95 Volvo 850 Turbo Wagon - IL

I’m posting up for sale a 1995 Volvo 850 Turbo Wagon, with a clean title for $2800. I’m going to try to be as forthright as I can in disclosing the history of the vehicle and issues that it has. If you’ve got a comment like, “That’s way too much $$$ for the mileage.”, please keep it to yourself. Someone's going to be getting a heck of a car for not a lot of money.

VIN: YV1LW5714S2165347

History:
My grandparents bought the car, and became the second owners in ‘97, with 36,xxx miles, I believe. They loved the car and it never let them down once. They had all of the maintenance done at the dealership. This drove me nuts because they were having the dealership replace stuff like headlight bulbs and wipers, at an outrageous price, I might add. They enjoyed the car so much that they couldn’t bring themselves to trade it in when they bought their V40, so they sold it to my father with 130k miles.

My dad also enjoyed it. He promptly put another 80k miles through his daily commute, which is 110 miles roundtrip, nearly all highway. The only problem that the car gave him was when white smoke was coming out of the exhaust. He took it to the dealer and according to them, it had a warped head. So, my dad had the dealership shave and rebuild the head….at great cost. But, his logic told him that if the dealer does it, it’ll get done right. Well, the car was at the dealership for a very long time, and he was without his trusty DD. It was gone so long, that before he got the 850 back, he’d bought a 2001 C70 off ebay.

As the role of the trusty DD had been filled by the C70, the 850 was relegated to the barn. It had sat for about a year and a half when I got sick of them talking about selling it and not doing anything. The battery was dead from just sitting, so I replaced it. I also replaced the fuel filter, spark plugs and oil. I squirted a few dabs of oil into the spark plug ports, before I reinstalled them. I charged the battery up and the car fired right up, the first try.
So, for fear of my efforts to get the car going again, and able to be sold would go to waste, I convinced my folks to let me take the car, make it presentable and sell it for them. I’ve gone through this car pretty thoroughly and feel I’ve got a pretty good handle on it.

As it sits:
The car has 216k miles on it right now. I’m currently using it as my daily driver to make sure there aren’t any issues that I didn’t already know about. If there are, I’ll find them and address them before the car is sold. From my time driving it, I’ve been tempted to just buy it from my folks because it’s so nice. But 4 cars in my driveway isn’t going to fly with my wife.

The car is pretty loaded and very comfortable to ride/drive in. I’d say for the mileage, it’s in great condtion….but according to KBB.com, it would probably be somewhere between “Good” and "Excellent" condition and I feel the asking price reflects that. As you would expect from the highway use, there are some rock chips. So far, I have been unable to find any rust. Also, as you would expect after being owned by old people, there are a few dings and scratches, nothing that I would consider bad though. There is a spot on the front passenger seat where my grandpa’s suspenders damaged the leather on the seat. It’s just wear, and didn’t go all the way through the leather. The driver’s side front seat also has wear in the usual places. There is some evidence of mice under the hood. Most of said evidence is the hood insulation having holes chewed in it and mouse poop in the engine compartment. I’ve hosed the engine compartment down, so now there’s only mouse poop where I was unable to spray. I’ve found no evidence of wires that were chewed on and there is ZERO evidence that mice found their way into the passenger compartment. The car has tinted windows, which are a good darkness to have. They aren’t so dark that you have trouble seeing out at night, but they’re dark enough your stuff isn’t on display for the whole world.

Electrically, almost everything works. The only thing that I've found that doesn't is the rear wiper and squirter. All of the power window switches even work! This car also has the integrated booster seat in the arm rest in the back seat. I wish my XC70 had that, it'd save me some money in the future.

It starts up the first time every time, even in the 0*F weather we've been seeing. You would never know the engine and drivetrain have the mileage that they do. I love these 5cyl engines, and this one is no different. It's as smooth Cool Whip and has plenty of power to pass on the highway. The transmission shifts great. I experimented a little, adding the harder of the two IPD trans bushings. I can tell a difference between it and the softer blue one, and I'm happy I added it, and somewhat disappointed it wasn't available for my XC70.

Things I’ve done to it in the last 2000 miles:
-A new set of Falken Ziex 912s
-New Battery
-Fuel Filter
-Spark Plugs
-IPD Poly Upper Engine Bushing Upper Engine Stabilizer Mount
-IPD Poly Transmission Bushing (the new harder black bushing) 8K0139 Polyurethane Transmission Mount Bushing --- Volvo Parts, Accessories and Performance Specialists Since 1963
-Brake Fluid Flushed with Super Blue DOT4
-Fixed the glove box latch (I'll be including another glove box door with a good latch)

Things I plan on fixing before the car is sold:
-P0440 code

Things I would address if I were buying the car:
-Tires: The tires do have life left in them, but the car sitting for as long as it did has caused them to have flat spots. So around 70-75 mph, there is some vibration. Perhaps this could go away when the weather warms up, but it might not. If I chose to live with it, I’d imagine the tires could last till the following winter.
-Alignment: The car has a slight pull to the left. I would try and find a deal at a tire place, where you get a free alignment when you buy a set of tires.
-When changing out the transmission bushing, I did notice that there is some oil leaking. I don’t think it’s that bad and would probably drive it for a while before doing something about it….if I were buying the car.
-Tailgate lift shocks: They don’t hold the tailgate, so if you’re loading something in the back of the car, you need to hold the gate open.

****Update 21Feb10****
My family and I made a 700 mile round trip run down to Southern Illinois to visit the in-laws. The car performed flawlessly. The downside, I blew a tire thanks to the Illinois roads. So, I decided to just replace all of the tires with Falken Ziex 912s. I cant describe how much they improved the car! There is no vibration, no pull. The car now drives straight and smooth. I can only assume that the pull was a result of the old tires that were on there. I also had the suspension looked at to ensure there wasn't a bent control arm or anything and it all looked good.