S40 advice required.

[Alec Dawe]

Re the sorry saga of my son's flaming Vectra, I'm looking at an early S40 for him.
Its in our local Indi dealers, who seem to have a good reputation locally, 'N' registered 1.8 litre car with 115,000 miles on the clock.
Has a full, complete dealer service history up to the last 2 services, which were done by another Volvo indi in Norwich.
Cambelt was done at 80,000, everything seems to work OK apart from one radio speaker, which the dealer says he'll fix.
Car looks very clean indeed, no knocks, scratches or dings, nice inside except the leather is very dry and a bit cracked in places (lots and lots of leather care feed needed), clean engine bay, looks like new hoses all round in the engine, etc.
Dealer says it will get a full service, and all brakes etc etc checked and replaced before sale, + 12 months MoT from the date of sale etc.
Is there anything specific that I really need to pay special attention to on this model before making a purchase?
Any adivce from you S40 owners welcome (BTW this is a Volvo engine, not a Renault one, isn't it? What mileage are they good for? Fuel Consumption?)

[scottishvolvo]

Possibly a mitsubishi engine as well, which has its own fair share of faults. You don't give the price but I reckon it should be around £750 to £800.

[jonny57]

Avoid the mitsubishi engine,they can indeed be a pain,I'm told.I get about 35-40 mpg on a run in my 1731cc volvo engined v40-around town it's quite thirsty(had a Passat before this and it was much more frugal)-having said that,your son could do alot worse than a s/v40-shop around ,there's lots of them going around. Good luck.

[SpeedyReedy]

The Mitsubishi 1.8i engine came in in 1998 (S Plate) so that won't be a issue.

[gjd]

"Re the sorry saga of my son's flaming Vectra, I'm looking at an early S40 for him.
Its in our local Indi dealers, who seem to have a good reputation locally, 'N' registered 1.8 litre car with 115,000 miles on the clock.
Has a full, complete dealer service history up to the last 2 services, which were done by another Volvo indi in Norwich."

Bit off the post, but you mention a Volvo Independent in Norwich. Care to give more details? Apart from the Main Dealer, the nearest I can find is in Attleborough!

Thanks!

[Alec Dawe]

I'm damned if I can remember the name of the garage, but he's up the Taverham Road, on the Right Hand side as you go North out of Norwich, next door to the Jet garage, almost opposite (if my memory is right) the Tesco's Express. Might be called something like R & R motors, but don't quote me on that!
The Attleborough garage is Wrights, who have the S40 I'm looking at, and who do get a good write up in another of the Volvo forums.

[gjd]

Thanks for the reply - I knew about Wrights, but not about R R Motors. I've contacted both for quotations for a service - do you know anyone else in the Norwich area with the right software to look after Volvos properly?