Hi all this is the first of many posts to come.

I have been looking for a 850 wagon for about a week. I have never owned a volvo or a turbocharged car before. After hours of searching 3 different forums and looking at and dismissing 3 different cars I think I have just a few questions about a particular car.

"1996 black 850 turbo wagon with leather, heated seats, sunroof. 2nd owner. Mechanically sound. Replaced timing belt, water pump, fuel pump, struts, AC evaporator and new tires. Regular tune ups/oil changes as recommended. Wouldn't hesitate to take on a road trip. AC condenser will need to be replaced, it's the only major flaw with the car. Blue book without AC in fair to good condition is $2300.00-$2900.00. $2500.00obo"

That is the summary that is given on the craigslist post. (I would post the link but I am unsure of the rules).

I have talked to the seller and will be test driving it tomorrow morning. And I have a few points of intrest.

1) Seller says odometer failed at about 150,000 Mi and he has driven about 25,000 since then. How worried should I be about that?

2) How expensive will and A/C condenser be? Is it a possible DIY job?

I have the carfax report and the vehicle has no accidents. Its documented that The first owner took the car in regularly for services mainly routine maintenance jobs. I can post the details of all the services if needed. And the important items such as the timing belt have been performed by the second owner.

This car will be a daily driver for about a 20 mile all highway round trip to work or school and I would like to keep maintenance costs to a minimum.

Is this car worth considering? Are there any important questions that I should be asking? Any help will be greatly appreciated.

 

Hi CJ and welcome to the site.

As you can see, I have a turbo wagon and would buy another anytime. The best thing to do is trust your eyes, ears, etc. on what you think about the car as you test drive it, if you have owned an older car before. Volvo's can be very tight, even at an old age. If you are NOT one to do things on your own, like brakes, etc. this car may not be for you. They are costly when taken to the stealer or others to work on them.

Yes you can do the AC yourself, I did one for a guy about 2 weeks ago. Took us about 2 hours. If you have it done at a shop it'll cost you about $1,100. You can get a compressor from a junk yard, install it yourself, then have it serviced at an AC place for about $120 (vac + service) and be done with it for under $200. The thing about it is these compressors almost never go out, I think something else is wrong with it, like the clutch shims are worn.

As for the mileage, there is NO WAY of knowing how many miles that car has. My odo stopped on one of my cars, I drove it what I thought was about 2,500 before getting it fixed and I had actually driven about 7,200 miles. I checked one that showed 112,500 on the dash and it actually had 224,000 on it. On the '93 - '95 models you can actually check the real mileage on the on board obo code reader under the hood. These motors are very well designed and when properly maintained can go 500,000 miles. So, don't worry about mileage, just the condition.

When it comes to the service done by the PO. The only way I would trust that info is if I seen receipts. I changed my oil in March and have driven 9,000 miles in just 2 months so even if you see a receipt from 2 months ago that doesn't mean much. Also, you need to KNOW when that timing belt was done and what was done as part of that job. Some people change all 5 parts in the path and some just do the belt. Just doing the belt is 1/2 doing the job (unless all other parts are verified serviceable).

Just a couple more tips: When you go to start the car, before you crank it, make sure all the warning lights light up and the CEL is also lit. Then start the car and make sure all the lights go out. When you test drive it, drive it longer than 5 minutes, that is not a test drive. You need to drive it at least 30 minutes. I can't tell you how often I read about people driving the car and then "on the way home from the purchase the CEL came on and ..." A good long test drive will uncover things the owner is not willing to tell you.

At any rate, if you're not mechanical, have the car inspected and read the "buyer's guide" here: Buyer's guide - Volvo Forums - Volvo Enthusiasts Forum

Hope things work out for you.

