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#2
10-08-2003, 07:32 AM
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William, I've only owned one Volvo, a 242GL, and that was my first and last Volvo. I bought it new in the late seventies and it was the least reliable car I've ever owned. I stranded me at least three times on Orange County freeways, twice on the Garden Grove freeway alone. It had fuel injection problems that the dealer was never able to fully cure. It turned out to be a very comfortable POS. I'm sure they're better now but my experience was not a good one.
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#3
10-08-2003, 07:54 AM
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William,
I owned two during the late 70's and early 80's, both were station wagons with four banger engines. Here are a few words and phrases that sum up my experiences with Volvos during that period. Built like a tank. Underpowered and slow. They ran about 80K miles without a problem, then overnight, things started going wrong. The clutch went, the water pump went, and on one of them the entire electrical system had to be replaced. I drove both of them about 120K miles. I never bought another one. My wife loved both of the Volvos. She thought they were the best cars we ever owned. Enough said. Fred
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#5
10-08-2003, 10:05 AM
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Volvo has a club for million mile cars, here is the current leader.
http://www.hillmanimages.com/912/081801_467.html Other high mileage cars. http://www.carolinavolvo.com/high_milage_page.htm I've always heard that Volvo's are very reliable, where I'm from they are used as taxicabs and emergency vehicles.
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#6
10-08-2003, 10:20 AM
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My brothers wife has a Volvo - it has become a maintanence nightmare - leaky things - same stuff Jerry said.
Jeff
__________________
Now I've always been puzzled by the yin and the yang - It'll come out in the wash, but it always leaves a stain
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#7
10-08-2003, 10:29 AM
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One more thing I remembered William... the cost of parts for my Volvo was not much shy of astronomical. Just one example... its water pump went out in 1981 and the dealer wanted $140 in 1981 dollars, $140 for just for the pump itself and not including labor. Luckily I found an honest independent Volvo garage who knew that a $17 Ford waterpump would bolt up perfectly and work just as well. Everything seemed to cost 3X what seemed reasonable at the time.
If it's not something like a Jeep, Toyota, or Honda, I'm just a little gun-shy of the cost of maintaining some vehicle brands. What's almost funny is my wife's sister and her husband own one of the largest Volvo dealerships in Michigan. 
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#9
10-08-2003, 11:20 AM
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#10
10-08-2003, 11:30 AM
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#11
10-08-2003, 11:53 AM
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They are nice cars - I've rented them on trips a couple times and they work. If I was going European I'd go Benz or BMW first.
__________________
Now I've always been puzzled by the yin and the yang - It'll come out in the wash, but it always leaves a stain
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#13
10-08-2003, 03:43 PM
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Quote:
I personally wouldn't own a volvo unless someone bought it for me and promised to pay for the upkeep. My wife had an 1988 240 DL. It was way underpowered, but it was built like a tank and it was a very nice freeway and around the town car. It got decent gas miliage. Engines on volvos tend to last for ever (kind of like the jeep i-6), it's everything else that craps out all at once. We had to replace both fuel pumps 2 times. The water pump went out. The alternater died. We had several seal problems with transmission and oil leaks. It had several electrical/mechanical gremlins (one that couldn't be tracked down caused it to stall sometimes). Half the dash would not light up every once in awhile, and then start to work when it wanted to. The trunk would smell like gas every other month, and the leak was never tracked down. The interior plastic wasn't holding up well to Az./Socal weather. The dash cracked in 2 places and several of the plastic pieces like the map holders on the doors were becoming brittle and cracking. When we sold it, the tranny was starting to skip. This took place from 90k-120K miles. My wife's parents have owned 2 volvos. Her mom drives a 1996 850 sedan, the one with the 5 cylinder turbo charged engine. In all fairness, that vehicle has been rock solid and has over 120K miles on it. They have had to replace one thing on it, maybe the water pump. Her father had the larger 960 sedan (same year I think), and it worked fine until 80K and he decided to sell it because it started developing tranny problems. Anyway, from my personal experience, of buying volvo parts, which are the most expensive I've ever seen ($400 for a rebuilt water pump; the new one from sweden was something like $800) and from dealing with volvo mechanics (which are the most expensive I've ever seen), I would never again own a volvo. My wife's volvo is why I ended up buying a ford taurus. Just as big, just as safe, and if I'm going to get a "unreliable" vehicle as most people believe of ford, I might as well get a vehicle where the parts and mechanics are cheap. (As an aside, no problems with the taurus at all, going on 5 years old now).
