Hello Jerry:

There is not one bad bit of advice here; everyone is probably more experienced than I with Volvos specifically but there are a few truisms for all classic car dealings. The most important is: buy the best quality car you can afford. If you can afford to spend $2,000 then damn it, take your time, look around, wait around, put out your feelers, but spend that $2,000 on the best car that merits the price. Buying a $1,200 car will absolutely cost you a hell of a lot more than $800 in the medium run, not to mention the long run. Probably the short run too.

Just as an example, I bought my 122 wagon in August of 2004, seven months ago. I paid $3,000 for a beautiful car with 71,000 original miles, almost no rust (floor problem, but nothing structural), near perfect interior (a cracked dash and a minor headliner tear) and it was owned by a Volvo technician. It is SWEET. He had made many nice upgrades such as a new fuel pump, etc. but the bottom line is that since then I have had to replace the rotor cap, plugs, wires and the clutch slave cylinder. The point I am trying to make is that even an old car in great condition is an old car. It will require work, love, patience and money and the better the car is at time of purchase the less it will require of you.

Cheers,

Jeff Pucillo