Hullo! I stumbled across this site while researching a car purchase and I thought I'd ask y'all (yes, I'm in the south United States) a couple of questions regarding a vehicle that I'm interested in. First, some background, and an apology-in-advance. This is going to be a rather long post, but I figure that I'm better off being as detailed as I can. I hope you understand.

I'm a divorced father of four (non-custodial parent). My daily driver, a VW Jetta, has been a great car for me. It has decent performance, lots of space for me (6'1", 250 lbs), great reliability and awesome bang for the buck. I only paid $1,000 (US) for it and it has lasted me three years, with few repairs - which to me is great service. As a daily driver, it's a great car. The only problem comes when I have the kids. It then becomes far too small.

So, with that in mind, I started looking around for a cheap second car that would haul the family around comfortably and would also offer better cargo space than my trusty VW. My main concerns are price, safety, reliability & comfort/roominess.

1. Price - I don't want to spend more than $2,000 (US). I know this sounds silly, but I don't think I'm going to put more than 5k miles p/year on the vehicle for the next 5 years. It's certainly not going to be my daily driver. I'm looking at used MB 300SD's or 420 SEL's for that (although a 740 turbo might work as well). I don't see the point in spending alot of money on a second car.

2. Safety - It's going to be toting my family around in TX - where even 105 year-old women want to drive 4 door diesel 1 ton pickup trucks. Crashworthiness is a HUGE issue.

3. Reliability - A car that doesn't go anywhere might as well be a terrarium filled with hermit crabs. I don't mind working on a car now and again, but I don't want to do it often. I want it to run when I need it.

4. Comfort/Roominess - My children (13, twin 10 year olds & 9) are all threatening to be 6' tall - so I need something roomy. Plus, I have a yellow lab that gets testy if I don't take her with me when I go anywhere. Kinda like my ex-wife, but the lab won't take all my stuff if our relationship goes bad. That's another story though..........I also frequently lug computer components, wood, tools, and other fairly large objects with me, so cargo space is a must.

Having said all that....

I ran across a 1989 240 DL Wagon w/120k miles on it, parked behind a health food store/coffee shop in town. It didn't look as if it had been moved for a while, so I took a look at it. I'm a fair hand with a wrench and I was thinking that I might be able to save money buying something that needs a little work. The body looked good, aside from the clearcoat starting to fail from sitting in the TX sun. The interior looked good aside from some degradation of the plastic in the door panels. The dash isn't cracked. It seemed to be worth looking at. The registration sticker dated back to 1998, which meant that the owner wasn't driving it, and hadn't been for some time. I decided to ask him about it.

He was surprised that I approached him about the car, and said he hadn't thought about selling it. He had bought it used and driven it for about two years, and then parked it when he got a great buy on an RX-7. He said that when he parked the Volvo for the last time it hadn't had anything wrong with it. The AC worked, the tranny shifted fine, the engine ran well, it didn't pull when driving or breaking. He had pulled the battery out of it, and a few times a year he recharges the battery, puts it back in, starts the car and lets it idle for a while. According to him, it's always started up.

He also said that it was the 4th Volvo that he has owned, and he has always been impressed by them.

He offered to sell it for $1,000, which seems reasonable to me. Seeing as the keys & the maintenance records were at his house, I couldn't get into the car to look at it more closely. We set a date & time next week when I am to show back up to start the car and check it out. Which brings me to my questions.....

I know that Volvo prides itself on producing one of the safest cars on the road, but how reliable are these cars? What kinds of things go wrong with them? Is it reasonable to expect that this car will meet all of my requirements? Providing the car runs & drives well, is $1,000 a reasonable price for it? Are there any known problems with 240's that I should watch out for when looking at the car?

I would sure appreciate any input y'all might be willing to give me.

Thank you - and, again, sorry 'bout the length of this post.

In addition to what the other posters have said, please know that Volvo made about 2.8 million 240's in the 20 run of that model. Many parts from the mid 70's models will bolt right on to the last 240's that left the plant in 1993. I mean even the seats inter-change! The point to this is that no matter what parts you might need, you can likely find them inexpensively at a local salvage yard. Around my East TN hometown, there are three such "pull and pay" yards that let you go in and just get pretty much whatever you need, and just pay on the way out. Kinda fun to do, and a very cheap way to keep your car looking and running good!

I have had 2 Volvo 240 wagons and love them. They will do the kind of hauling you are taliking about just fine. I have found the Volvos have their strengths and weaknesses like most cars but the weaknesses are such that you can take car of them yourself. This board can clue you in on them. The area I've had to deal with the most has been electrical. Nothing costly, just poor connections. If I were buying that car, I'd go through it and clean and tighten the grounds, resolder the relays (check the board archives), and replace the alternator brushes. The others have given you good advice on the suspension and other areas to check.

Afraid I'm guilty of a long post too...

I think Randy and Tony covered it pretty well. Personally, if I were looking at the car I would pay particular attention to all the car's seals. If the car has been sitting for 4 years chances are that things like caliper, fuel injector and other seals might have dried up and could go bad.

After doing a thorough evaluation of the car - even if it turns up nothing wrong - you might set aside some funds because inevitably something will turn up. Your call on this, but you can replace parts as preventive maintenance or you can probably just drive it as these cars generally run even if they need repairs...

The engine and drivetrain on these cars is bulletproof and about as good as they come. I bought my 1990 over 2 years ago with 164k on it. The engine runs strong, with no mechanical issues and burns no oil at 209K. Always starts first time and like Tony I haven't had any ECU issues. Runs like a top in all conditions since the day I bought it. Engine leaks, however can be a pain - change the flame trap immediately, but that is another story. I replaced leaky front seals when I did a timing belt at 200K. Been trying to track down another leak and recently replaced the valve cover gasket which seems to have cured most/all of the leak. Thought it was the rear main seal but seems okay now. Have a little more digging to do to make sure it's cured. Just replaced the tranny rear seal/bushing, no more leaks there and shifts like new!!! OTH - at 120K you probably won't have my 200k issues/problems. Again, change the flame trap look for details in the 700/900 FAQ in the pull down menu of the Features section of this page. Good reference too! Most applies to 240's as well.

These are durable, dependable cars and if properly maintained can run pretty much forever. I've heard of many 240's with over 400k on their original engines or even more!!!

If it checks out, for $1000 buy it. These are great cars!!!

Good luck,

Jim 1990 244DL 209K and going for 300K

Afraid I'm guilty of a long post too...

I think Randy and Tony covered it pretty well. Personally, if I were looking at the car I would pay particular attention to all the car's seals. If the car has been sitting for 4 years chances are that things like caliper, fuel injector and other seals might have dried up and could go bad.

After doing a thorough evaluation of the car - even if it turns up nothing wrong - you might set aside some funds because inevitably something will turn up. Your call on this, but you can replace parts as preventive maintenance or you can probably just drive it as these cars generally run even if they need repairs...

The engine and drivetrain on these cars is bulletproof and about as good as they come. I bought my 1990 over 2 years ago with 164k on it. The engine runs strong, with no mechanical issues and burns no oil at 209K. Always starts first time and like Tony I haven't had any ECU issues. Runs like a top in all conditions since the day I bought it. Engine leaks, however can be a pain - change the flame trap immediately, but that is another story. I replaced leaky front seals when I did a timing belt at 200K. Been trying to track down another leak and recently replaced the valve cover gasket which seems to have cured most/all of the leak. Thought it was the rear main seal but seems okay now. Have a little more digging to do to make sure it's cured. Just replaced the tranny rear seal/bushing, no more leaks there and shifts like new!!! OTH - at 120K you probably won't have my 200k issues/problems. Again, change the flame trap look for details in the 700/900 FAQ in the pull down menu of the Features section of this page. Good reference too! Most applies to 240's as well.

These are durable, dependable cars and if properly maintained can run pretty much forever. I've heard of many 240's with over 400k on their original engines or even more!!!

If it checks out, for $1000 buy it. These are great cars!!!

Good luck,

Jim 1990 244DL 209K and going for 300K

I'm driving an '89 that I bought new. The sedan version. It currently has 216000 miles.
As mentioned, the ECU (computer) is known for crapping out although mine has not.They are $700 from the dealer I got aspare on e-bay for $90ish...I tried and it works. At 120000 miles you will probably want to listen for clunking in the rear end, during acceleration and over bumps that would likely be Trailing arm bushings(pain in the butt job), you will want to change the brushes in the alternator (under $6 super easy to do) you may want to crawl under the car by the back of the drivers seat and see if it rusted through. I don't have this problem but I heard that many Volvos rust the seat mounts right off the body.
I still have the original Radiator. so far so good. Water pump, starter and alternator (minus the brushes) are still original. If it's got good rubber and it runs, Hell yeah , I'd say $1000 is a deal.
--
'75 Jeep CJ5 345Hp ChevyPwr and two motorcycles: it wasn't Volvos safety , it was Longevity that sold me

If the car starts and drives you can't go wrong with paying $1000. That doesn't mean there are not issues that may not show up until after the ink is dry on the transfer of ownership. Sitting for four years is not a good thing for the injection system. The 89's had some problems with their ECU's. Remove the sill cover on the passenger's side and then the kick panel and check to see if the last three numbers on the ECU are 951. If so it has the better ECU. The mileage at 120K is what I would consider low. See if you can determine if the odometer is working. There is a gear that breaks and if it does the speedometer still works but the odometer does not. If it has had reasonable service and the mileage is correct the engine is good for at least another 100,000 miles. See if the front end seems tight enough to be acceptable and safe. I would be surprised if the AC worked and you are liable to find other things that need some $$$ and labor thrown at them. Does it still have the original type plastic radiator that should be replaced before it cracks and overheats your perfectly good engine? If it is like most other Volvos of that vintage with those miles and you are good with a wrench it sounds like a great value.

I would expect to put $400 in parts in a car of that description to make it comfortable and reliable. Shocks, struts, timing belt, drive belts, seals, alternator brushes, radiator, plugs, cap and rotor, ball joints, etc.

Randy

Randy seems to hit the major areas of concern. I have only owned my wagon for one year, but I can tell you that Volvo parts seem reasonably priced and they are fairly simple cars for repair shops to work on (avoid the dealers). For $1000 (that is also what I paid for my 84) as long as it starts, brakes, shifts, and does all the other basics, it is worth it. Minor things can be done over time, i.e. bushing, struts/shocks, etc. Good luck...

Jay
84 245 GLTi 220k