B3nson's Bargain Barge - Volvo V70
Discussion
With a baby due any day I'd come to the conclusion my lovely Alfa Romeo 159 was too small (big car, tiny interior space, awkward boot opening) so decided an estate was on the cards.
Long story short I've decided to sell the Alfa and import a JDM Subaru Legacy Twinscroll, but as there is going to be a few months between Alfa going and Subaru being purchased I needed a cheap runaround. Having originally found the V70 (albeit in T5 version) in the shortlist vs the Subaru I thought I'd try to pick one up cheap to use in the mean time (not T5 for reliable shed money).
So the day before our childs due date, I did what any PHer would do and asked my very pregnant wife to drive me 50 miles to look at a Volvo I'd spotted very cheap on Facebook the previous evening and had exchanged about 3 messages with the seller - "is it available, what's your postcode, see you at 2pm"
Turned up to a very nice house in Surrey to find a car that had been used as a second car for many many years, was a bit scruffy inside and out but still very presentable. A 2 minute test drive and quick roll around on the floor confirmed this was a bit of bargain, so I handed over the £580 asking price and wafted it the 50 miles home.
What does £580 buy nowadays?
2.4 5cyl - only 140bhp version but beggars can't be choosers
Manual
1 owner from new
72,000 miles
7 seats (has the hilarous factory rear facing fold out seats in the boot)
Cloth heated front seats
Here she is in all her glory - I even quite like the colour, it's an almost pearlescent silver.
[url=https://flic.kr/p/226Ghoj]
Next step was to get it MOT'd and work out a to-do list for a few issues I identified on the drive home.
Long story short I've decided to sell the Alfa and import a JDM Subaru Legacy Twinscroll, but as there is going to be a few months between Alfa going and Subaru being purchased I needed a cheap runaround. Having originally found the V70 (albeit in T5 version) in the shortlist vs the Subaru I thought I'd try to pick one up cheap to use in the mean time (not T5 for reliable shed money).
So the day before our childs due date, I did what any PHer would do and asked my very pregnant wife to drive me 50 miles to look at a Volvo I'd spotted very cheap on Facebook the previous evening and had exchanged about 3 messages with the seller - "is it available, what's your postcode, see you at 2pm"
Turned up to a very nice house in Surrey to find a car that had been used as a second car for many many years, was a bit scruffy inside and out but still very presentable. A 2 minute test drive and quick roll around on the floor confirmed this was a bit of bargain, so I handed over the £580 asking price and wafted it the 50 miles home.
What does £580 buy nowadays?
2.4 5cyl - only 140bhp version but beggars can't be choosers
Manual
1 owner from new
72,000 miles
7 seats (has the hilarous factory rear facing fold out seats in the boot)
Cloth heated front seats
Here she is in all her glory - I even quite like the colour, it's an almost pearlescent silver.
[url=https://flic.kr/p/226Ghoj]
Next step was to get it MOT'd and work out a to-do list for a few issues I identified on the drive home.
£580 for a 1 owner car with 75k miles? You hit the jackpot I feel. Currently looking in the sub 1500 market and there is nothing even similar! Currently got my eye on a BMW compact being sold by a charity, 1 owner, fsh, thinking it was bequeathed on death . . . but no doubt will go over budget!
I agree on the colour - suits the car well.
I agree on the colour - suits the car well.
Benjijames28 said:
Give me a message when your Subaru gets here mate and I will have this car off you for your purchase price plus anything you spent on it in meantime.
Unfortunately you’re about 6th in line at the moment! You know you’ve got a steal when people are lining up to buy it off of you when you’re finished with it.So onto the to do list.
First was an MOT as it’s going to be carrying around my wife and child so basic safety is an obvious requirement.
Great news was it passed easily, only advisories being all the brake hoses were perished.
If I was trying to do it all as cheaply as possible then I’d ignore them, but it needs to be safe and reliable so a set of hoses were ordered.
Also ordered was an oil filter, spark plugs, fuel filter and thermostat.
It has a slight misfire at times, I don’t know when the oil was last changed and it’s running cold so a basic service is a necessity. Servicing looks to have been fairly sporadic in the past as it’s done so few miles over the last few years.
Total for hoses and service kit - £60
MOT - £20
An item I knew i needed was a load cover as I want to be able to hide anything in the boot. A search on eBay netted me one for £40 so that’s in the post.
I also noticed while hoovering much dog hair from the boot was that the LHR tweeter wasn’t working. Now this is completely unnecessary but it would annoy me knowing about and not fixing it so a second hand one has been ordered for a tenner.
So running total so far is £710. I’ve started to clean the interior up so that’s next to complete once the service and brake hoses are done.
