Miles crusher: volvo XC70 is a good option?

[tobiacap]

Hi everyone, I'm Tobia from Italy and I'm new on this forum.

I just make a brief introduction of my case.

I recently graduated and I'm looking for a car to satisfy my daily commuting to work (100 km/day in total, mainly highway) and my big passion for the two wheels during week-ends(dirtbike, moutain bike) and snowboarding...and any outdoor sport in general.

My budget is really limited and I have found only cars with 150k miles (250.000 km)on their back. Most of the owners claims their cars had certified maintenance by Volvo.

My plan is to keep this car 5 years minimun or driving more or less 90k miles (150.000km) in my possession before change it.

My questions are:

- Do you think is possible to achieve with this car this amount of miles (220/250k miles total)?
- What are the parts that are should been replaced to achieve this goal? (I imagine trasmission belt and wheel' bearings..?)
- Automatic trasmission on this model is reliable? When usually the transmission need critical maintencance?

Last but not least: If you think this is NOT the type of car made for achieve this goal, what are your suggestions? (keep in mind: space needed, cheap, highway use...no Land Rover, JEEP etc.)

thanks in advance for your interest.

Toby

PS: I like to do ALL the maintenance of my motorbike by my own. I can do minor to medium maintenance on the car without any problem.

[JRL]

Well, if they were serviced PROPERLY and often starting from new, yes, but usually this is not the case
What years are you looking at?
Stay away from 2001 to 2003, start with 2004s, but 05-07 are the best.
These may be out of your budget but unless you find an extremely good 2004 to 2007 and with fewer miles, complete with ALL service records, I would say pass.

[billr99]

Toby:

Each of my current Volvos (well, actually all of the ones I have had) have all started with what could be deemed to be high miles when I got hold of them, but all came with either a known history or decent records. In turn, I immediately upon purchase went over everything and sorted any found problems. As a result, my '02 has gone nearly 400K kms with just "normal" problems/maintenance save the ones caused by living immersed in sea air (like the PS hard lines and, now, the turbo oil supply pipe rusting and cracking). The other two have both been purchased within this last year and the R is still going thru its "refit". The '05 XC is proving to be as reliable as the '02 albeit with better options, a better gearbox/software, and arguably a better AWD system.

So yes, you can acquire a high-mileage XC and yes, it can be very reliable but be prepared do some work up-front (no matter what they say the history is) and to keep at regular maintenance as it goes along. If you are not willing, able, or have the skills to do the work yourself; you would probably be better off going a different direction.

Have fun,

Bill

[Xfingers]

Toby, it sounds like you could do most of the maintenance necessary to keep the car running which is how you save $$ with these vehicles. If you're going to buy an XC70 with 150k, I'd want to know all the work that's been done on it so far so you can have an idea of what repairs/costs lie in your future. If front suspension and PCV system haven't been replaced, they're due. Transmission fluid should have been replaced within last 30k miles, otherwise replace it. By the way, test drive the car for at least 30 minutes because sometimes transmission problems don't show themselves until the car is fully warmed up.

Howard's got some great info on his site: http://www.freewebs.com/howardsvolvos/beforeorafterpurchase.htm

[tobiacap]

Thanks guys for the exhaustive replies!

I'm focusing more on XC70 with manual shifter instead of the automatic one. I think one big issue of high miles cars could be solved this way. what do you think?

I will test the PVC system with the glove test before purchase.

thanks!


Toby

[brenglxc70]

^ I envy you if you can get an manual shift XC70 over there!

[TheSaint]

So the only manual xc70's I've seen (I always check out xc70's when I'm in Europe) are D5 (diesel) versions. I have no idea how those cars do in the long run. My T5 has 220k so far.

[giorgio]

Are you looking for a diesel or gasoline car?
Take a look here Too : www.volvoclub.it.