Inherited a 240... Open to ideas
 

Hi all, new poster to the forum, so apologies if I ask any daft questions. In short, please be nice! :-)

Short version. My mother is 91, and has owned this Volvo (240 SE Manual, 2319cc) from new (1992). Her eyes have gone now though, and she's given up driving, and I've "inherited" it. Its been garaged the entire time, and has just sailed through its MOT - so 12 months MOT on it and (relatively) low mileage (150k). Its in good condition but there are a few faults. Its missing one of the headlight wipers and the driver's electric window doesn't work is what I've found so far.

To be honest although I have a soft spot for the car, both my wife and I have cars and we don't need a third. Equally if we were going to sell it, we need to get top dollar as - to be brutal - the money will go towards mum's care home fees.

Advice and thoughts welcome. If someone could give me any idea on what would be a fair price for it that would be awesome.

Prices are all over the show for 240's often with people trying to sell for a lot more than they are worth.

Do you have much information on the MOT status (advisories etc), service history, does the car have any rust?

240's are desirable, but it really depends on condition to how much you will get for the car.

Many thanks for your reply. In short:

No advisories on the MOT, and service history will be religious at an ex-main dealer independent (John Simmons in Essex).

Rust - a few spots on the rear wheel arches is all I can see.

I absolutely agree about the price. As far as I can tell it could be worth next to nothing up to seriously useful money (from a care home point of view), and also have had the same problem looking online that the range is so wide I've not got an idea where to start.

If you decide to sell it might be worth skimming through the 'Seriously?' thread in this section; here is a link to a post containing a price guide to 240s that generally proves to be pretty acurate:

https://www.volvoforums.org.uk/showp...postcount=1115

Alan

PS. Here is the price guide:

As a guide I'd say (from what I've seen things apparently sell for - not ridiculous asking prices):

a. Rough cars (anything with barn find in the title, cars needing welding to the sills or rear arches, MoT failures): make less than £1000.

b. Middling cars: 1981 and later cars with 100-200,000 miles, a bit of history (maybe the past decade, the stuff before that is just for interest), a long MoT and no obvious welding or repairs needed: make £1,500 to £3,000.

c. Very good cars: 1981 and later cars with less than 100,000 miles, full history, long MoT and in really good condition make £3,000 to £4,500.

d. Historic cars (1980 and older) will generally make 50-100% more than the above categories.

The above is just my observation of the market, it will not stop people hawking around rough cars for £3,000, mediocre cars for £6,000 or very good cars for silly money. I don't think they often achieve their asking prices and just spend months or years on the market until the owners give up.

That is really, really helpful, many thanks, you're a star :-) I shall have a look at the link posted.

Hi:~
The headlamp wipers can be obtained via ebay/suppliers or place a wanted advert on the appropriate forum wants section.
Front windows- I would check the door switch first- a clean up may work.
The motors are fully serviceable (see write up etc) it may have seized due to water entry and not difficult to fix.
You can do a temporary swop test between the doors with the switch as a quick test.

These cars are in the state of flux with regards to prices- If at all possible I would try and keep/use it as the market is rising so you may reap the benefits.
Good Luck
Bob.

Many thanks Bob, that's really useful.

It's not costing us much at the moment (apart from the road tax which more than our other two cars combined) so hanging onto it isn't a problem. Its an interesting thought.

Though obviously its outside on a drive (albeit with a cover on it) so i'm a little worried about it maintaining its condition.

Hi,

Looks like a lovely example from the photo- personally, if I wasn’t really attached to the car and wasn’t using it I’d try and sell it sooner rather than later. Whilst it’s true that 240 values are moving up, cars don’t do well just sitting around, especially outside (even with a cover) and it’ll become a bit of a trade off between the increasing values of 240s and the cost of keeping this nice whilst not really using it.

If it’s as nice as you say, get hold of any missing bits it needs (headlight wiper arm, etc), fix anything that doesn’t work (as other have said, the electric window switch may just need a clean- they can be dismantled and rebuilt) then have it professionally cleaned and detailed and put it up on eBay/car and classic/etc.

This one was a similar spec to yours and sold in September for £4K, but the car has to be immaculate with nothing missing and everything working properly to command that kind of price.

Cheers

I would tend to agree, 30 year old cars don't fare well if left outside and are unused - things just go wrong for no reason. If you aren't attached to it and won't use the motor car I'd say fix the stuff that is wrong, give it a good clean and sell it. I suppose the tax and insurance will be something like £500/year - so it won't take long for that to account for 20% of the motor car's value.

Without having seen your car, I should think it would sit at either the top of the 'middling' cars, or the lower part of the 'very good' ones. So at a guess I'd say £3,000 to £4,000 should be achievable. Perhaps place a classified ad on eBay at £3,750 and invite offers? It might be worth trying an ad on this forum first because its free, and you never know there may be someone looking for a motor car just like it.

Good fortune,

Alan

That's how I bought my 240! A fellow member saw I wanted one , sent a PM and after some prevarication on my part, bought an example that suits ,from ,what I consider a safer bet than any other medium!
I would hope we are as honest on here as we should be!😇

Everything Alan says makes good sense!:teeth_smile: