I've had this ol Volvo for 2 and a half years and it's a great deal when I got it...only 500 before fixing brakes and various body and engine issues. It even seems to run better in the colder monthes too.

One thing that's bothered me is that I usually keep accelerator pedal only slightly depressed running the manual transmission thru the gears at a steady 2500 to 3000 rpms and that's dandy for gas mileage and getting places at a reasonable but not speedy clip. I didn't buy a heavy car with relative low horsepower 4 banger for speed.

What annoys me though is going up hills. I use the gears and higher rpms then and I could get to a ski resort every day of the week and still keep up with the lighter Suburus etc with my cooper studded snowtires... But forever that last half of accelerator pedal is mostly useless for me. I steep on it and if is just past a third or half of play the engine just seems to surge and do nothing but seem to spin out of usefull momentum.........almost like an automatic trans, not working or something. I know I probably need new timing belt (still not done yet), new sparks, maybe new cap and rotor although with elect ignition maybe not so important.... (and I also couldn't get the rotor off...is there a trick? -- I pulled hard and don't want to break it..) .

My clutch is old and one mechanic thought it needed changing but he was wrong and you can get a lot of miles out of an old clutch as it's always changing gears fine enough. I have a rear oil leak but even that's a little less now since changeing PCV valve thingy...(didn't seem clogged but dirty and now, surprise, less leaking for and aft since...check them things!!)
This riddle is still bothering me. First part of accelerator pedal gives me the ompf to do normal driving, compression seems good, and am not losing hardly any oil, and starts up fine...but when I stomp on gas.... the last bit of accelerator pedal travel just makes the engine seem to spin out like it was on ice or something: drivetrain or electrical/fuel/engine problem???