At what point on the odometer should you stop and say, "This is too many miles for me to put any more money into this car, other than just enough to keep it safe and running well."

I guess I mean if you have a well maintained car and all things are equal... even then at what point do you draw the line.

I have a good running 172,XXX mile car but I'm thinking no way I will upgrade the suspension. No way I will upgrade my chip or exhaust. I'll just fix the rattles and paint chips and keep her on the road. Sound reasonable?

What rule of thumb would you use? For example, any well maintained 850 with under 120K miles is a good candidate for performance upgrades, etc. All others 'not so much'.

I don't really accept 'depends on the car'. There has got to be some kind of decent rule of thumb wouldn't you think. I am also just a tad skeptical of guys who always seem to say, "If it's running great and well maintained, hey go for it!" Hmm. They don't happen to work for anyone who sells parts... do they?

 

Yea I'm in the same boat. Mine has 160,000 and it drives great. Under the hood is immaculate. But is it really going to be worth it to do much more than solid stage zero and cosmetics?

 

well...I can't say much on the 850's, but my 740turbo had about 240,000 miles when I started to do engine mods.

BTW, an exhaust is a win, win thing. you dont really lose anything from it. it helps prolong turbo life....etc. etc.
Look at it this way... 170,000miles of good maintenance, have fun with it.
170,000miles of sh*t and abuse, well watch out for failure.

 

A long time mechanic who specializes in Volvos told me these engines are good for 200,000 miles. Maybe 225K. I was like, "Wait a minute! I thought they were good for 300K?" Not according to him. He said after 200K you are on thin ice. Might make it to 225K or 250K. Might not. The odds of some catastrophic failure occurring become too high to ignore. Something so expensive the car will be totaled. If you make it to 300K you were very fortunate. This is according to him. Not my words.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not down on 850's. I'm just thinking that it might be better for me to trade my 172K car for a similarly cared for 85K or 100K car, and then start modding.

 

On an 850, depending on how it was taken care of by the previous owner, I wouldn't think twice on 300k! But again, it has to be taken care of...

 

My 94 Turbo was well taken car of cause I owned since 9800 miles. The engine went at 203K with no warning whatsoever. One day it just started rapping like crazy. I pulled over immediately and had it towed to the local Volvo repair shop and they said it was shot. It was in such good shape they gave me $800 for it with a blown engine. It just sat on their lot and they eventually started selling parts off of it. In hindsight though, I would replace the engine and keep it even with those high miles on it.

 

My car has 215k miles on it, and I just recently put on an exhuast and some other things. No regrets.

 

Do a compression and a leak down test to see if you have any failing seals, that will tell a lot along the lines if your engine is in good shape or not and want to continue modding. If you have poor compression, baby this until you have the funds and find something with less miles. You could always open up the engine and inspect the cylinder walls and what not, replace all of piston rings, bearing, and seals, for about 600 dollars, a lot of money, but a lot less than paying for a car.

 

I think it all depends. I have 192K on my 850 and it runs great. Besides my oil leak, which I am taking care of this weekend, there is nothing wrong with the car. Also, I met a guy two weeks ago with an 850 that has 305K on it and it is running great so you just never know.

 

A car is an expense and is worth what it cost to replace it in my opinion. A car where you were the only owner and have kept good care of it even if it has miles on it, might be worth more then a car with less miles but no history of maintenance, repairs done or how it was driven.

I never think of a car's value as being what I can sell it for; but rather what would it cost me to get another car to replace what I have and what issues will another used car have which will could cost me. The unknown might be as expensive or even more expensive as the known.

Even a brand new car is worth less as soon as you sign the purchase form; so basing a car's worth on what you can sell it for could be misleading.

 

This was kind of my point when I said in hindsight I would have fixed the 94 850 with the bad engine. I sold it and bought the 97 850 R that I still have. It costs me about $7500 and then the head gasket when bad within a year and that costs another $1500 to fix. I could have had that 94 on the road for $3,000 and had an extra $6,000 to fix anything else that went wrong.

It's really hard to determine when to cut you losses with a used car, but there definitely is a point. In my case it's just a gut feel that this car is not worth putting any more money into it. I had put next to nothing into the 94 and was afraid it would turn into a money pit, which very well may have been the case.

 

The white car in my Sig has almost 250K on it and it is running 14 PSI all day long.

Also 1,500 into the 3,000 mile oil change interval the oil is still clean.

I would not doubt I would see well over 300K out of it.

 

Well Said!

 

Yea I think my plan is to get 300k out of my car. If something were to go on it to make it undriveable I'd prolly just get a T5 - R and keep the other one for parts LOL!!!

 

I am at 225k on the original engine, original clutch, and the original transmission on the '94 N/A. I've done a ton of suspension and steering work on it, both front and rear but I would not hesitate to throw more money at it. I'm actually looking forward to the 280k timing belt change.

...Lee