I know this is almost impossible to answer but I thought some would share how many miles they have on theirs.

I've had a lot of Volvos going back to 122's and two or three 855's among them but I've gotten away from owning them because I don't like driving automatics, the leather seats are usually shot, and I prefer base model/low optioned cars anyway.

I was driving by a small local car lot the other day and saw a decent looking 855 with plastic hubcaps instead of alloy wheels so I thought it might be a base model and stopped to have a look. Sure enough, it was a cloth seat 5 speed manual base model car with roof bars, not sure what year.

Someone came out to help me and I discovered it was a one owner car picked up by the lot owner who is a Volvo guy some years ago (a few slant nose 242's and a 244 GT there too, which is why I usually have a look when driving by).

It had been sitting for a while out back and only moved out front because they resurfaced the back lot and that's when I saw it.

Here's the kicker.....it has 335,000 miles on it. The carfax (read aloud to me) showed lots of maintenance and there is a sticker in the engine compartment for a Continental timing belt at 268,000 so it seems to have been well taken care of.

There are some rough spots, such as a tear in the passenger side seat and a hole drilled in the center of the hood for some reason. It was also in the midwest most of it's life so it has been exposed to some salt. Everything I looked at up top and underneath on the body and suspension except the rear bumper mounts looked solid and rust free. It seems that Volvo got their act together on metal after the 200 series for the most part, I've had a few high miles 945's and they seemed to handle salt really well but....

The sales guy said the owner paid $2k for it so it would likely go for that amount. I'd have to go through the Carfax and see when the last of everything other than the timing belt was done and start investing in it.

I haven't seen another manual transmission base model 850 in decades around here so I am honestly considering buying it, as crazy as it sounds.

Questions:
How many folks on here have an 850 with similar miles?
If there are areas of concern with regards to rust on an 850, where are they?

Any other comments are welcome.

Thanks

 

I'll say this - I drove a manual NA to about 340,000 miles when the shifter fork wore completely out on 3-4. You could still drive it if you went 1-2-5 but if you put it in 3rd you couldn't get it out. Volvo offered no parts, nor anybody else, but they did offer a whole transmission. So there's one data point.

 

Really good and helpful point I hadn't considered. Might even be enough to talk me out of buying it. Thank you.

 

It had a lot of blow-by at that point, but the whole rest of the car was pretty nice.