newbie;want to buy a volvo wagon

What's your budget?

If you want a stick, your best bet is to find a 240 but 740s were also available with that though not as common. They don't really "go bad", if you take care of them they'll often run 300,000-400,000 miles. There's a faq out there on what to look for on a 240, keep in mind they're getting pretty old so they will normally take some tinkering but they're good cars, ideal for someone who does their own mechanical work.

Stick shift Volvos are hard to find in North America as they were less than 10% of the sales.

That said, I would look for a 240/740/940 rather than the later front wheel drive models. The FWD cars do not in my opinion seem to have the extreme long term durability capabilities of the older generation.

John

That seems correct.

I bought a new '96 850 Turbo, used synthetic oil, and the seals failed after 60K.

The sunroof had a rattle I couldn't fix, and the handling was squirrely / scary toward the limit.

It sucked: I sold it and went back to a better car: 244 Turbo.

The 200, 700 and 900 series from the late '80s into the early '90s (when they were replaced by other models) are a good bet within your price range. You should expect to be doing your own maintenance and minor repairs to keep them going at a price a student can afford, especially when dealing with cars that old.

Don't go earlier than '88 on the 700 series at least, and I think the same applies to the 200s but maybe not as much. We have an '85 760 turbo wagon, and the power train is still in great shape. Some piston slap when cold, but it's still a daily driver. In 1988 Volvo seemed to decide a few problems had gone on long enough; in particular, the wiring in Volvos from the ealier '80s had environmentally friendly wiring that couldn't wait to bio-degrade. I replaced my engine harness years ago. The troublesome vacuum operated automatic climate control in mine was replaced with an electronic version that was much more reliable.

If you find a stick, those are reliable as long as the clutch is in good shape... but as with any stick, that is hard to know. The automatic trannies used in that vintage are bulletproof with one exception: the type that has 4 forward gears on the shifter (instead of 3 and a separate overdrive override button near your thumb on the shifter) will not tolerate high revs in park or neutral. I believe the limit is 2000 rpm for 30 seconds - go past that and the internal clutches are destroyed.

You will find a lot of enthusiasm here for the 240s, 740s and 940s. Some would argue they are the sturdiest cars ever made.

BTW - the rear wheel drive Volvos I mention don't do well in snow without cables or chains, strange as it sounds for Swedish cars. Chain up the rear wheels and you are ready for the snow, though.

Mike

how much $$ do you want to spend ??

I am looking to spend a about 2500.one of the students had a wagon for

500.00 with 224000 on it with a stick looks to be in good shape for 22 years old.

Kasoma

Decent 245 wagons can usually be found for $1000 to $1500, after dickering, and beaters are out there for $400 or even less (shudder).

snpboy, are you mechanically competent, meaning do you know how to work on cars?

If you do, go for it, find one with a fixable flaw or two; if not, you'd best find as close to a mechanically perfect car as possible, because maintenance and repair of a mechanically neglected beater will kill you.

There's a reason it only cost $400.

zen and the art of Volvo maintenance...

There's no reason to avoid the pre-'88 cars, most of them have had the wiring harness repaired by now, otherwise that is something to check. I would avoid pre-'88 760s because of that climate control system, but even that can be made to work if you take the effort to really track down vacuum leaks.

w/$2,500...I would look for a 940 or 240 wagon... save or bank $1,000 for your "repair and maint" expenses....You should be able to find and have one inspected by a volvo independent shop for that kind of $$ ($1,500) ....

I don't know if you know how to work on cars, but if you don't, there is no time better than the present to learn how.

Assuming you buy a 240 series Volvo, save enough dough to purchase a "Bentley Bible?\" (best repair manual: available through IPD.com) and a full set of tools, plus jack, jack stands, timing light, VOM, trouble light etc.

Be the best investment (in youself) that you ever made.

You talk about sunroof rattle??? HuH? My XC70 has a Hellacious rattle whtn the sun shade is retracted and nobody wants to do anything about it. I must have used that sun shade a maximum of about ten times in three years. My old 240's sunroof has never rattled and I cranked it open every time that I drove it at night, which was about 200 days a year. The 200 series were all great cars. My new one is crap. Believe me, you won't be seeing any 20 plus year old XC's driving around. The will all have gone to the crusher to come back as Lexus or Honda.

Fixable flaw??? Yeah, right, and don't forget the X-ray glasses.

Oh, yes...that infamous wiring harness. In order to replace the part of the harness that exits the firewall from the ECM on my 240 turbo, I had to buy the whole $700.00 under dash harness. Unfortunately, the jerk-offs at Volvo never made it a separate piece able to be ordered from the parts counter. I still feel like sueing them over it because the car isn't smoggable with bare wires touching each other.

The Volvo manuals are much better and they don't switch terminology.

Which part of the harness? I replaced mine a few years ago, it was around $250 for the whole mess, ran all the way from the lambda box under the dash and snaked around the engine. If I were to do it again I think I'd just salvage the connectors and replace the wires myself though.

I have FINALLY gotten around to procuring that abandoned 760 wagon after finally meeting up with the owner of the towing service who has it in his impound lot. If you recall the car has no rust or dents--or key. He is 60 miles from me and told me he will take $250.00--and deliver it! It obviously ran when it was left there. But I'm getting an education reading this thread and would like to know what other problems are peculiar to this model and year?? I'm buying total blue sky the way it is but as one poster told me in here awhile back, it's easily worth that much no matter what I ended up doing with it. But as my Dad said once, "You can get a lot of money in them real quick."

Hey cool! Well first thing to do is get a key for it, you should be able to do that by taking the VIN and proof of ownership to a dealer. That'll make everything else a lot easier.

After that, drain and replace all the fluides, including the gasoline. Put a new oil filter on it and replace the fuel filter, only then should you attempt to fire it up. If the old filter has rusted out inside it may clog the whole works when you try to start it, I just recently had that happen with an old CIS injected car.

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