Hi guys, it's been awhile since I was last on. My parents are getting sick of constantly fixing my 240, it was nothing but trouble from the start, plus they put alot of money into it to fix since we couldn't fix it ourselves.

I found this 850 t-5r on craigslist and I am seriously thinking of checking it out. Please tell me what you guys think about it. I have the money to buy it at this point if it turns out to be good, if not, I still plan on buying an 850 turbo, and hopefully a t-5.

My moms mechanic is still telling her that the 850's are complete crap, and another of her mechanics that worked on volvos since the 70's said the same thing, so my mom is hard to sway right now, but that is where you guys come in. I have a feeling he just didn't like it when volvo changed to the 5 cylinders. Besides the transmission and timing belts, are they really that much harder to fix than say a 940? If I learned to fix most common stuff, would it really matter?

The guys advertisiong the car for $5999, what do you think I can talk him down to if everything checks out?

Lastly, if any of you guys could possibly email the dealer and ask him some important questions, I would be extremely grateful, I'm a noob when it comes to car shopping. Here's the page from his dealership

Thanks

 

Black on black in the California sun? Make sure the aircon works otherwise you will MELT!

Ask for the service records and do a carfax before moving forward.

 

The ad says that the leather has no cracks or wear, but the picture shows that the drivers seat has wear on the left side. Besides this, the interior and exterior look very clean. Have it inspected by a Volvo shop before buying it. That will be a very well spent 200-300.

 

That car looks pretty good.
Over all in the shop I work in I see more problem cars in the earlier cars 240,740,940 Etc over 850's.
That really isn't all that bad of a price for the condition it looks to be in.

 

Looks pretty good. Or course you need to have it checked out. If you buy then I would paint the grill black, use shoe dye or forever black to color the bumpers and rub strips on the doors and have the windows tinted. Price sounds good.

 

Tell you Mom that this is a very rare and unique car that is very hard to find. It is one of less than 1,000 T5R's that were imported to the United States. I will find the actual numbers for you at some point, but could not find them right now. I know there were only 185 yellow ones and the rest were black. The only two colors that the T5R came in in 95. That is a very good price for that car and one you should jump on if it's not sold already. I can't undersand why a mechanic that knows Volvo's (assuming they know Volvo's) would say that the 850 is a bad car.

 

Maybe the mechanic wants to scare him off the car so he can go buy it for himself.

 

Its on the forum somewhere but I can't find it either.

 

I found it in the Ludeless post about the manhole cover damage. I cut and pasted it to word document and to a jpg file and still can't get it to post here. I'm getting tired of trying right now. Here's one more try doing it a different way:




[IMG]local://upfiles/1637/23429653F14D497E9BA540AA6AE71685.jpg[/IMG]

Got it to work at least. Didn't want it as a thumbnail, but at least that works. As you can see from the graph there were only 904 T5R's imported to the USA (VS in Sweden) and of that 185 were yellow and 719 were black. They only came in yellow and black that year which is really the only year it was called the T5R. You have to impress your Mom with statistics.

 

Thanks again for all the input. I just got a couple quick quotes for insurance, and I was shocked. For a car like that I would be paying almost 1200-1500 for 6 months. I have a b average gpa, been driving for 3 years now with a flawless record, but still have to pay a ton. Maybe I can just put the car on my parents insurance and just pay them for it, lol. The guy said to me the price was set at 5999, and all maintenance has been done. I am waiting to see how many owners it has had and if he has all the original records.

Just talked to my parents again, they are totally against the car, just because it's a 5 cylinder and it's in San Jose, like 40 miles from where I live. Told them it's a used car dealer, and they were even more pissed. I told them it's going below kbb, then my dad counters with why would they sell it for below. They just don't understand what a rare find this car is, and my mom still doesn't want me to get an 850, I give up, lol.

 

What does "5 cyl" have to do with a car´s reliability? Buying from a used car dealer is an issue... at least for me. I prefer to buy direct.

 

pep talk:
You gotta use the "safety and reliability" angle. Moms are usually receptive when it comes to safety. Dads care about reliability. Also tell your dad about the multi-car discounthe would get for putting it in his name. Dads love a good deal.If all else fails, make them feel guilty for making you pass on a rare find. Then use that guilt to get them to OK the next car. Now go work your magic!

