VOLVO FOR LIFE?

Follow-up to NEEDS ENGINE TRANSPLANT message posted yesterday. Assuming
engine is properly maintained, what is life expectancy these days of late
90's produced 5-cylinder Volvo engines? My local service rep makes it
sound as though its a throw of the dice having even if maintained properly
since they just replaced an engine in an S80. What goes? I thought
Mercedes, BMW, and Volvo were reliable thru at least 100K. Any data?
Please respond...

BTW, good news...the car I'm told was only worth $6500 trade-in prior to
engine problem according to Sales Manager and confirmed with online Blue
Book.

GE

 

Follow-up to NEEDS ENGINE TRANSPLANT message posted yesterday. Assuming

The earliest 5 cyl 850´s i know of have driven around 250-300 kmiles and are
still running.
Only engine changes i have heard of are caused by a broken cam belt, when
not replaced in time.

Niels

 

In The Netherlands I know of many 850's and S/V70's with (way) over 400k km's
and still running like new. Mine, a '99 V70 has almost 240k km's and sounds
like it's not more than a year old.

Marc

 

I had a '94 850 t5 which had 256.xxx miles when I sold it.
However, it was burning a pint of oil every 1000 miles when I got it so,
had a not checked oil each week, it would have probably failed long
before this. Trick is to watch the oil level.

 

I'd say they are great cars. I see so many in the autotrader that have
super high mileage. The S80 is another beast altogether, first off, it's an
inline 6, which is based off of the 960/S-V90 cars (not exact engine, but
very close, Porsche design if I remember correctly.)

My 760 with the failure prone B280F is still running strong, ok, at least
everyone back then said it would be failure prone. 302K kms, and still
running ..

Buying a Volvo is an investment, you buy one once, and keep it for 20 years.
Buy another car, and replace it every 8-10.

 

The engine in question wasn't worn out, but had some yet-unidentified cause
of failure. Clearly oil starvation was a factor but there is some confusion
about the process.

Many modern engines can be expected to last longer than the rest of the car.
My daughter's '93 Honda is somewhere around 210K miles and doesn't consume
oil; my '85 765T is coming up on 240K miles and consumes a quart between
changes. Sadly, the plastic in the interior of the Volvo has succumbed to
the Arizona sun long ago.

Mike

 

150k on our 97 850 no engine issues at all.
188k on our 94 940 Turbo no engine issues at all.

The cars are good for a long life in most cases, and the value of the car
according to the blue book is only one measure. What will it cost for a car
you like as much (or dislike as much )

 

They seem to be going around 250K without too much trouble, the 5 cyl
engines are well made and hold up pretty well so long as the timing belt
doesn't break.

 

Thanks for all the feedback here and via email. Met with the manager
earlier today who agrees this shouldn't have happened. He is going to
run this by Volvo on Monday to see if they are willing to provide an
accomodation. One thing in my favor is the fact that the dealership has
documented every oil change since the car was new, thus eliminating any
question as to maintenance history. I'm not holding my breath, however.
If I'm not mistaken, FORD just announced a major earnings loss this past
quarter. Oh well...