Integroo said:
£580 for a 1 owner car with 75k miles? You hit the jackpot I feel. Currently looking in the sub 1500 market and there is nothing even similar! Currently got my eye on a BMW compact being sold by a charity, 1 owner, fsh, thinking it was bequeathed on death . . . but no doubt will go over budget!
I agree on the colour - suits the car well.
Yeah there’s alot of really knackered stuff at that price point, and some really overpriced stuff too!I agree on the colour - suits the car well.
I went in thinking this could be the same but I couldn’t believe when I saw the V5 that it was a one owner car and was very happy with the mechanical condition
So after 2 weeks of paternity leave I've returned to work, which means I was there to hassle the workshop to get the Volvo on the road, and so now it is!
Having a good look around it while it was being serviced showed the front ARB links are pretty much brand new, as was the air filter. The brake fluid however, was definitely not -
[url=https://flic.kr/p/25xeK6y]
Top tip - when your brake fluid is white and gooey, it's time to change it! The resevoir was flushed out as well and after replacing all 4 perished hoses (with only 1 metal pipe as a casualty of corrosion) the brake pedal actually worked again.
Fuel filter, oil and filter and spark plugs all replaced, and more importantly were all the correct parts which is always a gamble with cheap Euro Car Parts parts.
The thermostat was definitely stuck open causing it to run cold, but question was did that hide any other issues? Thankfully it ran up to temperature quickly, heater was working well and the fan cut in when it should. So all good news there.
Now it was running properly I felt that luxury items were required, so an AC regas was next on the list. After clearning a fault in the ECU and filling the system full of gas it's all working lovely and cold. We'll see if this will last or whether the 15 year old condensor, compressor or pipes will give up first!
The only downer at the moment is the ECU flagged a lambda sensor code after 24hours, this has been cleared and hasn't returned since so hopefully it was just the sensor getting a bit suprised that everything was up to temperature for the first time in a long time!
Having a good look around it while it was being serviced showed the front ARB links are pretty much brand new, as was the air filter. The brake fluid however, was definitely not -
[url=https://flic.kr/p/25xeK6y]
Top tip - when your brake fluid is white and gooey, it's time to change it! The resevoir was flushed out as well and after replacing all 4 perished hoses (with only 1 metal pipe as a casualty of corrosion) the brake pedal actually worked again.
Fuel filter, oil and filter and spark plugs all replaced, and more importantly were all the correct parts which is always a gamble with cheap Euro Car Parts parts.
The thermostat was definitely stuck open causing it to run cold, but question was did that hide any other issues? Thankfully it ran up to temperature quickly, heater was working well and the fan cut in when it should. So all good news there.
Now it was running properly I felt that luxury items were required, so an AC regas was next on the list. After clearning a fault in the ECU and filling the system full of gas it's all working lovely and cold. We'll see if this will last or whether the 15 year old condensor, compressor or pipes will give up first!
The only downer at the moment is the ECU flagged a lambda sensor code after 24hours, this has been cleared and hasn't returned since so hopefully it was just the sensor getting a bit suprised that everything was up to temperature for the first time in a long time!
Update time!
The good news it's been pretty bang on since I bought it. I've put about 2000 miles on it in 2 months or so, which was more than it was averaging annually in it's previous life. It's lugged stuff to the tip, wife + baby + baby stuff to Dorset and Gloucestshire and picked up a full garden furniture set with ease.
General driving impressions are it's slow, boat like and not very economical. But it is comfy, the heated seats are ridiculously hot, the AC is nice and cold and it hasn't cost me any more to keep it running.
It was idling low when warm so I took the throttle body and cleaned that up, which resolved that issue.
The lamda sensor fault has flagged up a few times in this period but always goes off again the following day and doesn't affect running so it'll be staying as it is.
A Subaru has been bought today, it'll be on it's way over from Japan soon so hopefully in about 9 weeks time I'll be looking sell the Volvo - if anyone wants a cheap, ultra reliable car let me know!
The good news it's been pretty bang on since I bought it. I've put about 2000 miles on it in 2 months or so, which was more than it was averaging annually in it's previous life. It's lugged stuff to the tip, wife + baby + baby stuff to Dorset and Gloucestshire and picked up a full garden furniture set with ease.
General driving impressions are it's slow, boat like and not very economical. But it is comfy, the heated seats are ridiculously hot, the AC is nice and cold and it hasn't cost me any more to keep it running.
It was idling low when warm so I took the throttle body and cleaned that up, which resolved that issue.
The lamda sensor fault has flagged up a few times in this period but always goes off again the following day and doesn't affect running so it'll be staying as it is.
A Subaru has been bought today, it'll be on it's way over from Japan soon so hopefully in about 9 weeks time I'll be looking sell the Volvo - if anyone wants a cheap, ultra reliable car let me know!
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