Alright, trying to help out my sister. She was going to buy car A - 2008 S40 Volvo that had 150k mile for $5k. I said Ok, you NEED to do a Pre Purchase Inspection (PPI). She took my advice and ended up spending $130 and the car needs about $3k in work and who knows how much damage the un-changed timing belt cause.
So this takes us to car B, clean looking 2005 S40 w/ 130k miles. Had no history report or paperwork, so I said first off it's risky (probably another basket case) BUT it is sitting on newish Michelin Tires (Sometimes I judge pass owners on tire choices) so buy a Carfax report. Carfax returned surprisingly good two owners. First owner traded in at 20k regular maintenance. Second owner had it for 8 years and drove 13k a year, was serviced every 3k miles for oil change then had regular maintenance at appropriate intervals. I did her a solid and called every service center it went to, to see what was replaced (trying to find the holy grail of an already changed timing belt, because who spends $2k on a car and then turns it in):
Fuel pump relay, fuel pump control module at 52k.
Spark Plugs at 60k.
Brakes and stuff all over.
Timing belt, Water Pump, Pulley at 104k
Brake Pads
My only concern now is suspension, as I see these go through CV boots. Seems like its' worth it to have a PPI?
At what point do you say or realize that any high mileage European car will need work when bought, because no one trades in a perfect car? Am I trying to find a white unicorn here? I'm guessing that car was traded in for a reason, maybe the suspensoin stuff I mentioned or maybe alternator, who knows. She would like to take it from 130k-250k+.
I feel like any car bought used, you should expect to buy some things for it. Doesnt matter if its a v8 swapped blazer or a 2005 volvo. But i would think the 130k one is your best bet so far but like she did before its a good idea to get a ppi if you cant yourself. Then you know what all is needed.
Sounds like a pretty good service history to me. Unfortunately every car in the world will need something eventually, all you can do is choose the nicest candidate, continue maintaining it well and hope for the best. Have the PPI done for peace of mind if you can, but by the same token, I wouldn't let a (potential!) $9 CV boot failure scare me off of an otherwise good car.
130-150k is not high mileage.
I haven't noticed a propensity for CV boots, unless maybe someone was installing the cheapo hard plastic ones that fail rapidly.
The only major gotchas I can think of are the crankcase ventilation system occasionally going into oil-Hoover mode, but this is generally all European cars. If the OCIs have been kept short then it is not usually a problem.
Timing belt is super simple on the whiteblock Volvos, I would not shy away from a car just because it's not been done.
Knurled wrote:
130-150k is not high mileage.
I haven't noticed a propensity for CV boots, unless maybe someone was installing the cheapo hard plastic ones that fail rapidly.
The only major gotchas I can think of are the crankcase ventilation system occasionally going into oil-Hoover mode, but this is generally all European cars. If the OCIs have been kept short then it is not usually a problem.
Timing belt is super simple on the whiteblock Volvos, I would not shy away from a car just because it's not been done.
Any aftermarket for the 2.4i? Just curious. Sway bars? Shirt shifts? Nothing real big like engine mods, but bolt kns etc.
In reply to Coldsnap:
Not much in the way of engine stuff for the 2.4i but there are plenty of suspension bits and other goodies. Check out elevatecars.com and ipdusa.com for some fun aftermarket Volvo stuff.
I gotta say, a manual V50 would be awesome for her.. As she travels a TON.And for some reason they are cheaper than the v40?
I think some suspension and brake parts interchange with the Mazda 3 and focus. They were all platform mates. For instance, I think the turbocharged S40's got Mazdaspeed 3 brakes.
A friend has one of these that's got well over 100k on it. I think it's a 2005 or 2006, and he bought it new. I remember he had some cooling system issues a while ago, but other than that, it's been decent.
