I am in the middle of purchasing a new used car. My uncle owns a dealership and while he finds a car for me at an auction, he is letting drive a volvo s60 t5. After driving this car for about a month now, I have fallen in love with it. I am worried about buying it because it has 125,000 miles on it. It is a 2002, but it runs fantastic. From your experience, what problems might come up and would you advise me to buy this car for a good price? Thanks

 

I had to laugh when I read your post. My story is similar; I was looking for a safe, reasonably priced car for my daughter, found an S40 at a good price with lots of service records. Bought it, drove it, fell in love with it. Found an S60 for myself. Older ('01) and a lot of miles (154K when I bought it). Now for me, I don't mind doing maintenance myself so the miles don't scare me.

Here are my two cents worth: Does it have maintenance records? Are you willing to do all the recommended maintenance on or before the service interval? If so, -IF you do the maintenance- it will easily go another 125K (or 250k). If your Uncle owns a dealership, can he get you a break on service prices? (I'm assuming its not a Volvo Dealership). Can you do service yourself? Parts, especially purchased over the net, are reasonable.

Priority item number 1: with 125K miles on it, was the timing belt replaced at 105K???? This is critical. If there is no record of it, do it. Period.

Beyond that, if you are willing to do the maintenance stuff, replace worn suspension, brakes, change oil, plugs, etc. etc. I think you can enjoy the car for a lot longer.

And yeh, if you read the forum, there is occasionally some flakey stuff that happens, but that happens to all cars. The forum will help you determine the fix and usually at the best price.

Enjoy

 

Check to see if that S60 has a service history it might come with. I would have it looked over, but those S60's are bullet proof as long as they are serviced

 

I have a 2002 S60 T5. I absolutely love it! I have about 108,000 miles on it and never had anything major really go wrong with it until now. The throttle body is sticking openor closed (according to the service code generated), but my mechanic doesn't believe it. Most likely just a short in the wiring somewhere. Still trying to root cause. Other than that, it has run like a champ. Routine maintenance is all you need to worry about. Also, make 110% sure that the timing belt has been replaced. Volvo recommends replacing it at 105,000 miles. If not, it will cost about $900 to get it done. Not doing so will risk blowing the head gasket and junking the car (or paying about $3,000 to get it re-built.) Also, make sure the ignition coils and spark plugs have been replaced. Enjoy!