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#15
10-08-2003, 04:55 PM
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That may be true. Overall, though, I can't say anything bad about Ford. Every ford I have ever owned has worked flawlessly within the 5 or so years that I have owned it. This taurus has had no problems and I owned a 1994 mustang GT before it and the only problem it had over 6 years was the oil pan seal started to leak at year 5. I talked to the people who bought it from me and they have had 0 problems with it and it's up to 140K miles. My parents owned an explorer sport for 6 years that only had one thing go wrong with it, which was the clutch throw-out bearing, and that was fixed under warranty. Our crappy ford though,was a doozy. It was the ford that everyone thinks about when they think about "ford quality". We had an aerostar minivan that worked about 1 week out of every 3. It was always in the shop for one reason or another and finally, after the dealership swapped every peripheral part on the vehicle, and there was nothing left to change, it developed a stalling problem that would occur all the time and the dealership could never track down. It seems like if you get a good ford, they work fine. If you get the one built on a friday though, watch out. You are in for a world of hurt. Anyway, I'll take ford over Nissan any day. I had a nissan sentra that worked fine at first, but eventually started developing small problems like oil leaks and small electrical problems, and a clutch that went out every 28K miles to the dot. (I was on my 3rd clutch by the time I sold it). My sister's sentra was newer and she had no problems, though. (BTW, a lot of my parent's friends drive the gamut of German cars (BMW, Mercedes, Audi) and they are less reliable than their advertising would lead you to believe).
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#18
10-08-2003, 11:21 PM
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Shalom - the Aerostar was one of the worst vehicles ever made reliability wise. Ford had nothing but problems with them. Electronics were terrible and they caught fire all the time.
Jeff
__________________
Now I've always been puzzled by the yin and the yang - It'll come out in the wash, but it always leaves a stain
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#19
10-08-2003, 11:51 PM
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I think my dad would have loved for ours to catch on fire (so long as we weren't in it). We had to end up selling it for some ridiculous amount of money with low miliage and I think it was about 4 years old.
It was a shame, because he liked everything about it design-wise. It was comfortable, had a decent amount of power, had a truck-like suspension so you could actually cary quite a bit of cargo compared to other mini-vans at the time. We actually drove that thing down to Cabo San Lucas and back during one of the periods in which it had decided to work. It was an awesome road trip, and having the extra room in the aerostar helped out on the long stretches where you were hoping to get to the next town before sundown.
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#20
10-09-2003, 12:44 AM
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I have a -93 Aerostar Cargo van with 90k miles, bought it new, it's been running great except for a leaking heater core.
According to the readers of Consumer Reports the Jeep Grand Cherokee is the least reliable vehicle ever made. My only experience with Volvo's is from the older models, I've owned two and drove a few for a year as a cab driver. Never had any problems, and If I would have, parts were dirt cheap in Sweden. William, if you are looking for a reliable car I think we can all agree that Honda and Toyota is the way to go, and if you really want to be a yuppie get the Lexus or Acura.
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#21
10-15-2003, 11:43 AM
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#24
10-15-2003, 01:44 PM
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__________________
Now I've always been puzzled by the yin and the yang - It'll come out in the wash, but it always leaves a stain
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#25
10-15-2003, 01:57 PM
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Just Coupe and Sedan for the 2004. They do make Element, CR-V, Pilot and Odyssey. There is a dim line between wagons, SUVs and minivans....
This is what looks like the only true wagons, still available new: Audi A4, A6, S4, S6, quatro BMW 3 and 5 series Chevrolet Malibu Maxx Chrysler PT Cruiser Chrysler Pacifica Ford Focus Ford Taurus Kia Rio Lexus IS 300 Mazda Protege 5 Mercedes C and E Class Mercury Sable Pontiac Vibe Saab 9-5 Saturn L Series Scion xB Subaru Forester, Impreza, Legacy and Outback Suzuki Aerio Toyota Matrix Volksvagen Jetta and Passat Volvo V40, V70, and XC70 Still quet a lit to choose from, if you are into that sort of thing.
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#26
10-15-2003, 02:13 PM
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Too small:
Pontiac Vibe Chevrolet Malibu Maxx Chrysler PT Cruiser Ford Focus Suzuki Aerio Toyota Matrix Scion xB Overpriced (not sufficient value to me) Chrysler Pacifica Audi A4, A6, S4, S6, quatro BMW 3 and 5 series Mercedes C and E Class Volksvagen Jetta and Passat Just crappy: Kia Rio Ford Taurus Mercury Sable Saturn L Series Worth the $ but out of budget: Lexus IS 300 To many problems: Subaru Forester, Impreza, Legacy and Outback Volvo V40, V70, and XC70 Hmmmm Mazda Protege 5 Saab 9-5 I'm looking at used, under 15k price, 98 or newer, under 50k miles. I've already done the search thing.. Just sorting out the brands. I had narrowed it to the Subaru Legacy/outbacks, Vovlo V70 (non XC), but hadn't considered Saab's.
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#28
10-15-2003, 02:21 PM
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Volvo is another story, its a ford i wouldnt touch it with a 10 foot stick
__________________
Commy Bastid
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#29
10-15-2003, 02:24 PM
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#30
10-15-2003, 02:34 PM
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__________________
I am Savvy.
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