I'm thinking of buying a 2004 S40 1.9t for my son as his second car. Super clean. Runs hard and shifts smooth. Can't find anything wrong with it. It literally feels like driving G a brand new car. Solid, no rattles. Just nice. Has a clean Carfax as well. Now, it has 147k on it but it was a fleet car for a salesman so a lot are highway. At $3k it seems like a great deal. Timing belt was replaced by a certified Volvo dealer at 101k. Should I be worried that it's a turbo? Can I expect lots of service issues because of the miles?

Thanks.

 

If the car was a fleet car, it should have been regularly maintained - including regular oil changes which is good. I have owned a 95 850T since new with 200K+ miles and zero turbo issues. With that said, there will be service issues with any used cars - the real question is whether you are planning to do your own maintenance and "shade tree" repairs. Since you noted the 1.9T I'm assuming you are looking at the first generation s40, which is pretty easy to do your own repairs. Main aging issues are brakes, the exhaust flex pipe, odd electrical bits and the variable valve timing (sometimes they can cause oil leaks or need a sensor etc or gum up due to oil residues). Parts (new and used) are relatively easy to find, as is repair documentation. This forum is pretty active for getting coaching on a repair or maintenance procedure as well. My view is for $3K you can budget in some $$ for repairs and be ok compared to many other models.