What's it worth?
 

Still not sure whether to LPG my S90 and keep it, or change it for a diesel car. My daily commute is now a 60+ mile round trip, and the car is averaging 25mpg. This is the only reason I'm thinking of selling. I bought the car at a time when work was just ten minutes up the road. But I was made redundant at the end of 2018, and now that I'm back in a long-term job over 2 gallons a day to get to work is knocking a big hole in the monthly pay packet. I reckon that in a more modern diesel I could comfortably cut the fuel expenditure by half.

As part of my figuring it'd be really useful to get a real-world achieveable sales valuation for my S90:

• P-reg 1997 3.0 auto, with 116,000 miles. 204bhp. Dark metallic blue with beige leather interior. In really very good condition. Everything works - including the glass tilt-and-slide sunroof and the aircon. There is some slight puckering of the door card tops on the two front doors, the rears are pretty close to perfect. It has its original Volvo cassette-radio, and a Volvo wood-rimmed steering wheel.
  
• Excellent Pirelli tyres all round, alloys in good condition.
  
• Cambelt changed at 70,000 in 2013, so it's still got a way to go before the next change is needed. The service book is stamped by the supplying main dealer for all services up until I bought the car at 88,000 miles. Since then I've done three oil change services myself. I've also replaced the front disks and pads, fitted a new battery, and a reconditioned NSF caliper.
  
• MoT is to November 2020. There were two advisories last time, so both front wishbones and droplinks have been replaced.
  
• One owner before me from new, then mine since March 2018. The car isn't a perfect "time-warp" barn find, but I would certainly describe it as in very good all-round condition. It drives absolutely beautifully, and if it sells then I will be sad to see it go.

In order to make sense of changing it for a diesel I'd be looking to sell for around £2,750 - £3,000.

Is this sort of figure pie-in-the-sky and only for hopeful no-hopers on carandclassic.com - or is it a realistic and achievable number?

Opinions and advice welcomed.

Thanks

Jack

Think you might be a bit over optimistic for a saloon. All these fantastic 960's and V90's on Car and Classic have been on for ever. A bit like all the ridiculous 850r's for 10k +

I think somewhere between £1,000 to £1,500 is more realistic. Only my opinion though. If the right person comes along and really wants it you never know:teeth_smile:

LPG it would be my advice.

I bought a 2006 Lexus IS 220D and it only did 32mpg winter and max 36mpg summer. It was a dreadful engine and usual diesel related faults. DPF EGR etc as any other diesel

Owned for 19 months and 13k miles and started loosing coolant and pressurising. Head gasket going! Lexus had lots of issues with the diesel! Scrapped it.

You think your saving money but any of the above issues wipes out your saving you made by buying a diesel.

Keep it petrol.

Wednesday I bought a Toyota Auris Hybrid estate. Its brilliant. I got 63mpg out of it from my 28 mile trip to Birmingham and as its older no road tax!

I also have a 1996 Volvo 940 for work. It uses fuel, but thankfully most work is local.

James

Forget diseasel, if the rumours i've heard are correct (from a usually reliable source) the price of diseasel fuel is likely to go up considerably, as will VED and Emission Zone charges on diseasel powered vehicles.

Kepp it, gas it and enjoy 50p/L for your fuel! You also won't have a car that smells like it's escaped from a lorry park!

Just spotted this bit Jack. Worried me a little! :eek:

Having dug around through the FAQ, i'd strongly suggest getting the timing belt and tensioners etc changed ASAP - it might not have done 70k miles (the mileage interval between changes) but it has clocked up 7 years which Volvo seem to equate to 70k miles (10k/year) so on that basis, on time alone the belt etc is due for renewal.

Also have a good read through this bit :

https://www.volvoclub.org.uk/faq/Eng...mingBeltChange

I appreciate it says 960 but the 90 is really just a rebadged 960 in mechanical terms so everything for the 96 on 960 will apply.

James beat me to it. Buy (or lease or whatever you do over there these days) an e-car or hybrid for the commute, keep the Volvo for the weekends

lpg it !

Thanks all. Jury’s out but I’d really rather keep the car. I need to do something because 2+ gallons per day ain’t cheap! One thought is to buy a cheap commuter buzz box and keep the S90 for weekends only. Might need to work hard to sell that idea to the Mrs, but it could work out!

Re the cambelt, thanks for the info. I’d found a Volvo service bulletin online that had the interval as 105k miles / 10 years but looking at it again I see that’s a US bulletin.

Cheers

Jack

My Wife's 1.0 Fabia will get close to 60mpg on a run and not far off 40mpg around town.

Once you explain that your saving £1500 a year on fuel it should be a doddle:teeth_smile::teeth_smile:

You forgot to factor in "women logic" Mark. If they think you're saving £1500/year on fuel, they'll say the Volvo is surplus to requirements so should be sold to save even more money! :eek:

Doing the LPG conversion would save a similar amount to running a smaller car but without the extra cost of a second lot of insurance (which may in fact be more than the Volvo costs to insure!), tax and MoT and second lot of servicing and maintenance costs.

Count those costs in and suddenly a second, smaller vehicle isn't quite so attractive!

Many moons ago i bought a Clio 1.2 with a similar idea in mind (i only had my Rover at the time) and besides the horrendous unreliability of the thing, it cost me 2.5 times what the Rover cost to insure, tax was slightly less as it was under 1500cc and on a run, only just scraped into a similar fuel economy.
Not to mention the fact that when i got out the other end i could hardly move, the sacrifice in comfort etc simply wasn't worth the percieved gain which in fact turned out to be a loss anyway!

Going down the LPG route means Jack would keep his present car that he knows, has sorted the niggles etc on and has proved reliable, while still giving him a good cost saving.

If it's doing 25mpg and the round trip daily is 60 miles, let's keep the figures simple and call it 62.5 miles, that's 2.5 gallons a day that it's using. Petrol is currently about £6/gallon and LPG about £2.75/gallon.

That's £15/day on petrol, assuming similar economy from LPG but to allow for any error, let's say LPG is £3/gallon, that's a saving of £7.50 a day - £37.50/week. No additional insurance costs etc and no outlay on a second smaller car. Granted he'd have to pay for the LPG conversion, whether he did it himself using either new or secondhand parts or had a new system fitted would alter the cost significantly but i would suggest, even if he had a new system fitted, it would probably be about 6-7 months payback time on the LPG conversion and after that, savings of close to £40 a week.

No contest in my view! :thumbs_up: