So im looking at a 2010 s40 , it has the 2.4 in it, FWD, nice cond. only downside is it has 140,000 miles on it, granted mostly highway but still. im a college student and need something reliable that will last at least four years. oh and the asking price is 9 grand.. thoughts?

 

I am a fan of high mile cars with two caveats. Show me a solid maintenance record, and price it accordingly. My personal observation with late model high mileage is they tend to have a real age of approx. 1/2 their actual miles, so you should expect the repair frequency of a 70K car. Now for pricing. Estimate how many miles you expect to put on the car over the next 4 years and search for a 2006 with the total miles that will be on the car 4 years from now. Assuming you keep the car in the same mechanical and cosmetic condition it is in today that is what you will likely be able to ask for the car in 4 years, remembering that asking and getting is two different things, so allow for negotiating. At this point $1000 a year for depreciation would be acceptable IMO if you drove the car 15K per year, so if it looks like you could sell a 200K mile car for $5000 then $9000 is in the ballpark, but I believe you would expect to get more like $2500-$3000, so maybe offer them $7000? Just some food for thought and all of this is assuming the timing belt service has been done and if not I would be deducting the cost of that from my offer.

 

We had a 2007 S40 that we purchased new and handed down to our high school daughter a couple years ago when she got her license. For many years, I used it to commute 60-70 miles/day round-trip and racked up the miles - but we maintained the vehicle and always had it serviced at the dealer. We never had problems with it, maintenance was nothing out of the the ordinary, and it looked brand-new. I'd say make sure you have whatever vehicle you're considering checked out by a mechanic who knows Volvos to validate past maintenance and give you an idea of possible future repairs. Unfortunately she totaled the car at 168K miles so we had to replace it - but we did so with another S40. We found a 2010 model with only 35K miles on it, which ought to last her through college. Good luck!