My two boys came home from college and, you gotta love this, each took one of Dad's cars and left for summer jobs out of town. Neither kid takes care of their car that well so I decided to twist a few wrenches myself.
Both cars are '98's - an S70 and an Infiniti I30.
After doing plugs, all filters, an O2 sensor, and front brakes, all on both, and assorted other individual repairs I have come to the following two conclusions;
Volvos were built and designed by people who work on cars.
Nissans were built and designed by people with no thought as to their repair.

I had never noticed the difference in overall quality of construction between two such similar cars (age, cost when new, size, etc.)

I will never complain about my Volvos again. Except maybe about light bulbs burning out.

 

"you gotta love this, each took one of Dad's cars and left for summer jobs out of town" Hi, first post here but that's a funny, fun life moment as you suggest. Of course, as long as they gave you and mom a hug and told you how much they missed you they were perfectly entitled to the car keys !!! They are at a great, active time in their lives and You clearly love every minute of it.
Conversly, I have just done quite a lot of work on my old man's S70. Also conversly, I never had this sort of relationship with him. He's a selfish, self centered old ***.
I do have to agree though, that the 850 / S70 etc. are not nightmarish at all ( particularly for a front wheel drive car ) Repairs really are pretty straightforward.
Hope your cars come back in restorable shape !

 

I have known that for years. I love it. Volvo's were built for the mechanic. They are very easy to work on. So, they set prices at the shop for each repair as if any of them would take longer than 15 minutes. It's amazing that the hood lifts up to 90 degrees, even back in the 80's. I always say, if you can do a little work on a car, an older Volvo is a great deal. Because most people are afraid to tinker with european foreign cars, but Volvo's are so easy to work on it's a same that people don't try.

Then when they get older, people don't want to take it to the shop to get minor stuff taken care of and when something 1/2 way serious comes up and they take it to the shop, the stealer gives them a laundry list of what needs to be done to the car and they take the thing home and park it. Then months later they decide to DUMP it off on someone else. That's when I come in. I look the car over and hand them a list of things that the car needs, and what the stealer will charge to fix the list, then offer them blue book minus the list and they jump on it. Then I take $400, purchase all the parts, and fix it myself in 4 days. Best deal going.

 

I couldn't agree more. I've had my S70 for almost 7 years now, and it's been relatively easy to fix anything that goes wrong. I told my mom I would change her timing belt on her VW Passat, and that was quite possibly the biggest mistake I've ever made. Halfway into the job, I had removed the entire front end of the car, and I still couldn't see the timing belt yet. So much for the fantastic 'German engineering'. To me, 'German engineering' just means 'nobody but the dealer can work on this'. I wouldn't even want to try to do an oil change on that car. I saw where the filter is, and I have no idea how a human hand can get to it to remove it.

Although my S70 upsets me every time something goes wrong, it's always been something somewhat minimal and very fixable. The car is a tank, and at 209k miles, I know it's still going to go strong for at least another 60k.