hey, sorry to be a bother, but im looking at an s70 from a friend of a friend of a friend type deal, who live about 350 miles away. It's a 98 t5 with only 86k miles on it. He wants $1000 below what blue book comes up with as price. The kid selling it is in his mid twenties, has had the car for a couple of years, seems to want to be a tuner and 'mod' out the car, but has replaced this with a manual because he "wanted to shift, its cooler" anyway, im not sure i shoud trust the car. With it being a turbo, the first thing i think of because its cheaper than it should be is that the turbo's going out. He said engine/transmission run well, and if i go out there, im gunna drive it obviously and can check for smooth shifting and shudder in the tranny, and can listen to how the engine runs. But what i dont know is what problems i might miss if all i do is a test drive before buying it. All my other volvos, none have turbo, so i dont know what to check for other than a whistling or grinding= bad. It's 3k and for this price it doesnt seem like a bad deal, brake job 6months ago, tires have 7-9/32 of tread left, so they should last a little while. Cosmetically this car has been well taken care of, a few chips and scratches, but seems nice. The biggest problem it has is the cat's broken, which will have to be replaced, but it passed emissions through 09, so i should still be able to get it plated. If you can think of anything i should check on or look at when i get there, i'd appreciate it.

 

86k, I think at 90k is the "major" tune-up, i've heard other people talking about on this forum. Not 100% sure what all that includes though. I would demand paperwork showing timing belt and components replaced around 70k. Check common stuff, oil condition and color, check under the oil cap, usually good evidence if they changed oil regularly. Be sure to test drive in city and hwy speeds for 25 miles or so, just to make sure no hidden gremlins. If u still unsure after that I would recommend a reliable mechanic to check it out too.

 

Agreed take it to a mechanic to check it out if ur unsure of it im buying one with 150k on it as long as he has valid paperwork showing it had it regular checkups you should be fine but def take it for a test drive let the engine run and get out under the hood b4 and after u drive it to compare noises etc. and good luck

 

the 90k tune up is about $800

 

what year car is it?