Need Opinion On Pre-98 850 Sedan Quality/durability

[Noahkk19]

Just my 2 cents. My girlfriend (18) drives a base model 98 S70. She drives like...A young girl. Running over curbs, bumping into things, usually no seat belt unless I remind her, going fast over speed bumps, doesn't know how to check her oil, doesn't really pay attention to when it needs oil, just over all very abusive to the car. I find it VERY hard pressed to think of another car that would be able to handle what she does to it. If it were a turbo, I'd say more than likely her engine would be gone. One time she ran it for a long time with virtually no oil, luckily for her first time I saw her while the engine was ticking horrendously loud I put some oil in it and forced her to get an oil change the next day.

Point in case, a base model 850/S70 is a VERY good car for a young person. It can handle abuse, much more sturdy and safe than any Honda and still runs strong despite all she's done to it. She recently hit a point where a lot needed to be fixed, got that done for about $2,000 (I'm guessing she's around 130,000 miles right now) and the car looks like it'll be running strong for atleast another 50,000. That's engine, suspension, electrical, all. Good luck with your choice :)

[xtc]

I might be stating the obvious but which ever car you decide to buy get a trust worthy mechanic to inspect the acr before you turn over your money. He may find evidence of accidents/flood damage etc. You don't want to end up with a Katrina special.

[Oreo931]

if you need me to run any VINs i can do so until aug 10th

[Kevin Jarrett]

if you need me to run any VINs i can do so until aug 10th

Thanks I'm good have a Carfax account myself through 8/14. :)

[FixerUpper]

can handle abuse, much more sturdy and safe than any Honda

/\

i have to take exception to that statement. My wifes civic has front and side impact air bags and outscored virtually every other compact car in crash testing. Volvos are very safe, but in my humble opinion, Hondas are as well. And no Volvo every got 40 mpg, no hybrid action either...

Bottom line-you don't want surprises. If you expect certain stuff to go wrong, and you have budgeted for it, np! But in the short time I have been on these boards, I have read the following too many times"omg the pos broke again! help!" I think that if you are going to invest in a car like this, shop very carefully. Buy someone else's nicely maintained 850, or inherit someone else's nightmare 850 - the choice is yours.

Another thought: look on here. I saw a 850 turbo I would have bought in a second, plane ticket included, but I already had one car in driveway and wife likes it that way. It had a lot of mods and clearly was way nicer than used car lot 850s. It MAY still be on FS board.

Thats one problem with VS, you get to see a lot of what you want, but can't have. :(

[7 VII 7]

I would recommend a Volvo, my dad bought me one when I first started driving. My brother got into 3 wrecks with it, not his fault at all. Some guy came over 3 lanes and smashed him off the road into a tree. needless to say the car was fine and drives great still, hitting 165k miles soon. S70 Base. You get her a volvo, she will love them for life (sorry the cliche')

[Thunder87]

Bottom line-you don't want surprises. If you expect certain stuff to go wrong, and you have budgeted for it, np! But in the short time I have been on these boards, I have read the following too many times"omg the pos broke again! help!" I think that if you are going to invest in a car like this, shop very carefully. Buy someone else's nicely maintained 850, or inherit someone else's nightmare 850 - the choice is yours.

I agree. Nowaday's there are a lot of very safe cars out there to choose from that are much more reliable then the 850.

The one line I seem to see on here alot is "Oh, that's a common problem with these cars!" Especially when it is in response to a problem I'm having. It seems like the norm to just about every issue I have run into and I have run into a lot. Lol. In the end, I still love the lines of the 850 and feel of the car, plus I own it sooo... But if I had to make the choice again, I would not do it again... Well, maybe and that's a big maybe, and it wouldn't be anywhere near the top of my list. Only if it was a Turbo/manual model from a trusted source and taken well car of , for a really, really good price, I might consider it. I figure with the turbo/stick/good price, at least the hassle would be somewhat worth it, but I'd kick myself everytime something went wrong. :D

[mbsl98]

You're on the right track as far as I can see. We put all three of our teenage sons in well used Volvo's for the same reason. One key point with the cars you are looking at. Side air bags are on the '97 (and on all '96 and up Volvo's). However, Volvo was the first production car ever to offer side air bags, and they started in '95 by making them standard only on the Turbo. However, they were optional on all of the others, so you need to confirm if the '95 you are looking at has them installed. You tell by looking along teh outside lower edge of teh front seats. There is a plastic cover along there, and it says SIPS on all. this is not the air bag, just the Side Impact Protection System that Volvo introduced in I believe '93. If it has side air bags, that plastic piece will say "SIPS Bag". The base '95 850 sounds like it has few options, so it needs to be checked. They did come that way as still have side bags, however. We have a base '95 wagon, with no sunroof, but leather, alloys, and side air bags are there.

