After months of considering a new, used car - the S60 seems like the best deal around. They seem like good, solid cars with decent reliability and great comfort.

I'm looking at 2004 and 2005 S60's with less than 35k miles for around $20k. My commute is short, I mostly ride my bike to work - so I'm not too concerned with putting on lots of miles. The car is for around-town and weekend trips.

Does anyone have an opinion if I should definitely get a CPO or save a few thousand by buying from a non-Volvo dealer or private party? Depending on the car, I can save between $2k and $4k not buying CPO.

My father told me once that it's better to put $ in the bank for repairs than getting a warranty because the chances of a major failure is small up to 100k miles.

But I'm kind of gun-shy because my previous car was a 2002 Audi A4 I kept after warranty. It had a high probability of sludge, an $8k minimum repair bill if the tranny went out, and peeling switches that made it look junky. I feared that car and would never own one again without a warranty.

How is the S60 without a warranty?

 

My '05 has 23k miles on it. Look for one with lower miles. You realize the factory warranty on these is 4yrs, 48k miles right? CPO might give you 1 year? I would save the money and opt to get one with lower miles and rely on the remaining factory warranty.

 

I wouldn't matter to me if a CPO was only one year - but CPO warranties are 6year/100,000 mile in addition to remaining factory warranty.

So it's attractive to get a CPO on a 2005 and be covered for 3 years.

What I'm trying to decide is the probability of spending more than$2k or $3kon repairs, covered under warranty, over three years.

Whith my experience, an Audi would be more probable to spend $3k than a Honda. But I don't know how Volvo adds up.

To be honest I don't havea lot of experience owning cars because I've lived in foreign countries, where trains are more convenient, for several years after university.

 

Well, that is worth something then. Especially if you plan to keep the car a while. Volvos do have their quirkiness, especially with electrical and software problems. Of course, all we hear about are problems on sites likethese, so it is tough to judge how reliable they are. I don't think that problems are common. BTW, welcome to the forum.

 

I bought a 2004 S60 2.5T AWD with CPO, the CPO gives you extra protection. Its worth the extra money, because down at Volvo, there betting on the car by putting warranty on it, and there not stupid, so you can pretty much gurantee that a CPO car is in the best of shape, serviced regularly, and taken care of on a regular basis. Buying from others is a gamble, esp for newer cars because if Volvo doesn't want them then there is something wrong with those cars, either bad service history or accident. Thesame goes for private deals, its a gamble. The CPOyou get peace of mind.
YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FORAT THE END !

 

Thank you for your input - the piece of mind is important.

Also, one thing I didn't consider until I went to the dealer is that I can get good interest rates through Volvo on CPO's. That kind of clinches it, i'll be going for a good CPO S60.

Thanks for all your feedback!