely be on here for advice. Volvo's and I-5's are completely different animals than GM's and V6's.

As to your comment about a new 850... yes and no. I'd love to see the return of the sleeper sport sedan, a la 850. My fear though, with Ford PAG in charge, they would get the proportions all wrong and be too afraid to keep it boxy and modern. I think styled somewhere between the 850 and a Cadillac CTS (squared/edgy styling) would be cool.

Oh and just for fun, here's our current 850GLT... which made it really hard to turn down the 850-R.
This was the day we brought it home:


We would have loved a matching pair.

 

There should be another red R you can find in the near future. Also note, that black goes well with red (Although I have negligible colour-blindness, I have a degree in Visual Art), though black R'smay not be considered rare. Red & white kind of reminds me of, well, Japan's national flag (bland white background with a red circle in the middle, which reminds you of one of the popular stores-Target[8D]). One advantage of Japanese national flag is that no one can tell if it's the right-side up or upside down[8D].

Judging from the pic of your GLT, you are one of the very few people who takes good care of his/her car. IMO, less than 15-20% of the entire population take good care of their cars.

BTW, nice lamp at the right-lower corner of the pic. I'm very choosy when it comes to lighting fixtures.


JPN

Title: Separated at Birth

[IMG]local://upfiles/6892/5B38771D03CB4BD4ACCE5BE6E2B5FEE4.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]local://upfiles/6892/BE0514B2CDF94EF9880611F396EBEE28.jpg[/IMG]

 

Personally I would not want two the same color unless one was a wagon. Good idea getting the one you got fixed before even considering another one. At 140K you are probably looking at an evaporator if it hasn't been done already and the A/C is needing recharged.

 

Well, the A/C definitely needs recharged. I'm guessing the evaporator needs replaced as well, because there was a fault in thesystem the other day; we got the flashing lights on the hvac panel.

We're going to sit tight for a while and make due with what we have, fix what we have, and go from there. :-) Maybe by the time we're ready, a yellow 850-R will pop up and it'll give me enough time to convince my wife that a yellow car is okay.

 

Apologizing upfront for hi-jacking a thread, but check out my 850R in the classifieds if anyone is interested in a red one with a folder full of maintenance records.

Lee