[crazykn]

Well I have a 95 GLT model 850... no turbo, just NA... and well safety wise, and I can tell u straight out that there are many safety features that aren't even mentioned and sometimes overlooked.

For example, head rests... do you really wanna snap your neck is someone rear ends you? In the Volvo, ALL the passengers have excellent headrests... compared to some NEW cars today that only provide them to front passengers only... My uncle has a S70, and so far he's been rear-ended in that car about three times (some ppl out here really don't how to drive....), and everytime, those headrests safely protected the head and neck from snapping... I've studied anatomy, and if you neck snaps back, it can lead paralysis or even death (because the Cervical Bone 1 can be pushed forward and cut the spinal cord). So having well designed and well covered head rests are critically important.

Good seatbelt pretensioners... well the Volvo is interesting, it has electronic ones up front and mechancial ones in the back seats. Well pretensioners help the seat belt pull up the slack in the seat belt so that in a sudden stop or crash, you won't move forward and smack something. I remember in my old car (93 Mazda 626), I got into a minor rear ending and well my car rear ended a van up front and well... I almost smacked the steering wheel with my head, because my body went forward. Not to mention that in a crash, the forces on the seatbelt will cause the seatbelt to stretch, to reduce the forces on the body.

Crumple Zones... sorry, but the 93-94 850's frontal crumple system isn't the same or as good as the 95+ . I know this because I did a study on my old car after I got destroyed in a frontal crash. And discovered a interesting manufacturing design. The front frame isn't 'solidly' connected to the cabin of the car. Hence thats why I survived my car accident, the cabin was perfectly intact while the front was gone... the design that Mazda used was superior to Nissan and Honda of its time (which made me thankful that I didn't buy a Nissan Alitma when I bought my first car). Unfortuantly for 93-94 Volvo's... the front frame is 'solidly' connected to the cabin and if a frontal offset crash were to take place the cabin would become part of that first crumple zone. I remember I found a document on this a while back... too bad I can't pull it back up to show. Speaking of crumple zones... the 850 wagon's crumble zone's seems a bit contradictory... if you could have a third row seats for kids and you put them there... if you get rear ended... guess where the crumple zone is... .

Well I think I bored everyone with safety talk...

I bought my 850 used from a used car dealer. It had 165K on it and now it has 173K. So far, the only things i've done are just maintanance items, the car hasn't given me any trouble... and never once have left me stranded. Although I didn't have the service records of the previous owner, I ended up doing preventive mantanance to keep the car going as long as possible, such as a whole timing system overhaul (water pump, belt, pullies, tensioner, etc), tranny flush, brake system overhaul (because I somehow mysteriously worn out my pads and rotors in less than 6 months ), regular oil changes, silicone everywhere , cap/rotor, silicone wires, spark plugs, just preventive maintanance stuff. Pretty soon, i'm considering a PCV job, to replace the whole PCV system, because even though the RMS isn't leaking now... I don't want to take chances. Luckily my RMS isn't leaking and the AC evaporator was good and is still good when I bought the car !

Although I had a chance to get a 93 850 with way less miles for the same price, I don't know why I didn't take it... I guess this 95 was just calling out to me or something...

[rp850]

Supposedly, from what I've read the wagons handle rear impacts differently than the sedans. The trunk on the sedan is designed to crumple while the wagon is more rigid and designed to deflect much of the impact down the sides and the roof of the car. I believe Volvo designed the hatch to be an occupant area, not a crumple zone like the sedan.

The third row seats are actually supposed to be pretty safe because the speeds in a rear-end collision are usually lower (other driver is probably hard on the brakes immediately before impact, etc.) and both cars are moving in basically the same direction in a rear-end crash. Sitting in the third row seat also puts the occupant between the rear axle which helps protect in the event of a side impact.

Anyway, that's what I've read and I hope I never find out how safe my car really is!

Well I have a 95 GLT model 850... no turbo, just NA... and well safety wise, and I can tell u straight out that there are many safety features that aren't even mentioned and sometimes overlooked.

For example, head rests... do you really wanna snap your neck is someone rear ends you? In the Volvo, ALL the passengers have excellent headrests... compared to some NEW cars today that only provide them to front passengers only... My uncle has a S70, and so far he's been rear-ended in that car about three times (some ppl out here really don't how to drive....), and everytime, those headrests safely protected the head and neck from snapping... I've studied anatomy, and if you neck snaps back, it can lead paralysis or even death (because the Cervical Bone 1 can be pushed forward and cut the spinal cord). So having well designed and well covered head rests are critically important.

