I've signed up my wife to this forum. She currently owns a 1996 Volvo 960 Wagon in pretty good shape. She keeps it well maintained. It has 223000 miles on it now and needs $350 exhaust work and the A/C does not work. She has to have A/C so that has to be fixed.The body still looks good and mechanically it still seems to be OK. She just found a V70xc wagon for sale by a private party. He wants $8500. 146,000 miles. Everything I've read indicates this is onecar you want to stay away from. One mechanic I spoke with says "That is one big piece of SH!!!! even Volvo is ashamed of it." My feeling is at 146000 miles and six years the bugs must be worked out by now. If she could get it for $6500 it would probably be a fairly good buy. What do you guys think. I need your advice because I personally hate Volvo's. HELP MY WIFE PLEASE...........

 

I have a v70 and they are a lush ride, ok they like a bit of fuel, but what big car doesnt?You do have the abs lights/tracks lights problem, but nothing that cant be fixed, mine needs doin, has done since i owned the car, but all i see is a light continuesly on the dash, my brakes work fine. hasnt bothered me one bit, you have luxury, safety,and the looks?your mechanic probably said that cos he cant afford one lol. my garage over here said they are a lovely car. and when i mot mine it seems to pass no problem, even with the abs light on.Thats why i havent rushed to get the light problem fixed. theres more guys on here with more knowledge than me, just listen to them, this is only my opinion? good luck on what you get, cheers John.

 

Fix the 960 Wagon and run it to 300K. It's probably a better car than the 01 V70XC. I personally do not care for the XC that much. I don't want a low pressure turbo AWD car. As a matter of fact I don't want AWD at all. It is just more to go wrong and it's not needed. Just an opinion.

 

Hmmm, the devil you know or the one you don't. Lots of things could be ready to go at 146K. My 98 XC70 has over 200K, and aside from the "normal maintenance" I've replaced: drive shaft (twice), fuel pump, ABS (rebuilt), air injection pump, AC (gave up, still doesn't work), turbo (rebuilt), oxygen sensors, air pump check valve. So, even discounting the labor, these parts are not cheap! I would say stick with the wagon.

 

Well....I drove the '01 V70 Cross Country last night and have to admit it is quite a nice car. Compared to the 960 the ride is 100% better. I alwayscalled the 960THE TANK. Overall, the ride and handling were excellent. Does not have the power I would want but for my wife it would be fine. She commented that the turning radius was much more than the 960. Both of us had an issue with the brakes....It has the feel that the brakes are going to fail but don't. Hard to explain..They feel kind of "cushey" and yet the pedal doesn't seem to have a lot of play. Seems to me to be a master cylinder problem. I read the review of this car on Edmunds and they mentioned that the brakes might be hard to get used to. Bottom line,,,,I told her if she can get it for $6500...Go for it. After all, life is a gamble and buying used cars is even a bigger gamble.
I bought my '98 Cadillac Eldorado almost two years ago for $6900. Gorgeous car and clean as they come. So far I've put around $3100 into it (new exhaust, radiator, brakes, rear struts, and a few other little things). Still wouldn't trade it for the world. My feeling is, if you love a car somehow it doesn't bother you as much when something goes BUT if you just want a car for transportation the repair bills really hurt. IF THAT SOUNDS LIKE A MALE CAR NUT, YOU ARE RIGHT.
Any thoughts on above will be appreciated.

 

the early XC70s had several major common repair areas 1) angle (bevel) gears that fail - this is the "transfer case" for the drive to the rear wheels. Major $$ to repair. 2) ETM (electronic throttle mechanism) are prone to fail and need to be rebuilt to replace contacts etc. $$ to repair at a dealer but you can probably get an indy to send out the old unit for a rebuild 3) Timing belts are replaced every 10 years/105K miles for the 2001s. So this car is due. Figure $600 here. 4) PCV and VVT gears can cause issues if the prior owner didn't stick to the proper service intervals. Give the owner a bonus if they have a maintenance history to show proper servicing and a gold star if they ran synthetic oil (helps minimize tarnish on the VVT parts). Final thought is whether the car is worth $8500. Well for 8500 you can be shopping for a second gen version with a reliable transmission and ETM. KBB's suggested price for "excellent is closer to 4500 for a private sale but you can use a site like autotrader.com to see asking price other similar models nationwide. If you don't live in a cold climate, my two cents would be to forget the XC model and consider a newer year V70 (assuming you are willing to pay 6500 you can get something nice).