Looking at few cars, £2k tops. Need space for a big dog and / bikes(s) but only do about 5k per year. Always liked Swedish cars but already had a 9-3 that burned my wallet. Thinking of an older 850/V70. Anyone have informed opinions ?

For £2k if you look around you might be lucky to get a good quality, high miler V70 (Old shape). They’re great cars, tough as old boots and with a massive boot to boot. 🙂

As long as there’s a FSH, don’t be too put off by six figure milage, if well maintained, a V70 will go on for almost as long as a W123 Mercedes! (But not really as long as that. When the world is destroyed, I am convinced that the only survivors will be cockroaches, Keith Richards and W123 spec Mercs!)

Not sure where you’re based, but this lot tend to have some good stuff on the forecourt;
http://www.williamsawyercars.co.uk/ (Andover/Salisbury area)

Yeah second CFH – I love my phase 2 V70 T5. 2001 plate 165k leaks a little oil, loses a little water, runs fine and goes like the proverbial off of a shovel. Had 3 DH bikes with wheels off and 3 people or 4 XC bikes and 4 people with all the gear in it before.

Im looking to swap mine however for a D5 as the T5 is a little thirsty. At 5k miles annually then the T5 or R’s are great fun to drive.

I picked up a ’98 V70 AWD to replace my dead 940.

As above – it’s a bit thirsty (2.5L 20V engine 🙂 ) but goes like stink and has plenty of room for bikes and kit. As I recall I paid £1500 for mine three years ago (with an exhaust that needed replacing), 150k on the clock. Only work that’s been needed is the known-about exhaust, otherwise has been running just fine.

For £2k it need not be high mialage. I was watching a 850AWD on ebay 80,000 and it would have been yours for 2.5k

2k and you could get something around 100,000 which is nothing for these cars.

I’m driving a 100k+ x reg V70 – i like it – big solid feeling car. It’s thirsty if you are heavy footed on the accelerator but can cruise forever at a steady 70-80mph.

Fold the passenger seats down and we even fitted a 3 seater sofa in the back so bikes should fit in just fine.

Durable exterior as well so when i do get round to its annual spring wash it should come up looking like new.

One of the old company pool cars was an L plate 850 2.5, it was pretty quick and in it’s time it wrote off a cab with minimal damage, crashed into a wall at 20mph and was completely unblemished, went down a hole at the millennium dome and was still going strong at 185,000+

Finally died when it was used in an armed robbery and was torched.

We got a W reg V70 and that was ace too. Bit thirsty but could carry plenty.

One of the old company pool cars ….Finally died when it was used in an armed robbery

Where the hell do you work? 😉

CFH beat me to it 🙂

Here:

I’ve had a few of each, an 850 2.0 10v (for a Germany road trip), an 850 T5-R as a second car, and a V70 2.5D.

Engines, turbos and gearboxes have all been fantastic. When I sold the 2.0 it had no oil in it so for all I know it had run round Germany with no oil (oops!). In the V70 the air con packed in and there was a squeal in the engine that no one could diagnose, when the new air con unit didn’t solve it and they started talking about replacing the timing belt (10k old) I got rid. Probably still going now with the same noise!

Love the T5-R. Mines got around 150k and still feels pretty good. I’d be more worried about a full service history and folder of receipts (most of these will have this so avoid a car with no history). You should be able to find one where the previous owner has spent a decent amount of money getting it in good condition recently. Due to not driving mine at all over the winter I’ve had a pretty expensive MOT bill but I did leave it parked up with a few problems so should’ve got them sorted sooner. Don’t worry about one that’s had a remap either, there’s a lot of them still around years and years after being mapped. They do respond very well to this.

The T5 is also worth a look, same internals but set to a slightly lower power than the R variants, easily sorted with a remap 😉

Good R variants are coming in sub £2k and aren’t dropping much any more T5s can be had a lot cheaper but probably more difficult to find a good one.

T5D5.org, vpcuk.org and Volvoclub.org.uk are all great sources of info.

I am biased because I own one. The Volvo 850’s are built like tanks and should go on and on and on if looked after. The V70 (I’ve heard) is not as well built since Ford got their ‘cost cutting’ hands on Volvo.

I have an 850 T5 Estate for sale if you’re interested and I’m not too far from you either. Car has 122k miles – full Volvo history, one previous owner, recent cambelt and brakes all round, full leather, sunroof, teal blue with T5 alloys.

I bought this from a private seller last year and it’s been perfect for biking – will swallow 3 bikes with ease. Been very reliable and survived daily use over the recent harsh winter without a problem.

Unfortunately I’m going to be doing mega miles with work this year and so regretfully need to sell to buy a diesel estate. The T5’s fuel economy is not too bad for a performance car (currently get between 25 and 30mpg depending on the type of driving) but I really need to be looking for a car that gets 40mpg + for the amount of miles I’ll be doing.

In great condition for age and engine and turbo are strong (still pulls like a train). A couple of things will need doing to it soon and hence open to offers in the region of £1,295. You can buy 850 Estates cheaper than this on Ebay but you will almost certainly have to spend another 1k + to get them up to scratch and most seem to have super galactic miles and partial service histories.

Let me know if you’re interested and you’re welcome to pop over and have a look.

NorthernStar, Can you email me please, email in profile.

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