S80 for high mileage use? Any thoughts?

[NFM]

Hi

I need to purchase a car for use as a Private Hire vehicle (minicab) in the Greater London area and I am looking very positively at the S80 since it has a good image for customers without being ridiculously expensive.

SPECIFICATION:
I'll be looking for a 4ish year old car with FSH: diesel with climate, full leather seats, 4 electric windows. Beyond that I'm pretty open to persuasion regarding specification, for instance I'm undecided whether it should be manual or automatic unless you have horror stories about one or the other.

Any thoughts or warnings?

MILEAGE:
Most cars of this age are going to have 60 to 80k miles. Is there a particular mileage at which S80s are more likely to start having serious problems?

Any thoughts/warnings/recommendations?
Additional maintenance beyond scheduled servicing recommended?

I've spent quite a while considering which vehicle to buy and am quite keen to join the Volvo owning fold having considered value for money, image for customers, etc but I would be very interested to know if you would advise me to take the plunge or not.

Thank you.

NFM

[tommyweaves]

Yes, absolutely, take the plunge!

What sort of journeys are you going to be doing? What's your budget?

[Beaver]

Originally Posted by NFM

Hi

I need to purchase a car for use as a Private Hire vehicle (minicab) in the Greater London area and I am looking very positively at the S80 since it has a good image for customers without being ridiculously expensive.

SPECIFICATION:
I'll be looking for a 4ish year old car with FSH: diesel with climate, full leather seats, 4 electric windows. Beyond that I'm pretty open to persuasion regarding specification, for instance I'm undecided whether it should be manual or automatic unless you have horror stories about one or the other.

Any thoughts or warnings?

MILEAGE:
Most cars of this age are going to have 60 to 80k miles. Is there a particular mileage at which S80s are more likely to start having serious problems?

Any thoughts/warnings/recommendations?
Additional maintenance beyond scheduled servicing recommended?

I've spent quite a while considering which vehicle to buy and am quite keen to join the Volvo owning fold having considered value for money, image for customers, etc but I would be very interested to know if you would advise me to take the plunge or not.

Thank you.

NFM

Hi, I've Always been led to believe (by various forums and people I know) that you will get around 300k out of the diesel engined version and 200k out of the petrol version, My friends dad had a volvo 240 GLT which went for over 500k thats why I started with them. I have had various Volvo's since then, namely: 760 Turbo, 480 ES Turbo, 850 GLT, S40 SE TD and the one i have at the moment a 2001 (Y) S80 2.4 had very little problems with any of them apart from the norm, brake pads, exhausts and the like... except for the 760 where it shed a turbo fan blade which wrecked the engine but after a rebuild was fine, i think that was down to that particular car and not a common problem, anyway back to the S80 I've had it for about 9 months bought it at 115k miles I have a slight problem at the moment with a crack in the reluctor ring (ABS) which is mounted on the CV joint behind the brake disk, (ABS SERVICE REQUIRED) message on the computer readout, I've ordered the part from www.ukpartsdirect.com (this ain't a pulg by the way) for less than £20 inc VAT and postage and going to fit myself when the part comes. I myself have got a lot of faith in volvos had them for the last 25+ years.

hope this helps in your decision. P.S. go for the Diesel version if your'e doing high mileage - mine is petrol but i only do 7k a year as for minicab customers they should be comfortable enough as my seats are all leather and the back seat is as big as a couch

[clivea]

I would probably opt for an auto especially in the London area, but given the cars intended use the ATF should be changed in line with Volvos servicing guidelines for cars used as taxis. For series 3 V70/XC70 this is every two years. I donn't know whether your intended usage allows for some good warm running with revs over 1600rpm+ but if you will be spending a deal of time in heavy congestion then the DPF (if fitted) could be a problem.

[raja1]

Just some things to be aware of.

1) Be sure to get a vehicle with less than 100K on the clock. Depending upon driving style repairs can be very costly on wear and tear items.

2) Steering rack and pump is gone on mine at 140K, cost for parts alone comes in around £1000.

3) Be sure to get the garage to replace the transmission fluid if you are going to use it as a taxi. Dealerships will now do this if they are told it is used as a hire vehicle.


4) On the diesels the injectors can be the cause of major problems if not caught and replaced in time. Full set and replacement from dealership is about £1500. The S80 I have had this happen on previous owner, needed a new engine.

5) Occasional DPF issues for some older engines, replacement at dealership is around £1000 again. Better to seek out someone who can clean or remove it, and chase down the cause of the blockage and fix it. Teh poster above was correct, on an older engine if the driving style does not suit the regen process you could be in for some trouble.

Other than that somewhat doom gloom story, they drive great when that are in good condition.

Hope this helps.

-Raja