Running a 1990's V70 in 2023

[313jg]

Should you buy one - resoundably YES
In my opinion the platform 1 V70 is one of the best cars Volvo ever made.
The earlier examples up to R registered up to 1998 model year are less complex than the later versions as they have throttle cables not fly by wire and therefore less complicated.
As is usual get the best you can afford and with as much service history as possible. Don't panic too much about mileage. - see later.
Parts are available - or at least I haven't had any problems other than air con pipes (mine isn't working) and steering racks can be obtained from factors or rebuilt if that is necessary.
Mine is very reliable. I have had to have replaced the starter motor otherwise it has the oil changed about every 5000 miles and otherwise serviced regularly. The only other parts I have replaced are all service parts. It is still on the original exhaust and yes, it does have a few squeeks and rattles but coming up to 327000 I can live with that!!
I have lost count of the number of Volvo's I have owned - it must be in the high forties and still own Amazons, 140 and 240 as well as my 1998 T5. Yes mine is an auto T5. An absolutely brilliant car and I would get another if this one gives up but I will keep it as I want to see how far it will go or until it is no longer viable to repair and it is still a quick car despite the mileage. I have often thought it would be interesting to put it on a rolling road and see what hp it now puts out compared to the 240 bhp when new.

So yes, get a V70. It also runs well on E10 petrol.

[volvo2]

I have been running the same an 850 for the last 30 years. I do my own maintenance, expect for big jobs like a clutch change. I would say that with regular maintenance using Volvo parts, the car is fine for daily use. I share a 120 mile commute to work between two Volvos. I sometimes have a slight issue getting parts but so far, other than having to wait a little longer, this has not been a problem. The only problem I am having is a very intermittent ABS light on (every few hundred miles, usually after driving about 50 miles). I have the older metal pug-in ABS controller, so it is not the usual solder joint issue.

[Turbodave]

It's definitely harder as far as used parts go.

I bought my first 850 back in 1999 and my local, sizable breaker had cars in even back then and this sort of peaked when they hit the sort of 15 year old era but over the past few years, numbers in breakers have dwindled rapidly as numbers simply fall off a cliff and also as owners start to realise that parts are in turn worth more now and so most shrewd owners will break rather than scrap, which means I haven't seen one locally in a breakers for months.

I bought my latest 850 last May and it came with a fairly sizable list of things to do... silly bits like replace all the trims that had been painted black, replace cracked headlight, find mudflaps etc etc. Basically the sort of stuff that not that long ago you could wander into a scrappy and come away with everything you needed for about £20. But now... different story and so after weeks of trying to source parts from eBay and via the forums and disregarding those who wanted £50 for one door mirror, eventually I struck gold and a blue saloon came in to my local breaker and so it donated a lot of parts for not a lot of cash.

I don't use mine daily... or very often as I'm fairly lucky in the sense I don't need to so if something breaks or falls off, there's less of an urgency to replace it and get it back on the road. However I am loathed to use it much as some bits and pieces are hard to get now... or at least hard to get without running the gauntlet of greedy sellers / the lottery of how good said part actually is. Keeps it fun I suppose!