I am looking at buying a 1992 700 series wagon. The car looks OK with a lot of maintence done. I am curious for any hints or tips about this car or this year for things I ought to look for. I have been driving a 1988 240 Seden for years and am looking to replace with a newer wagon that I can get at least another 5 comfortable years out of. Any thing specific I should look at for this year or model? Advice?

See the FAQ sections on Buying Used and Preventive Maintenance.

I would agree with the advice given below. The mileage sounds suspiciously low and these are common enough cars to find one without accident damage. Don't be too concerned with mileage, a well maintained 180K car will be less trouble than a neglected car with lower miles.

Turbo or NA?

Mileage?

The rear suspension might need to be rebushed soon. The transmission, if it is an AW-70/71, might need a tailshaft bushing and/or a new valve body. Motor and tranny mounts go at about this age. If the radiator hasn't been replaced, that should be on your checklist as well, along with the heater hoses and heater control valve. You could be in for some exhaust work, although the stock cat-back exhaust is usually swiss cheese after about 10 years so maybe that's already been done by the previous owner.

I would start with a general tune-up....new rotor, cap, wires, plugs, air and filter filters. Replace the flame trap and clean the plumbing. Look for vacuum leaks at the intake and replace hoses where necessary. Clean the throttle body. If the timing belt is due soon, don't forget to replace the tensioner along with the cam, intermediate and crank seals on the front of the engine. Check the valve lash.

Rust is your biggest enemy. If the body is basically rust-free, everything else is repairable.

Take any car that you are considering to a garage for inspection. With shop rates being what they are today, you will probably spend $120+ but it is well worth the expense IMHO. Get a compression test and leak down test to check for excessive blow-by. Low compression on one cylinder, or low compression across all four that improves when oil is squirted into the cylinders, are signs of pending head gasket failure and worn rings, respectively. You shouldn't have either of those issues on a car that has done 150-175K miles. Basically this will tell you how well the car has been maintained.

I am sorry, George, I should have provided more info. The car is an automatic non-turbo. It appears to have had regular maintenance by a certified,but not Volvo mechanic. It appears the shocks, water pump, timing belt, alternator have all been replaced. The engine area looks clean with no visible drips underneath. The car started right up but I didn't get a chance to drive it yet. There has been some body issues in the past with the rear door being replaced and a front end wreck that was bad enough to deploy the air-bag. The owner claimed the bumper was re-painted and the grill replaced along with the airbag. He says there was no metallic damage and I could find no evidence of it. I has an ok, later aftermarket paint job with the normal dings and little dents. The leather seats are cracked all up and look shot. The windows appear to have some issues going up and down. The owner, who is being refreshingly honest to me said the battery seems to drain every 5 days if the car is not driven. I wonder if that indicates a bad battery or a short somewhere; perhaps in the wiring for the windows. What is something like this worth? Oh and mileage is 94,000 with a replaced odometer but the claim that the mileage is correct. The seller seems very honest so I take that as the truth.

And, there's nothing you've described that would send me running for the hills. Any car that's 16 model years old is going to have some issues. Those don't sound particularly bad. The main thing is to get the car into a Volvo service person you trust and pay them to go over the car. Mine (who was a Volvo-certified tech for years before opening his own small shop) only charged 50 bucks to thoroughly go over the car, including compressions tests, etc. He wrote up everything it needed, with costs, and I used this to negotiate the price down. Later, he collect the money to do the work. A good arrangement.

The car has been wrecked - so what? The important thing is it has been repaired. Find out where the remaining/new problems are and what it's going to take to fix them. Make an offer. Drive away happy!

Love both of my 92 wagons - perhaps the best all-around cars Volvo has ever made.

"The car has been wrecked - so what? The important thing is it has been repaired."

A car that has been in a serious wreck and given a salvage title is not necessarily a bad buy....but this is only true when the repairs were done at a professional body repair shop and not in some guy's garage with a torch, grinder and tons of bondo. If the frame is tweaked even a little bit, there could be ongoing alignment and suspension issues. There is also a possibility that the car will not protect the occupants as well in the next crash.

I would be very suspicious that the body damage to this car was repaired properly given the "MAACO" paint job and trashed interior. It just doesn't sound like somebody cared enough for this car to spend a lot of cash on bodywork.

Not having seen the car, how can anyone know? Point is, as I posted, take it to a knowledgable and qualified service person he trusts, and go from there.

No need to give up on a "virtual" car, not even seen. It might be fine, or it might not. Too many people just "assume" things they have no idea of.

"No need to give up on a "virtual" car, not even seen. It might be fine, or it might not. Too many people just "assume" things they have no idea of."

I'm making opinions based on the facts that the guy gave us. The car has a replaced odometer that shows only 94,000 miles (on a '92 model year car) and yet the seats are trashed, the windows don't work, there are electrical problems, and also the (repaired) accident damage.

Yeah, it's an old car, but I have an '86 240 with 280,000 miles... I take reasonable care of the car (have owned it since 40K) but I am not obsessive. My interior is in very good shape for a 21 year old car. No rips or tears in the seats. They are not leather, though.

My point was (and is)...this car does not sound like it has been looked after at all. And the mileage is suspiciously low, plus the owner admits that the speedo has been replaced. So how likely is it that the seller spent a couple thousand bucks at a body shop to have the repairs done "right" and make sure that the frame is straight?

It just sounds like it is more trouble than it is worth. There are a lot of used 740's out there....why start with one that could be a potential basketcase?

Michael,

Sorry to say it, but I would walk from this car. 92,000 miles is low for a '92, about 6100 miles a year where the 'average' driver puts on 12,000 a year. If the interior of the car is beat up (cracked and torn seats), you can bet that it has been driven more than 6K per year. It could easily have 200K hard miles on it at this point.

Have you ran a title check through Car Fax? It will give you the mileage reported to the state by the smog stations that the owner has used in the past. If you see a big discrepancy in the mileage, you will know exactly when the speedo was replaced and can pretty much figure out the actual mileage from that.

It is very, very difficult to see frame/chassis damage unless you know what you are looking for, and I do not. I would also be nervous about the airbag replacement. Was this done by a professional mechanic? Could be dangerous if not - either deploying when it shouldn't or failing to deploy when you need it.

A battery that drains every five days could be any number of electrical gremlins. Most likely a device drawing current when it shouldn't, but it can be a time consuming and expensive process to figure this kind of stuff out.