Friend is trying to sell a 1993 Volvo 960 estate. Last of the old real Volvos blah-blah. Blue, leather interior, 150k miles. Has all the toys and kit and he reckons it's worth 1500 quid. No takers yet though. I'd have thought he'd be lucky to get a grand? Nice car if you're that way inclined, but surely most people at this end of the market are looking for fuel-efficient old Fiestas and Corsas? And it's too pricey for bangernomics of course.
Isn't he wasting his time?
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If it was a bit lower mileage i'd buy it and LPG it if i needed a proper estate, those 7 and 9 series bodies just do not rust and the mechanics are tough so long as they're serviced...the achillees heel is the self levelling rear shockers, eye watering price and possibly all in at 150k, almost impossible to find good used shocks.
Wouldn't have a 760 with the Renault V6 again though, once was enough.
My sis is still running our old 93 740td estate with the noisy but tough and surprisingly fast VW LT van engine, we've kicked ourselves a few times for selling that.
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When I bought our W124 estate, it was a close decision between that and a large Volvo estate. However, at the time SWMBO would not consider one. Since then, she's been watching Wallander on the telly...
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Maybe Cliff Pope will have it for a song.
Maybe not, that's a bit young for him :)
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They still go for good money here in Sweden. I searched high and low for a half decent one when looking for a winter car. Even the old 240's are still fetching good money. You can get cheap parts for them anywhere, even petrol stations sell service items.
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>> Maybe Cliff Pope will have it for a song.
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>> Maybe not, that's a bit young for him :)
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I only do 240s - I prefer the older classic shape.
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>> I only do 240s - I prefer the older classic shape.
Any chance of a bit of a write up?
I'm sure I'm not the only one that'd be interested to read a bit about how you've got on with these over the years.
No pressure though, just curious, there is something cool about the 240.
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>> Any chance of a bit of a write up?
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>> I'm sure I'm not the only one that'd be interested to read a bit about
>> how you've got on with these over the years.
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>> No pressure though, just curious, there is something cool about the 240.
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I've had 4 since 1991, 2 still in daily use. I retired my 1993 a couple of years ago after it failed the MOT on emissions. It wasn't worth the cost of trying to find out why - at 425,000 miles it might have been anything. I bought that car when it had done 180,000, and said rashly on the HJ forum that you could always double the mileage of any secondhand car before it gave trouble.
My current main driver is a 1992. It's just passed 250,000 miles, and is much better than the previous one. It came with an LPG conversion and it has the bigger 2.3 litre engine. I'd never buy a post 1992 car again because of the higher emission test standards.
Like the 740 and the 940, they are big tough cars with an enormous carrying capacity, but tiny turning circle. Combined with excellent visibilty to all 4 corners they are very easy to manoeuvre.
Horrible wallowy ride if you want something hard and sporty, but immensely comfortable and mop up endless miles if you don't care about performance or extreme road holding. Good ground clearance even when overloaded.
At the moment £500 buys a good sound useable car, £1000 buys a really nice one, £1500 for an exceptionally smart example with unmarked bodywork or upholstery.
They go on forever. My local agents have two customers with cars that have done about 800,000 miles, and in Sweden and Eastern Europe those kind of mileages are quite common.
It's interesting that the 240 design with the shapely hip profile has been reused in retro-look modern Volvos. But wait and see if those are still around clocking up mega-miles in 20 years time.
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Has he tried advertising it on the Volvo Owners Club (volvoforums.org.uk) ?
Plenty of people there still appreciate them. At only 150k I suspect many won't bat an eyelid.
Last edited by: gmac on Sun 6 Feb 11 at 19:14
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Great cars but limited market due to high fuel prices. A customer has one of the Ford volvos, an S90 and has done 200k and still running fine, it has been down on compression on one cylinder (out of 5) for a couple of years but still passes the emissions.
He reckons it is worth £500 because it is scruffy but it is a very nice car it just costs a fortune to put petrol in but rightly he has worked out it is still far cheaper than buying a new car.
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I had a 940 estate from new about 1993 I think it was. "L" reg anyway. Only a 2.0 petrol engine so certainly no sports car but what a useful thing it was. Only kept it two years /approx 80k miles but it was as good as new when sold. Once took my whole front lawn ( well, the turf ) to the tip in it I remember. Handled like a brick though. Replaced it with a T5 850 estate. Now that was an altogether different bag of frisky monkeys. Not as practical mind, but about as far away on the fun scale as you could get while buying a Volvo estate.
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Old Volvo estates are venerated by some (including me!) for their longevity and robustness. With looking after, the mileage they can rack up is impressive. I've had a 940 and 850, both with big miles, and loved them. I really regret selling the 940...
Also much sought after by builders and the like for use as surrogate vans. They do tend to go for £600-£1000, so it's probably just too pricey. In the current market, the fact that it's a big engine may be a disadvantage.
HTH,
Alex.
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i got given a 1991 740 7st estate a few yrs ago and it rode lovely and was in immaculate condition and had 250k miles but i couldnt put up with 18mpg out of the 2litre engine and that was after it was tuned by a local chap.
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We looked over a couple of 7 seater 960's a few years ago when we were first in the market for a 7 seater.
Great fun, especially in a straight line, very comfortable indeed, but sadly unsuitable for us - the extra seats were not really suitable for regular use and the fuel consumption would not have suited the 60 mile daily commute I was doing at the time.
The ones we looked at were high mileage (150k plus each) but seemed to have aged well and still felt very solid. Prices then were around £800 and with the price of fuel now I can only imagine them getting considerably cheaper. At that price though it's a tremendous amount of car.
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Volvo 960 and S90 - Any value in these old buses? - -
