Fitting air-con and child seats to my ten year old 850 estate

I have a 1993 850 estate GLT 2.5 20 valve automatic, 90,000 miles.
We want air conditioning, child seats and a top box. The question is should we sell and buy another car or get these things fitted. I've got a price of £1050 plus VAT for fitting aircon from a firm I phoned from yellow pages. My garage say they don't do fitting child seats.

Some people have said to me its not worth the expense of fitting aircon given the age of the car, and that aircon not fitted at the factory is never as good. Any thoughts on this?

How could I find out if seats can be fitted and if so how much it would cost? Are they safe? Are they comfortable - and for what ages?

How long do you think I should expect the car to last in good shape. We do about 10,000 miles a year - another 5 years?

Any ideas and experiences appreciated.

[liuleichan]

>I have a 1993 850 estate GLT 2.5 20 valve automatic, 90,000
>miles.
>We want air conditioning, child seats and a top box. The
>question is should we sell and buy another car or get these
>things fitted.

With fairly expensive things like air con, it's normally always cheaper / more cost-effective to replace your car with a model that has the things you want.

I suppose if you could get the parts (say salvage) fairly cheap, and could do it yourself, it may be a different thing.

>I've got a price of £1050 plus VAT for fitting
>aircon from a firm I phoned from yellow pages.

Personally, I'd steer away from aftermarket air-con, unless you are very committed to this car. And even then, I'd probably only consider implementing the Volvo stuff - normally on fairly modern cars, air con integrates with the ECU.

To be honest, I'd change the car for one with air con, if it were that important to you.

>My garage say
>they don't do fitting child seats.
>
>Some people have said to me its not worth the expense of
>fitting aircon given the age of the car,

Normally true. Unless you are very committed to the car - and even then, looks an imposing task.

>and that aircon not
>fitted at the factory is never as good.

Well I can certainly see the logic in that.

>Any thoughts on
>this?

I'd say the convention wisdom is largely true, unless you are in very special circumstances.

Things like this, or auto-manual (or vice-versa) conversions are normally fraught with problems, expense, and it's generally accepted more more sensible to change your car for one with the features you want.

>How could I find out if seats can be fitted and if so how
>much it would cost? Are they safe? Are they comfortable -
>and for what ages?

What sort of child seats?

What do people like mothercare and halfords say?

>How long do you think I should expect the car to last in good
>shape. We do about 10,000 miles a year - another 5 years?

If maintained well, I can't see any reason. My Volvo is five years newer, but has 50k more miles on the clock than yours, and still feels like a new car to drive.

>Any ideas and experiences appreciated.

To be honest, air con on the early to mid 850s was known to be problematic - for many an expensive thing to maintain. Personally, I wouldn't buy a car without it - but if you've bought the car (how long have you owned it) and had it for some time, is it truly worth the expense (either to have it installed, or change for a car that has it)?

I would have thought the child seat thing shouldn't be too difficult to resolve - the rest will come down to your priorities. If you really want / need these things, my honest advice would be to change cars - and be wary of air con known to be problematic for 850s.

Lei Chan

[Chris_Rogers]

I would agree, also be aware that you would be sending more than the a 10 year old car's worth.
I'd save the money and go for a V70.

[sholtby]

It appears you are rather attached to your car to consider all the mods. Possibly owned it from new.
In my opinion I would go and look at some other cars. Its just too muchmoney and trouble to fit all those options to your car.

Simon

[cootuk]

Remember for child seats the 850s have quite short seatbelts.
Mothercare have a free fitting service so you can try a few out, but they don't seem to have a list of what will fit directly...I think one of the Graco did from what I remember in another thread.
Of course there's always the official horrendously expensive Volvo baby seat.

Top boxes...best to have a look in Halfords as you'll also need some sort of fixing to attach it to the roof....does your car already have roof rails?

Air-con....as all the above....if your car works well then do you really want it. I know it's nice to have, but is it really worth changing your car for, or can it wait a few years for the next car?
I decided against air-con after I read all the stories about how the evaporator fails, plus the 850 I bought was a 'good one'.
Next car will have air-con, but I'm not changing just for that.

[ajm]

I was assuming the child seat the original poster mentioned is the rear-facing boot mounted seat, not an ordinary baby seat. Or maybe the fold-out armrest child seat?

When I was young we had several 240 estates with a rear-facing seat in the boot, which I travelled in. As far as I can remember it was quite comfortable and good fun - we used to get waved at by lots of people in cars behind!

If the OP meant the fold-out armrest seat, my 850 has one but I've obviously never sat in it! My son is too young for it at the moment, but in any case it's really only suitable for occasional use. There's very little padding indeed so I wouldn't expect it to be overly comfortable.

Cheers,

AJ

Thanks - I bought the car from my brother 3 years ago and even then i really wanted aircon, and after last summer, and especially with (now) 3 young children it seems essential. Really i just wanted to avoid the whole time consuming and expensive business of changing cars - and at present can't afford a budget that would get me one much newer. But everybody agrees with you. Any ideas on best ways to look at what price I could get for mine and what I could get - in the past I've looked at Loot and Parkers but haven't had to do this for a long time. The child seat thing I meant was the built in back facing seats in the boot.

[sholtby]

Try looking on the autotrader.co.uk site for prices of cars similar to yours and for the car you want to buy.

Simon