Ladies and Gentlemen:

I'm an S70 T5M owner and have no experience with the XC model, so I have a few questions.

My sister is considering a 1999 XC, loaded, dealer maintained with all the paperwork, but with (get this) 218K miles. I know Bricks will run forever, but this might be getting into the stratosphere. The car is coming from a very reputable volvo garage with a pricetag of $5900.

I've looked at some of the posts on XC durability, but none address a car with this mileage. Besides the ususal "Volvo" issues, how risky is this purchase?

Thanks.

Way too many miles for way too many dollars. The same $6000 can buy you an Explorer, say, with about 80K miles. You could probably find a 97/98 rwd Volvo with 100,000 mil for that kind of money, much more reliable, less things to go wrong. Check ebay or autotrader.com. Is 4wd or awd important or is Volvo important? Just as a previous note said you could easily put another $6000 into this car within the next 6 months. Keep looking. On the other hand, as an owner of a 2000 xc I'm happy to know there are xc's out there with this kind of mileage.

it comes with a dealer 1 yr/12 miles extended warranty.

With that many miles, we're talking major expensive repairs in a'99 AWD in the near future.

Electronic throttle module repair to the tune of $1100, Bevel gear repair for the AWD, lots of $$$$, etc.

As mentioned before, stick with a FWD '98 or '97 and you, your sister and her wallet be very happy.
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'88 240, '92 745, '98 v70 John, Tampa Bay

If the car has docummented history of maintenance and repairs, then you might be able to acertain what has and has not been done on it. I would be more inclined to look for a straight V70 with 215K miles than to go after the XC. Maybe if it were a second generation XC,I would be more willing to entertain such idea. If I were your sister and were going to buy this car, I would only do it if I had somewhere around $4000 saved up for additional repairs. I can imagine VC giving up, and having it replaced can run you around $2500-3000. It would be good to know whether VC or the trany has ever been replaced. If these parts have been replaced I would feel more secure in getting this car.

Ta-ta,
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Nautica-Blue Volvo 2001 XC70