Volvo 850 TDi Saloon 1996 For Sale

[David Croft]

Volvo 850 2.5 TDI saloon N411BAJ (registered July 1996). £750 o.n.o

An increasingly rare opportunity to acquire one of the best cars Volvo ever made.
Solid, durable, dependable, spacious, reliable, fast, frugal & repairable – qualities which are a rare combination to find in a vehicle in today’s world. Sure to be a future classic!

Car Mechanics magazine voted the 850 as one of the top 10 ‘vehicles to keep forever’ – now’s your chance!

Brief spec as follows:-
2.5 TDi, 4 door saloon, S70 15” alloys, fold down rear seat, electric tilt & slide sunroof, half leather interior with heated front seats, electric heated mirrors, electric front windows, remote central locking (2 keys & 2 fobs), boot spoiler, Volvo radio/cassette/CD, Volvo footwell mats & Volvo boot floor protector mat.

BAJ is currently declared SORN as we’ve kept it as a spare car, though we’ve kept up to maintenance & MOT’s through the period when it has been unused. Current MOT until 1st December 2018, passed with no advisories. Please feel free to check out the vehicle’s MOT history online. 4 former keepers (2 in the same family).No alarms or warning light on dash, everything works as it should. Runs without fault and is a real head turning sight on the road.

Mileage is 229,081; don’t be put off by this. BAJ has been maintained meticulously and will easily do another 100k+ if kept up to.
If you’re not familiar with the breed, the D5252T engine & drivetrain used by Volvo is derived from the old Audi A6 and is the basis of the engine used in the VW Transporter of the period. Without abuse or neglect, it’s virtually unbreakable & cheap to maintain if you’re handy with spanners!
Cambelt last replaced at 194k, along with genuine Volvo water pump.

BAJ is owned by my wife (a professional opera singer) since May 2011: we know the two previous owners personally (a bank manager and his wife, also a professional opera singer), so can vouch for the vehicle since 2002. My wife used BAJ for touring to different venues, often travelling late at night. You can imagine that she wouldn’t be happy with anything that wasn’t reliable & dependable. BAJ is certainly that!

BAJ has every MOT certificate available to verify the mileage against the service records. There is an A4 binder full of receipts & invoices for parts supplied & work done, both before and during our ownership.
Initial Volvo service history from Mill Garages, Stockton-on-Tees to 46k, and then subsequently maintained by the renowned Hutton Bros of York up to149k.
I do my own maintenance & repairs. My current Audi A4 is 17 years old has done nearly 400,000 miles and I’ve maintained it for the last 330,000 of those. I don’t have any doubt’s about the durability or future longevity of BAJ.

During our ownership, the following items have been replaced:-

Oil & filters changed each year.
Front Discs & pads.
Rear discs, pads, shoes & handbrake cables.
Rear dampers.
Front & rear brake calipers.
Cambelt, crank front oil seal, auxiliary belt.
Radiator.
Battery (2 years old, replacing previous Varta Volvo battery from 2006).
Front Lower wishbones (major MOT failure item on this car).
Front anti-roll bar drop-links.
Brake pipes (Kunifer).
Brake flexi hoses.
Outer CV boots.
Wiper blades.
Stainless steel, rolled exhaust tip.
Tyres.
All tyres are Michelin Primacy. The fronts are absolutely brand new with MOT mileage only and the rears are less than half worn. I can’t be doing with cheap, Teflon tyres!!

The front wings on the 850 are notorious for starting to rust at the front of the wheelarch, above the bumper line. No such worries on BAJ. Both front wings have been replaced with rust free OEM wings, painted to match. The inner front wings and sills were ‘as new’ when the old wings were removed (photos available taken at the time).
The bootlid has also been replaced with a good item, salvaged from an ex-police car.

Bodywork I would describe as extremely good, with only minor cosmetic blemishes. A morning in the paint-shop would have these issues addressed and you would be left with an immaculate car. There is some very minor rust on the edge of the rear wheel-arches (photo’s available). This was present when we bought the car and hasn’t really got any worse since

There are several spare parts available:-

2 Spare alloy wheels
2 alloy wheels with good snow tyres on.
A genuine Volvo detachable towbar with twin electrics (never fitted to this car).
A replacement NSR door, rust free, in primer, plus all the component parts of the door. This would need painting, but would save repairing a couple of minor car park type dents in the existing NSR door, though to be fair, they are hardly noticeable.

On snow tyres, this vehicle will go anywhere. Modern 4x4 vehicles with wide tyres don’t get traction properly on compacted snow & ice; when they get stuck, BAJ just drives straight past!

BAJ has just been serviced, including a brake fluid change, 2 new rear calipers and new brake pads all round, 2 new front tyres and is ready to go!

Something I never did was source a set of T5 alloy wheels to go on it. In my opinion a set of these would elevate the car from a head turner to being something very desirable, and really set the car off to its best effect.

Please feel free to call me, David on 07906 254094 or email on davidcroft64@sky.com for more information or to arrange viewing.

Vehicle is located west of York, YO23 area. 5 mins off A64 at Bilbrough and 10 mins off A1 at Wetherby.

[martin_r_smith]

Now that is how you write an advert. Well done and I hope it sells, at that price it is an absolute bargain.

[doingitsideways]

That looks lovely!

I've wanted a white TDi for a while and as sod's law suggests, a really nice one comes along at the wrong time of year for me

Best of luck with the sale. I'll hate whoever buys it.

[Stu B]

Superb advert, and the car looks great - good luck with the sale

[Turbodave]

Seems a steal at £750.00 too... nice examples are getting increasingly hard to find. Hope it finds a good home and the cheeky low ball offers are minimal!

[David Croft]

Many thanks to all for your positive comments, sincerely appreciated.

I forgot to add that BAJ is 5 speed manual, not auto. Neither clutch or DMF have been replaced as far as I'm aware, though neither are either currently a problem.

Cheers!

[doingitsideways]

My TDi is on 322k and still on original clutch and DMF. Turbo too.
I think yours will be ok for a while!

If Christmas hadn't just wiped me out (3 yo little girl) it would be sat on my drive by now.

[JOHN 850]

A cracking advert as per the other replies !

I also know the previous owners (Bill & Viv) and can confirm the car was very pampered and always got whatever maintenance it needed !!

Best of luck with the sale - my 1998 V70 with the same engine is just coming up to 280k and running fine, in fact just had a cambelt and waterpump done yesterday plus still on original turbo and clutch too 😉😆.

Might be interested in towbar if you wanted to sell separately btw.

Cheers

John

[David Croft]

Thanks John,

It seems we have mutual contacts!
Thanks for your helpful & supportive message.

I'll let you know if the towbar doesn't get taken.

Cheers!

[Rich850R]

Oh hello you Beauty!!

Have I missed when the MOT is due

Lovely car and a great write up