Greetings, I am looking for a first car. As a possibility, I am considering an older Volvo. I looked at the 940 initially because of its simplicity, but I'm being swayed away from it due to advice online and from a mechanic that parts are no longer readily available. The mechanic, a Volvo specialist, recommended a V70 instead.

How do you all feel about the different generations of V70s?

• Gen 1: 1996-2000
• Gen 2: 2000-2007
• Gen 3: 2008-2016

I've heard Gen 1 is going to be like an 850, mechanically. Gens 2&3 I figure are gonna be a bit different due to the Ford ownership.

How do these various models hold up in terms of reliability? When something does break, are you DIY-ers able to handle it / do your mechanics seem to be able to fix things quickly?
If I could find one with 100-150K miles that hasn't been overtly neglected/abused, how many more miles could I expect to put on it?

For context, I bike to work, so this would be for misc errands and the occasional weekend road trip. Location: California Bay Area, USA.
Just generally too, do you all think this would be a good idea as a first car? I'm hoping to pick up a decent one for $3K-$8K and then reserve $2K-6K for a Volvo specialist to overhaul it.

 

a few questions:

1) do you have any repair skills/tools or will you be paying a shop to do all your repairs/maintenance?
2) do you have a reputable indy Volvo tech local to you or will you be relying on dealer service?
3) why would you assume you will need to reserve up to 6K for a "Volvo specialist" to overhaul a newly acquired car (versus buying a car that has been documented to be properly maintained)?

My two cents - If you are not able to maintain the car on your own, a 15+ year old Volvo is not the car for you. That said, for your 1,2,3 options each iteration has their own common repair areas. For the Gen 1s, the common big ticket repair items include timing belt/tensioner, PCV system, AC evaporator (very costly to repair). Most other stuff is DIY for a home mechanic including a lot of ****ling things (like fixing a horn that won't turn off, tailgate trim fasteners that snap, fuel pump/relays, strut spring seats, control arm bushings, ABS controller, coolant temp sensor, radiator/coolant overflow tanks and a PNP sensor are all things I've replaced on our 850T). On the Gen 2s, I'd avoid the early models which had ETM issues, AWD bevel gear issues in addition to the PCV, timing belt issues. I think in 2004+ the ETM and AWDs issues were addressed and reliability improved but there still are typical electrical and sensor issues as well as wear items. Gen 3s continue to improve reliability but different things crop up. 2012 is a particularly bad year for the I5s as there were issues with oil consumption on select models/engines that you should research.

As general buying advise, maintenance history is more important than low mileage. Go for the newest model you can afford.

Regarding durability, we retired our 850T at about 275K and my son has a 2000 S40 with 125K miles that's still a daily driver in the Boston area - cold, snow, salt and all. Most recently he had to replace the PNP sensor, the ECT, brakes lines all around (due to rust on the hard lines), struts/springs (springs are an S40 issue not the V70) to give you an idea of "normal". Point here is these cars will last but its the little things that will crop up.

 

1) I'm pretty handy with a soldering iron when it comes to electrical things -- have repaired a number of arcade monitors, actually. Mechanically, I'm not yet a car person, but eh I know some basics from high school robotics and working on (unpowered) bikes. Wouldn't mind getting a basic set of wrenches and screwdrivers. But I probably wouldn't go too serious with anything since I'd be living in an apartment -- maybe I could get some jacks too, but at the end of the day, I would not have a garage all of my own. And I probably wouldn't have a second hand to help me.

2) Yeah there's a husband-and-wife shop super nearby who are big Volvo specialists. Also some more general European shops nearby that claim to know Volvo.

3) I guess two thoughts: 1. just thinking worst case scenario in case the tranny or something else major fails a month after I buy. 2. I want a reliable daily driver, and I don't mind spending $10K-$14K to make that happen, so I don't really care how much of that cost is the initial purchase versus repairs. I would rather put repair investment up front in a big overhaul so that unplanned repairs don't happen more than a few times a year.

Thank you for the 2 cents and the advice on the different generations! What I'm hearing is that regular service matters more than miles? And that no matter what "overhaul" I do, I should always expect little things to crop up on older vehicles? In which case, it would be nicer if I could learn to deal with the little things myself?

Do you have a 2 cents on what makes it worth or not worth learning how to do car maintenance? How easy is it to make expensive mistakes while learning? What's the time commitment like? Does knowledge/experience carry over from vehicle to vehicle, or is each one a new project to learn?

 

It's hard to say. I never really wanted one, but I got interested in seeing if I could fix them, and eventually I bought about seven 93-98 front wheel drive models for $500 each and got 5 of those driveable. Gave most away, crushed a few, kept one which I went a long way to obtain.

I have a lot of tools and a lot of experience, but I never really was even near a volvo before. My take is they're really quite easy to maintain and repair. They do seem to need some things like any European car does. I have a 98 which is a forever keeper, and it frequently needs something, even though it's only got 170,000 miles on it.

There are in many towns a guy who does these overhauls you speak of and then sell the car. You could just go straight to him (around here you could) and ask him what he has for sale, or expects to have when he fixes it. Personally, I would never do this. I would never encourage anyone to drive an old european car and pay somebody else to maintain it. There are much easier paths. If there's something about an old volvo wagon that you simply must have at any price, then yes, it's do-able.

Parts are super easy to get. A lot of plastic interior stuff is going to be going bad and you won't want to pay to replace it all. But the rest of the car, pretty easy to get parts.

 

Stay away from the first electronic throttle body models ~2000-2004 unless the throttle body has been replaced, you can see the cable going to the throttle body, if not its an electronic. I would also stay away from the first 5 speeds ~2000-2003. Otherwise, its like any other car. IF it has been cared for, it will be a great car. Make sure you pull open the upper plastic covers enough to view the timing belt, they need replacing every 80k to 100k or so. If it has over 100k and you lose a ignition coil, replace ALL of them with new BOSCH only - it will eliminate a lot of annoyance and head scratching!

Also stay away from the early all wheel drives, through 2004, drive shafts go...

When buying, remove the plastic cover on the cylinder head and check the condition of the wires beneath. The insulation gets brittle - at least on my Florida car that is in dramatic heat.

 

+1 on all the model specific weaknesses. My experience on the wire harness to the coils is its the plastic shroud that covers the wires that gets brittle and breaks apart, but with that said, its not a difficult repair to replace the harness (I did this on my S40 as part of 20 year old car ignition refresh :-) ) If I recall, the part was about $75 and it took me less than an hour to install.