 

I'll keep trying. Thing is my moms friend, a 30 year volvo mechanic, was the one that told her that any volvo with a 5 cylinder engine is junk and to only stick with 4 cylinders, or so she says. Another of her friends apparently said the same thing and he has been fixing our cars since she had her old 240 wagon years ago, as well as our current malfunctioning 240 sedan. I'm sure she is somehow misconstruing their words, if they even said anything to that effect. I'm ok with them not accepting the first "nice" car I have found online, but she has it out for the 850's, and really only wants me to get a 940, maybe because she has a wagon right now, I don't know. I still want to get a t-5 no matter what, it's just a matter of convincing her and my dad. I guess I can talk to her mechanics and find out what their bias is all about... My parents are extremely smart, but they can be quite narrowminded when I present them with my point of view sometimes, lol. Thanks again for all your help

 

I´d say I don´t like the 940 aesthetically to get it out of the picture.

What about getting an S70R? It´s very similar to the 850R.

 

Still a five cylinder which is basically the same car. If I knew nothing about cars and one of my children was about to buy a car where there is a mechanic with 30 years experience on that make saying stay away from that car, I would listen to him. In essense I am siding with your mother on this based totally on the mechanic.

I just can NOT understand a mechanic that has worked on Volvo's for 30 years being so down on the 850? I would really like to hear his reasoning. My guess is he just never switched over to working on them. As far as ease of working on and reliability there is no doubt the 240 beats the 850, but I don't think the same holds true for the newer model 940's, 740's, 960's and 760's. I have owned two 760's, three 850's and a V70 and really like the 850 better than any of the others. I thought the '85 760 was a much better car than the '89 760 too.

If I were you, I would talk directly to the mechanic and see what he says, and please let us know what he is saying.

 

$3000/yr for insurance on a $6000 car is ludicrious, even for a teen driver. A "normal" car would be around $1500/yr. Personally I wouldn't buy a car that cost that much to insure, but that's just me.

I pay about $220/yr now for my '95 850 and I think I'm paying too much!

Does your old volvo have ABS? Airbags? Crumple zones? There are a lot of positives to the newer age Volvos. I've been happy with my 1995 850 and it's reliability. If a mechanic told me they were bad I'd say they were on crack. I did a lot of crap with that car as a teen and it kept on trucking.

If they still won't go for the newer safety features argument, you can look into a VW Golf/Jetta VR6. Or to get a better deal on the insurance get a 2.0l and do an engine swap to the 6 cylinder, and add a turbo. Now THAT is a quick car! VW's are similar to Volvos in their "fun to drive-ness" scale and reliability. Their 6-cylinder engine is a tank.

 

I got a couple quotes from progressive and esurance, as well as geico, they were all within about 1200-1500 for 6 months, which is rediculous. I'm talking like a thousand dollar decuctible on most stuff, with maybe 25k bodily/50k car damage coverage, lol. I have a 3.5 gpa and have been driving for 3 years now and my record is flawless, or do they not take that into account since I'm not technically on my parents insurance for the car I drive?

I wouldn't mind having my mom get another 940 to replace my junky 240 with, it's had nothing but problems from the start because our once "trusted" mechanic (not the same one who dislikes 850's) said the car was good, which was a bunch of bs.

In the end though, I can afford 6k for a nice car, I probably have almost 10k in an insurance account my parents setup for me when I was younger. The insurance on the other hand is mind boggling, I understand they were just quotes, but they were shocking, lol.

My only worry is whatever car I get may have similar trouble as the 240, which we probably put 2.5k into for repairs. That kind of change would be alot for me to handle right now with college and my retail part time job. However, if most repairs aren't too hard to tackle, I'm sure I could invest the time it may take to learn how to maintain my own car and do necessary repairs, plus my brother is into four wheeling and does all kinds of truck stuff.

The car salesman told me in an email that he does not have any of the original service records, so that's probably a red flag right there. I'll keep looking, and chances are if the insurance turns out ok, I will get an 850r. Even better if it's a 5 speed stick, always wanted a manual. Thanks again for your input guys, I will definitely stick around and learn more about fixing volvos, whichever one I decide to get.