VOLVO FOR LIFE?

The earliest 5 cyl 850´s i know of have driven around 250-300 kmiles and are still running. Only engine changes i have heard of are caused by a broken cam belt, when not replaced in time.

Niels

In The Netherlands I know of many 850's and S/V70's with (way) over 400k km's and still running like new. Mine, a '99 V70 has almost 240k km's and sounds like it's not more than a year old.

Marc

I had a '94 850 t5 which had 256.xxx miles when I sold it. However, it was burning a pint of oil every 1000 miles when I got it so, had a not checked oil each week, it would have probably failed long before this. Trick is to watch the oil level.

I'd say they are great cars. I see so many in the autotrader that have super high mileage. The S80 is another beast altogether, first off, it's an inline 6, which is based off of the 960/S-V90 cars (not exact engine, but very close, Porsche design if I remember correctly.)

My 760 with the failure prone B280F is still running strong, ok, at least everyone back then said it would be failure prone. 302K kms, and still running ;)..

Buying a Volvo is an investment, you buy one once, and keep it for 20 years. Buy another car, and replace it every 8-10.

The engine in question wasn't worn out, but had some yet-unidentified cause of failure. Clearly oil starvation was a factor but there is some confusion about the process.

Many modern engines can be expected to last longer than the rest of the car. My daughter's '93 Honda is somewhere around 210K miles and doesn't consume oil; my '85 765T is coming up on 240K miles and consumes a quart between changes. Sadly, the plastic in the interior of the Volvo has succumbed to the Arizona sun long ago.

Mike

The cars are good for a long life in most cases, and the value of the car according to the blue book is only one measure. What will it cost for a car you like as much (or dislike as much :))

They seem to be going around 250K without too much trouble, the 5 cyl engines are well made and hold up pretty well so long as the timing belt doesn't break.

Thanks for all the feedback here and via email. Met with the manager earlier today who agrees this shouldn't have happened. He is going to run this by Volvo on Monday to see if they are willing to provide an accomodation. One thing in my favor is the fact that the dealership has documented every oil change since the car was new, thus eliminating any question as to maintenance history. I'm not holding my breath, however. If I'm not mistaken, FORD just announced a major earnings loss this past quarter. Oh well...

No matter if Volvo will or will not do anything for you the dealer said go away when you came in for a check up on the very issue.

Seems to moi that the dealer has some culpibility here...