Hello everyone, I’m a new member and I have a bit of a doozy of a post. It’s a little long so I’ll just get right to the point. Currently I drive a 2004 Saab 9-5 2.4t Linear station wagon with 67K miles on it. Recently my mother just bought a newer car and now she is selling her 2002 Volvo S60 AWD sedan with 186,600 miles on it. She basically offered to give me the car, but there is a catch and that is it needs a great deal of work, but I will get to that in a minute. My thought it to fix up the car to 100%, sell the Saab and use the Volvo as long as it will go without some major catastrophic repair like a motor or something similar in price. Essentially I would like to drive it for 2-3 years if possible and then buy a much newer Volvo V70 AWD wagon. She has owned the car since August of 2005 and at that point the car had 125,000 miles on it. Since then it has been 5.75 years and 61,000 miles. In that 61,000 miles of ownership she has had the following repairs performed to the vehicle:
Anti Rain Squeel bracket: I personally pulled the headliner from the vehicle and replaced the moon roof tracks because they were vibrating, I cannot recall the price,
tinted windows
transmission flush and software upgrade at 130K miles
OEM foglights
Angle gear/transfer case with lifetime warranty and right front wheel bearing at 155k Front struts, upper spring seats at 167k miles
Water Pump, thermostat, timing belt kit, (tensioner, idler pulley’s and belt) serpentine belt & tensioner pulley @ 178K
NEW interstate battery @ 183K miles

All major services and all oil changes have been performed.

The car currently needs the following to be fixed to make it 100%

Brake booster, rear differential, front sway bar links, steering knuckle and an AC compressor. I’ve priced out most of these parts from Erie Vovo with a lifetime warranty and several smaller ones at a dealer at about $1250. I’ve priced labor at the garage I used to work which specializes in Volvos at around $1200 for somewhere in the neighborhood of $2500 to make this car 100%. At this point the car will have had with all maintenance and services including oil changes and tires in the last 5.75 years somewhere in the ballpark of $11,000 put into it. Should I run away from this or should I fix it up, have about $2500 into it, sell the Saab and then get into a newer Volvo several years from now?? Any help and or advice is greatly appreciated. Thanks for reading.

 

I don't see much return on investment.

 

I would sell the s60 and keep the SAAB. There's no point in throwing more money into the Volvo, just to trade it in or sell it in a couple of years. I'd expect a car with 67K to give you far less troubles than a car with with 186K on it.