A. A 2005 V8 with 103 K for $10,995

or

B. A 2005 2.5T with 93K for $9300

or

C. Neither, Volvos are too expensive to maintain and are not reliable enough to get one that old with that many miles and not expect a ton of headaches and a lot of $$ spent on repairs.

 

No one has an opinion on which is better or if I should just pass and go with something cheaper/newer?

 

B.

The early V8 had balance shaft bearing problems and I'd bet the engine in that one is one of those with the old design.

 

If you think an 05 is too old you really are making me feel bad for my 95

You should have posted this over in the XC90 area as those are the people who might wade in on your choice.

Moved to XC90.

 

Go with the 2.5T. I have a 2006 and I've had no issues with my truck. I just rolled over 90k and I'll be getting my timing belt changed in the next few weeks. My truck has been trouble free, but I maintain my truck. I've heard the V8 are hard on the transmissions so get an inspection if you want the V8. The power is nice, but I have no complains with my 2.5T.

 

06 timing belt isn't due until 120k you know..

 

Yeah, but I lost an engine 15 years ago and change timing belts before 100k on anything I own. I believe my xc90 will drive forever, but I do maintenance early on everything except the oil change interval. (I use synthetic oil)

 

For what it's worth...

My wife and I recently bought a 2005 XC90 2.5T with 200K miles. Most people think we're crazy and I would tend to agree. But we had a hard time finding anything wrong with the car. We got it from a friend who owns a small dealership who let us borrow it for the weekend. We drove it all over the place trying to find an issue with it and came up empty.

Of all the cars we drove the Volvo was BY FAR the smoothest. So we went for it.

Now with 200K miles I've had to do a few things such as the timing belt and the PCV system needs attention but overall we're very happy.

Of all the variations of the early XC90 the 2.5T seems to be the most stable. Don't let the 5 cylinder scare you. The turbo still allows the car to get up and move when needed.