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What to look out for on a S70 / V70? Typical selling price?

deadken

Member
Joined
Mar 31, 2009
Location
Long Island, NY
My neighbor down the block has a 2000 V70 GLT SE that has been sitting in the driveway for as long as I can remember. I finally saw someone outside the house today so I asked about it and it is his brother-in-laws car. As it ends up, his brother-in-law is on dialysis and has been good friends with my older brother for decades. The story I got is this:
The car hasn't been used for at least 3 years (I noticed that the registration expired in 2017)
Everything was good with the car, EXCEPT the power steering is 'bad'
He originally wanted $3k for the car
As time went on, he came down to $2,500
The last guy who wanted to buy the haggled down to and agreed upon price of $2,000
After getting down to $2k, the prospective buyer asked for another $600 discount to cover the costs of repairing the power steering to which the seller declined and told him to get lost.
The guy in front of the house knows my brother and his brother-in-law are good friends and suggested that I *might* be able to buy the car for $1,500.

I took a peek under the hood and I did notice some coolant coming out from between the upper radiator hose and the rather pitted aluminum housing. The power steering reservoir seemed rather low / empty. The dipstick T handle was broken off and a sheet metal screw driven into the remaining piece of plastic (apparently to work as a handle). The body seemed in rather good shape, one tire was rather low. I'm guessing it'll need the fluids changed, it'll likely need a battery, some brake work and some exhaust work to get it back up to snuff.

Now, I've only owned one car (a VW Passat) that was was newer than 1998 and truth be told, it was a nice car but also way more complicated than it need to be, so I'm skeptical of jumping in. I don't know what the mileage is as the battery is dead (digital display).

If I remember correctly, I read about some cars of this era needing ABS modules to be reflashed. Was this one of those cars?

What typically fails on these S/V 70's?

I can't find similar cars for sale in my area, so I'm not sure what the value of a car like this is. I'm sure knowing the mileage will help, but KBB.com shows it to be around $1,400 - $2,500 with typical mileage.

I'm thinking perhaps it'll be a reasonably fun, safe, reliable car that'll be a decent driver for a while. Perhaps years down the road it'll make a nice whiteblock & rim donor for one of my other Volvo's?

This isn't the car, but it is the same color and has the same rims (no headlight wipers IIRC):
0250_st0640_047.jpg
 
Your neighbor's car does not sound like the one. A P80 volvo that hasn't run in years is pretty much worthless at this point, especially with known prior mechanical issues.

On top of that, if you like the idea of owning a P80 volvo (which refers to 1993-1997 850s & 1998-2000 S/V/C70s, btw) you really don't want a 1999 or a 2000. Volvo completely changed the engine system from mechanical throttle to electronic throttle, and it's an expensive and frustrating repair if you ever have to deal with it. On any whiteblock, you have to be mindful of when the timing belt was changed, because if it breaks, it destroys all your valves ($$$).

Think about it. What are the chances that this car is the one for you? I've almost made a similar mistake, wanting to purchase an absolutely F%^&ed up bmw e36 that sat outside of a restaurant I worked at when I was a teenager. I'm so glad I didn't. The issues were rampant. It made a junkyard car look driveable.

Get on craigslist. Look for a running, driving, P80 volvo from 1998 or prior. Drive it. See if you even like the feeling of driving a P80. Some don't.

Forget about your neighbor's junkyard-bound hooptie. It definitely doesn't sound like the one. There are much better deals on P80s on craigslist sub-$2K.
 
Your neighbor's car does not sound like the one. A P80 volvo that hasn't run in years is pretty much worthless at this point, especially with known prior mechanical issues.

On top of that, if you like the idea of owning a P80 volvo (which refers to 1993-1997 850s & 1998-2000 S/V/C70s, btw) you really don't want a 1999 or a 2000. Volvo completely changed the engine system from mechanical throttle to electronic throttle, and it's an expensive and frustrating repair if you ever have to deal with it. On any whiteblock, you have to be mindful of when the timing belt was changed, because if it breaks, it destroys all your valves ($$$).

Think about it. What are the chances that this car is the one for you? I've almost made a similar mistake, wanting to purchase an absolutely F%^&ed up bmw e36 that sat outside of a restaurant I worked at when I was a teenager. I'm so glad I didn't. The issues were rampant. It made a junkyard car look driveable.

Get on craigslist. Look for a running, driving, P80 volvo from 1998 or prior. Drive it. See if you even like the feeling of driving a P80. Some don't.

Forget about your neighbor's junkyard-bound hooptie. It definitely doesn't sound like the one. There are much better deals on P80s on craigslist sub-$2K.

Yep what he said. You want a 1998 vehicle. Those were the best of the P80s IMO
Common problems are the power steering leak, heater core replacement (super easy unlike our 240s - I always joked Volvo knew the heater cores were POS, so they made them easily serviceable), the radiator pitting/cracking and the TCS module being dead more often than not. In addition, they need the PCV system ?overhauled? every so often if I remember.

Outside of that. They are very reliable vehicles and have excellent corrosion resistance. I had a ?98 C70 that I sold with 312k miles and it was still running strong. The C70s had issues with the strut top hats wearing out prematurely - not sure if it affected the S70 and V70. The V70 has a flaky AWD system - although I think that was only on a certain production batch of the vehicle.
 
I?m new to these cars but $1500 is way way to much even if it hasn?t sat for years. About 6 months ago I got a 2000 v70xc and it?s not to bad to work on but nowhere near as easy as my 740/940?s. I?d wouldn?t touch that car unless it was free.
 
Thanks for all of the replies. I now know what to expect and why I still love redblocks...

I made it known that I was in no hurry and would have to clear out a car or two before even being able to bring it home, so we will see what happens the next time I see him or when spring rolls around and they are itching to get the driveway space back.
 
You might also consider a 95-97 850. Same car minus the styling tweaks. A T5 850 = budget friendly fun. The 850 requires no dealer involvement to add parts from higher trim levels.

The ABS module issue can be fixed yourself with a Dremel and soldering iron. You can also buy professionally repaired modules online.
 
On top of that, if you like the idea of owning a P80 volvo (which refers to 1993-1997 850s & 1998-2000 S/V/C70s, btw) you really don't want a 1999 or a 2000. Volvo completely changed the engine system from mechanical throttle to electronic throttle, and it's an expensive and frustrating repair if you ever have to deal with it.

I see this myth repeated so often but at best it?s an outdated concern. Yes the 99+ P80s will most likely suffer one etm issue at some point in their lives, which can lead to frequent maf failures if ignored, but Xemodex can fix your issue for about $500cdn, and it will be good for life.

The 99+ will also have a much more modern throttle response so $500 divided by however many years you want to drive it (which could be forever with those cars) not really a ?huge $? worry. It sounds like this one would most likely need a rad and I think timing belt/water pump would be good to do sooner rather than later. All those issues combined could be shop repaired for less than $2000cdn (sorry for the funny money references it?s all I know) obviously cheaper if you tackle yourself. At that point the use value of the car would be almost unbeatable.

And as another poster mentioned something on these cars makes them very rust resistant. I?ve been driving mine through salty winters for 15 years without rotting, although my non ss exhaust is another story. This isn?t the case for 850s which suffer much more rust.

Also fwiw the white is probably the most rare non R color offered.

My biggest concern on these would be the interior. Well kept ones are hard to come by, most often trashed inside, fake wood cracking, leather shredded, door cards falling off, etc.
 
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