Good seatbelt pretensioners... well the Volvo is interesting, it has electronic ones up front and mechancial ones in the back seats. Well pretensioners help the seat belt pull up the slack in the seat belt so that in a sudden stop or crash, you won't move forward and smack something. I remember in my old car (93 Mazda 626), I got into a minor rear ending and well my car rear ended a van up front and well... I almost smacked the steering wheel with my head, because my body went forward. Not to mention that in a crash, the forces on the seatbelt will cause the seatbelt to stretch, to reduce the forces on the body.

Crumple Zones... sorry, but the 93-94 850's frontal crumple system isn't the same or as good as the 95+ . I know this because I did a study on my old car after I got destroyed in a frontal crash. And discovered a interesting manufacturing design. The front frame isn't 'solidly' connected to the cabin of the car. Hence thats why I survived my car accident, the cabin was perfectly intact while the front was gone... the design that Mazda used was superior to Nissan and Honda of its time (which made me thankful that I didn't buy a Nissan Alitma when I bought my first car). Unfortuantly for 93-94 Volvo's... the front frame is 'solidly' connected to the cabin and if a frontal offset crash were to take place the cabin would become part of that first crumple zone. I remember I found a document on this a while back... too bad I can't pull it back up to show. Speaking of crumple zones... the 850 wagon's crumble zone's seems a bit contradictory... if you could have a third row seats for kids and you put them there... if you get rear ended... guess where the crumple zone is... .

Well I think I bored everyone with safety talk...

I bought my 850 used from a used car dealer. It had 165K on it and now it has 173K. So far, the only things i've done are just maintanance items, the car hasn't given me any trouble... and never once have left me stranded. Although I didn't have the service records of the previous owner, I ended up doing preventive mantanance to keep the car going as long as possible, such as a whole timing system overhaul (water pump, belt, pullies, tensioner, etc), tranny flush, brake system overhaul (because I somehow mysteriously worn out my pads and rotors in less than 6 months ), regular oil changes, silicone everywhere , cap/rotor, silicone wires, spark plugs, just preventive maintanance stuff. Pretty soon, i'm considering a PCV job, to replace the whole PCV system, because even though the RMS isn't leaking now... I don't want to take chances. Luckily my RMS isn't leaking and the AC evaporator was good and is still good when I bought the car !

Although I had a chance to get a 93 850 with way less miles for the same price, I don't know why I didn't take it... I guess this 95 was just calling out to me or something...

[NateB]

Hi all,

First post here, thanks for such a great forum.

Considering some 850s for my daughter. Both are at used car lots.

1995 850 base, 144k miles, velour

1997 850 GLT, 155k miles, leather

Both cars should be obtainable in the $3,500 range or so. Problem is, they are on used car lots, and the driving/service history is a question. I have carfax's on them, and they seem clean, but the carfax record for my own Pontiac (bought new) has a bunch of stuff in it that's wrong (http://www.kevin-jarrett.net/blog/?p=853).

MSN Autos thinks pretty highly of the 850s in these years:

http://autos.msn.com/research/vip/reliabil...o&model=850

Edmunds isn't so impressed:

Well, as the original owner of a 1995 Volvo 850 Turbo sedan bought off the show room floor - here are my thoughts:

The Volvo is a solid , reasonably safe automobile. However, it can be expensive to maintain. Especially if you have to hire a mechanic ( i.e. dont DYI).

Here are some of the common areas that may need attention:

1) AC Evaporator replacement - about $1,300 ( not for the average DIY person)

2) Radiator - these cars are getting old, the seams crack and leak eventually. Using the Volvo part and labor maybe $650

3) Heater Core - another $400 parts and labor

4) Some have auto transmission problms- figure $3,500 to replace

Much more little common maintenance stuff.

But here the thing, my 850 is over 11 years old and I believe very well maintained. It cost me to maintain any 11 year old car- and my turbo is pushed. So fo me- the tradeoff is a fine welll maintained good performance automobile.

I had some leather upholstery rework and a new headliner too - nice interior like new.

My car is the exception cause i CAN afford to buy a nice new car - but choose to maintain my 1995 850 turbo cause I am either nuts or just plain enjoy it

If it were for my own kids - I 'd have to rethink it due to the maintenance efforts.

Good Luck

http://www.edmunds.com/used/1995/volvo/850...gs_jdpower.html

My questions:

1) How reliable are these 850s?

2) Any problem areas to watch out for specifically?

3) I've read that the electrical systems on the 97s are troublesome. True?

The 850 seems like an ideal first car. Safe, FWD, hopefully reliable, inexpensive.

I have a Volvo mechanic in my town, too. Trustworthy guy, been in business forever. I'm a teacher and I've taught his kid (I know the family). My dad dealt with him years ago as well.

TIA,

-kj-