How cheap is too cheap?

[kiloran]

Thing is 7k is a down payment for a new car, or a couple of years of payments for a most people. It's really distorting the market.

[griston64]

Originally Posted by tofufi

I'd be proud of that too. My brother's 940 has ticked over 290k miles recently and still drives really nicely, albeit you can feel the miles over my 170k mile 740.

I'd buy it on condition, not mileage.

The one caveat would that I don't know anything about that 3.0 engine in terms of if there are any ticking timebombs there

The 3.0 Whiteblock in the 960 is much more problematic than the good ole Redblock

[Laird Scooby]

Originally Posted by bkharrison

I'm in the UK (North east) and there's a 1993 Volvo 960 3.0 24V(?) Auto for £600. It's done (allegedly) 380,000km (235,000miles). It looks like there's a couple of scratches and dents, apparently there's decent maintenance history and the MOT history looks ok as well (handbrake, emissions, lambda, wheel bearing play).
My reckoning is that for £600, I can't really go wrong....or maybe it's just had generous MOT testers.
What are your views?

EDIT: I've just checked the MOT mileage, it went from 270,000 miles DOWN to 165,000 miles between 2012 and 2013. So in total its done 335,000 miles (which I'd be bloody proud of!).

Most of the good advice has already been given so i won't repeat it. However i'm baffled by the km reference - was it an import? If so, when, what was the mileage on import, have the correct mods/additions been made and does the spec differ in any important areas from the UK ones? Also does it have anything non-standard in the UK that may cause problems if it fails/goes wrong etc?

Also 270k km equates to ~165k miles - did it have an Imperial speedo fitted and the mileage set to the nearest mile/1000 miles to give a reasonably accurate indication of mileage covered from new? If so, it might genuinely be only 235k miles. Or was the MoT tester reading it wrong, assuming just because there's a higher than average mileage it has to be in km or had just MoT'd an import and was still thinking in "foreign measure"?

[360beast]

Originally Posted by griston64

The 3.0 Whiteblock in the 960 is much more problematic than the good ole Redblock

Shhhhhhhhh!!!! You will make Kev angry... you won't like Kev when he is angry.

[griston64]

Originally Posted by 360beast

Shhhhhhhhh!!!! You will make Kev angry... you won't like Kev when he is angry.

He knows the truth..................

[bkharrison]

Originally Posted by Laird Scooby

Most of the good advice has already been given so i won't repeat it. However i'm baffled by the km reference - was it an import? If so, when, what was the mileage on import, have the correct mods/additions been made and does the spec differ in any important areas from the UK ones? Also does it have anything non-standard in the UK that may cause problems if it fails/goes wrong etc?

Also 270k km equates to ~165k miles - did it have an Imperial speedo fitted and the mileage set to the nearest mile/1000 miles to give a reasonably accurate indication of mileage covered from new? If so, it might genuinely be only 235k miles. Or was the MoT tester reading it wrong, assuming just because there's a higher than average mileage it has to be in km or had just MoT'd an import and was still thinking in "foreign measure"?

Hi, thanks for your reply. Honestly I'm not sure, 'km' was what is written in the advert for it. It may well have been an import but it's RHD.
In regards to the receding mileage, I don't think the MOT tester got it wrong, because the miles then rise by 10/15,000 miles every year after that.

I think I'll go and have a look, check for fluids, rust, any dashboard lights, see how it runs (idles and rev), coolant.....(anything else?)

[bkharrison]

Originally Posted by griston64

it could be a massive £600 money pit with that mileage on it !

If it goes bang shortly afterwards, then its not like I spent much money on it in the first place! And allegedly it did annual drives to Cyprus for the past 15 years and a schlep to the Highlands in the summer.....

[bkharrison]

Originally Posted by kiloran

With anything this old I just buy on a test drive and brief inspection. Check the oil and coolant. rag the arse off it for 20 minutes, check it stops and steers and make sure there's no annoying lights (airbags/ABS) which will result in an MOT failure.
The Golf I'm running currently had sat for the best part of 2 months at the dealers because it looked tatty and was running rough. It still looks tatty but all it needed was a coil pack, oil pressure sensor, and a filter change.
At that price it's worth more in parts if it does go pop.

Should I be worried about the MOT expiring at the end of November? Or should I ask the seller to consider getting it through an MOT before I buy (for a higher price). Past MOT history doesn't look awful, some advisories with wheel bearings and brake 'adjustments'.

[Laird Scooby]

Originally Posted by bkharrison

Should I be worried about the MOT expiring at the end of November? Or should I ask the seller to consider getting it through an MOT before I buy (for a higher price). Past MOT history doesn't look awful, some advisories with wheel bearings and brake 'adjustments'.

Reading between the lines it sounds as if you've more or less made your mind up to have it, pending a satisfactory test drive and inspection.

As such you have two choices, first is you tell him you'll pay the test fee if he runs it down for a test and if it passes, the asking price of the car. Second is you go and look, if all is well and it hasn't rusted in any of the common spots (sills at the rear including end caps, inner wings where the battery sits and the mirror image the other side, front footwells where they curve into the wheelarch) and no other obvious rust is present in the chassis/underbody, no other problems as already discussed then but it but try and find a few bits to knock him down on because of the short MoT.

Then once you have it home, give it a thorough going over, you should know by then if it has any "silly" items that will fail, lights, wipers, horn etc are the usual sillies and check the rest then put it in for MoT just under 30 calendar days before the current test is due to expire. That way if it passes it will be post-dated to the anniversary of expiry of the original/current MoT - in short you could get nearly 13 months MoT if you play it right.

Doing it the first way, if it fails on something serious then it can't be driven until repaired and retested. The second way you're taking a chance it'll pass fairly easily but could make your money back easily enough by breaking it. Also you'll have the option to repair and retest or break, rather than the current owner having the option paid for by your MoT fee.

I think i've covered the pros and cons of both there, it's really up to you. At that kind of price though it's a borderline thing.

[john.wigley]

Originally Posted by bkharrison

Should I be worried about the MOT expiring at the end of November? Or should I ask the seller to consider getting it through an MOT before I buy (for a higher price). Past MOT history doesn't look awful, some advisories with wheel bearings and brake 'adjustments'.

My take on that, 'bk', would be to ask the owner to put it in for a test. If he has confidence in the car it should not be an issue and should pass with few if any problems. Barring the odd bulb, if it failed on anything significant, I would expect him to bear the cost and make a price adjustment in respect of any necessary repairs. If it passes, perhaps with acceptable minor advisories, I would expect to pay (it is to my advantage, after all) and meet his asking price.

Regards, John.