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I bought a well-maintained '95 855 GLT a month ago and am very pleased with it. (I'm also a 240 guy -- have three of them). Here are some concerns to be aware of, repair of which are expensive:
PNP switch on auto trans (mine's a 5 speed, so I didn't have to worry about it)
rear main seal
aforementioned a.c. evaporator replacement
CV joints on halfshafts
Have your parents or you examine the records or repair history of this car so you can see when these items were replaced. If they haven't been done yet, I suspect that $5500 is too much -- by a factor of maybe $1500-$2000 -- because you're looking at a lot of labor expense to replace them, and they *will* need replacing.
Also -- if there's no record of a timing belt replacement, get that done *real fast*. This motor is an interference motor, and if that belt breaks, the motor is toast. With that mileage, if the belt hasn't been replaced, I would walk away from the car -- it obviously was owned/driven by folks who thought they had a rental car, and you're probably looking at a money pit. There will be others -- I'm surprised how many 850s of this generation are out there for sale.
I really like our 'new' 5 speed 855 -- I look for excuses to drive it; the 240s are getting cob webs. But, it's another world. Fanciness, electronic dodads, comfiness, but that means a lot of niggling repairs because Volvo doesn't have the reliability in these areas that Toyota/Honda have. We bought the car for my younger son who has a nasty college 'commute', and I wanted to get a wagon which is head and shoulders safer than the 1981 245 he previously had. When he's graduated, I'm not sure if I'll want to keep it to pay the dealer mega bucks to fix the power seat, window switches, climate control and all that fluff we don't have to deal with on our spartan 240s. But it's sure a blast to drive...
Rob Kuhlman
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