Volvo 850R (manual) for sale aka Harvey

[Clark]

The car you are considering buying is called Harvey (if you can guess why then you get a Snickers bar when we meet). I wanted to set up a sale thread on this forum before I put on other websites to the rest of the www dot.

Harvey has a clean MOT with zero MOT advisories from March 2023…along with paperwork for a major service done in the same month. Harvey was featured as ‘Classified of the Week’ on the site www.carandclassic.com in July 2022 for £8k. One low mileage concourse identical spec’d duplicate was sold for £13.9k on www.seymourpope.com and another is on sale on www.Carandclassic.com in Portugal for just under £18k. I’m not saying I agree with those prices – I’m just showing examples of the same spec car sold/on sale.

Harvey has been my pride, passion & love since 2015, from when I purchased him from Morgan (who is also on this forum). I’d ideally like to sell it on here and keep it in the ‘family’. It’s important to me that I sell the car honestly as I would expect sold to me. I hope you find this advert transparent and informative.

The cruise control, electric windows, electric seats, electric sunroof, heating, radio/CD player, wing mirrors…all work fine. The ignition leads were replaced in March 2023. A new suspension system was installed all around in 2022 (inc. shocks, springs mount bearings, mount bushes, upper coil spring seat pad, anti-roll bar links). A new cambelt and water pump installed in Oct 2021. A new (good quality) battery installed in Nov 2021. A new radiator installed in Oct 2020. Faulty speedo cogs have been repaired in 2019. ABS Control unit (with lifetime warranty) renewed in 2018 after numerous faults. MAF renewed in 2016. Engine temperature sensor, thermostat and cooling fan renewed in 2015.

All replacement parts have been OEM/Volvo. I have been passionate about keeping it fully stock and non-modified. I have a history of receipts for all work done including servicing. The previous MOT history shows minor advisories for an engine oil leak that has recently been found to be nothing more than a minor turbo oil feed pipe leak that has accumulated over time – this is now also fixed. For most of its time in my ownership the car has been garaged and used on the motorway to look after it.

I will share the cars perfect imperfections with you. When observed up close, the bodywork, rims and plastics are fading or have chips and scratches. The has always been one small dent on the bonnet - I like the natural aged look (maybe more down to my bank balance than anything). The passenger side door lock has seized but never needs using. The Volvo alarm stopped working a while back so I keep it simple by using the central locking only now. The A/C has never worked but the electric windows and sunroof do. The passenger side heated seat doesn’t work but I never use the seat heaters anyway. I once had my catalyst stolen and had a steel cage retrofitted under the new one to prevent it getting stolen again – you’ll be getting the additional security with the car.

Sod’s law the ABS light has started flickering intermittently post MOT. It has had its moments and has gone without flickering for 3-4 years! When you view the car you’ll see that the system works fine. I’m in the process of looking into what is causing this (we have 12 months to fix before next MOT).

When I got the MOT done, to get the root cause of the ‘historic’ advisory of engine oil leak, I asked the mechanic to wash the underside and see if there was a leak. It looks like he used a steam jet and tells me he only washed in the localised area. Lesson learned for me the hard way to never get the engine cleaned this way again. Since then the car was shunting at low rpm so I cleaned and dried and electrics and changed the leads. The shunting has reduced by 75% but needs more cleaning maybe.

Maybe this is Harvey’s way of telling me he doesn’t want to go ha! Sadly for him, I want to sell him to fund my next project which is already on my drive. Based on the above-mentioned concourse examples on sale/sold, I am intending to sell for £7.5 as the car now needs some work. I believe there is no such thing as a right and wrong price - it’s worth however much it is sold for.

Even with the above in mind the car runs when needed. I don’t hesitate to use it if I need to. It doesn’t ‘shunt’ all the time and the ABS light flickers usually during braking as opposed to always being on. It's not easy for me to sell this car but it'll help to know the buyer will be someone passionate who wants to keep it on the road.

Thanking you for your time. I have plenty more pictures which I can send by WhatsApp if you're genuinely interested. I hope you enjoyed reading the advert.

[Clark]

To answer a recurring question - yes I am open to offers

[Clark]

Price reduced to £6k.

Am keen to sell and start working on my next project.

It's fit and ready to drive away anywhere you need.

[Clark]

Car is Sold