 

WOW thanks for the detailed response! I know I will be spending a lot of time on these forums. I will be printing out that buyers response guide and taking it with me when I go to look at cars. I have looked at 4 other wagons in these past two days, ranging from great to near horrible but after getting seat time in a Volvo wagon, I can't imagine myself in anything else! So far I have test driven a 98 V70 XC, a 01' V70 T5 and a '01 V70 XC. I originally wasn't looking at the 2G V70 because I preferred the 850 body style, but I fell in love with the '01 T5 that I drove. I still have not seen this particular 850 because the owner has rescheduled for tomorrow night. I will post my findings and questions about that car immediately after. I would be curious to know what some members thoughts are on the 850 vs 1G V70 vs 2G V70?

 

I believe the body styles are P2 and P?. You can go to www.ipdUSA.com and click on the class style link.

Most people try to stay away from the '01 and '02's due to transmission problems.

 

Yes thanks for the correction. I found out about the transmission problems right after I made that last post. It didn't take much searching to find out.

So after vigorously studying the buyers guide and your suggestions, I finally test drove the 96 Turbo Wagon and decided to pass. The ABS module went out and the CEL was on. The owner said that it just comes on and stays on after 600 Hrs? Also when I asked about the service record he couldn't tell me exactly what had been done. He said a new timing belt was put in but couldn't elaborate on whether the tensioner and all other parts in the path had been replaced. I am a fairly mechanical person and I always try to do as much of the repairs as I can but I think I would like to have something a bit newer (still a volvo though) as my only car. Even though a black 850 wagon looks bite the back of your hand gorgeous.

So, on to new prospects:

I have found a 2003 S60 5 speed with 156,000 miles asking $4500. Carfax shows that the car was primarily serviced at a Volvo Stealership about 8 miles away from my house and all the service records match with Volvo's recommendations. I m not one to bet all my chips on a Carfax report, but that is the best service history I have come accross on my search thus far. I have already talked to the owner and our conversation leads me to believe that this car is well taken care of. Plan to test drive it on Tuesday. High hopes for this one...

Also looking at a 1999 V70 T5 wagon with 141,000 Miles asking $3200. Owner says that dash rattles. I have been searching and this seems to be a common occurrence?

Once again thanks for all the advice and encouragement on these great cars. My goal is to be a Volvo owner by the end of this business week.

 

Well, I'm a pre-'00 guy or post '03, but to date I have owned all cars built '98 or prior. I'm not very concerned with service records on a 10+ year old car. Most or all will lie or just not know when the last time something was done. Then you have mechanics that will write anything down and fix one thing while breaking 3 other things. So, I just get a car and bring it back to what I want it to be. Any problem just makes the price lower for me or I walk.

The good thing about getting something newer is that you won't have to deal with Volvo old plastic crumbling in your hands while you work on it.

As for the S60, my bet is that the car is trashed cosmetically. That seems like a low price. Heck, I have walked away from more cars because of cosmetics than mechanical problems. LOL Usually cosmetics are a reflection of mechanical issues but not always. Something about a car that runs will but looks like crap. SMH

 

YardmanCJ, where are you located? I'm looking for a '96 or '97 Turbo/T-5 Wagon myself and not turning up much in Pittsburgh area.

And I would agree with rspi, prefer some thing with cosmetics in good shape as I can do much of mechanical repairs myself but not body work.

 

@BigRed: Do you still have your wagon?

 

The '96 855t is my wife's DD. I slowly fell in love with it & want to replace my A6 quattro. I prefer the 850 interior to S/V70. To my knowledge the '96+ does not have EGR (something else to R&R) so that's where my year pick is coming from.

 

When looking, you can check the vin to see if a car has EGR or Air Pump. I'd rather have EGR than the air pump. The EGR is easily serviced while doing the PCV every 50,000 miles. You will love the turbo with those hills.

 

I did the PCV on both my brother's '95 & wife's '96. The '95 had EGR & getting it free was probably hardest part of job
.

So the model year is not definitive if EGR or not?

What year do you think is best for 850 (sorry if I hijacked this thread)?

Pre-'96 has rock solid ABS
'95 can have OBD-I AND OBD-II (best of both worlds)
'94 has easily replaceable ball joints (but guess you could use those arms on any 850)