Car totaled - time for replacement

[SD67]

I really don't know, but next time one comes in to the workshop I'll be sure to check

[Napoleon II]

I must be one of the only people to choose NOT to have leather seats. I don't like them - never have. They're cold on a winter morning and get hot and sticky in heat. That's especially bad if wearing shorts. I once had an up-market Toyota which had leather seats as standard. I kept that car 6+ years and as it got older, the leather of the driving seat got polished by my @ ss and became slippery. I was forever having to hotch up, putting my elbow on the door armrest. After 6 years of that the surface material split under my weight.

Yeah VW coil packs - LOL! I had one of those go on a V6 - lost power on 2 cylinders, but the emergency callout guys had it fixed the next morning before 10am. Still, coil packs would not be an issue on a diesel, if that's what Chairboy is going for.

 

[Skuzzy]

I will never own another Volvo as long as I live.  Had an S60 for 7 years and it was the most costly car to maintain I have ever had.

Over and above the normal things you pay for maintaining a car we wpent over $25,000 in maintanance.  The troubles were long and many.  A transmision which wuold suddenly drop out of gear while accelerating ($6,000 spent to fix, never did fix it) to fuel pumps going out ($2,000 to replace) to electrical problems (bulb replacement of some kind once every two weeks or so).

After complaining and writting letters to Volvo, I got a nice response. "Volvos cost more to maintain than most cars, maybe you should consider getting a Honda."  That came from a management type in Customer Relations.

I could not get rid of that car fast enough and will never buy another Volvo again.  The sad thing about the whole experience is the Volvo was a nice car in terms of ride, handling, and quiet.  It was just a really costly car to maintain due to things breaking every three or four months after warranty expired.

[mora]

Get the Jetta. Nothing wrong with VW realiabilty in my experience. I can't understand why it rates poorly in reliability over there. And if the price of crude goes up it will hurt gasoline more than Diesel.

[eskimo2]

Skuzzy,

I buy and drive old cars at the low end of the market.  The 89 Volvo 240 I drive now is the most expensive car I’ve ever owned (out of 50+).  I paid $1800 and have been driving it for years.  I’ve had the exhaust, steering rack and power steering pump replaced; I don’t think I’ve ever spent over $400 on a single repair and probably not over $1,000 in a single year.  A good private mechanic helps; never go to the dealer.  I think it has 170K + on it.  I’ve got a sturdy roof rack on it and regularly haul boats, lumber and big junk on the roof.

I’ve had several other Volvos.  The last two (an 86 240 and an 82 240) cost $850 and $800; I owned each of them for eight years.  On one of them I had the head gasket replaced; that was several hundred dollars.  The 82 had 350 K on it when I bought it.  The biggest repair I ever made on it was replacing the shift linkage; I did that myself.

Volvo has let its quality slide on many newer models; I’ve talked to a number of Volvo mechanics over the year who have very high praise for many models and engines, but claim that most of their work comes from several particular models/years and engines. 

Avoid the bad models and their reliability and longevity is only rivaled by Mercedes. 

As a brand, their safety can’t be beat.  Notice how other brands often compare their safety crash-test results to Volvo’s.  I doubt any other brand can claim more now standard safety innovations as Volvo.  I believe the vast majority of safety innovations have been due to Volvo, Saab and Mercedes.

[moot]

Mora, my family had both a Passat and Jetta from 2000 to 2004, after than the Passat was sold. I don't know about the Jetta now, but they back then they both had electrical problems.  I used to see other VWs around town have the same headlight and break/fog light problems.

[Thruster]

You want to drive a car forever? Volvo, Benz, Subaru.
Just don't fix every knob and whistle that breaks and they prove really hard to kill.

Bang for the buck Chair? I'd say dance with the one that brung ya.

[Skuzzy]

eskimo2, I am glad we did not have to test the crash worthiness of the car.  As many times as the car put my Wife in peril, it was a miracle she never got hit.  The transmission body was replaced three times.  The software was upgraded 4 times.  The transimission was completely replaced once.  None of these things fixed the problem with it randomly dropping into neutral.  To my Wife's credit, she never blew an engine.

On occasion it would drop into neutral, then back into drive.  That was rare though.  Usually the car had to be stopped and shifted into park, then back into drive to get moving again.  Try that on a Dallas freeway (635) sometime, during rush hour.

I am happy you had good luck with your Volvo.  The final straw for me was the response from a customer rep for Volvo who basically told me to go buy another car if I could not afford to maintain this one.  The three service dealers who touched the car all agreed that Volvos cost a lot of money to maintain.

I took the car to several third party mechanics.  None of them wanted to work on that car.  Yet they all had BMW's, Mercedes Benz, Volkwasgen, Honda, and one even worked on Alfa-Romeos.

A reputation is worth squat when you are stuck on the side of the road, in the rain, and it is dark.  My Wife had to bear that burden three times during the life of that car.  That, in my humble opinion, was three times too many in this day and age.

Volvo treated us like crap.  I will never own another one and I will go out of my way to share the nightmare that was owning that car.  I oculd care less what thier reputation is.  For me, thier reputation is one of not caring about the owner or the quality of the vehicle.  After all, they are Volvo.  Why should they care if they sold me a piece of junk which was completely unsafe and unreliable to drive?

Her Lexus has been a god send for her.  I count my blessings we could afford to eat that car.  Yes, there is no way I could sell it as I would have left myself open for a law suit when the next owner got into an accident.  I sold it to a wrecking yard.

[eskimo2]

They should have their dealership pulled for how they treated you.  Car dealers can be a weak link in quality service for any make.

[Skuzzy]

The service and the reponses from all three of the local Volvo dealers was the same.  Almost like that were reading it from a script.

Anyway, sorry to start this thread on a different path.  I'll bow out now Chairboy.

I will say there are a number oof cars which will fit what you are looking for Chairboy.  I just do not believe Volvo is one of them,  If it can happen to me, it can happen to anyone.  Is it worth the risk?

[Xasthur]

This is where I'd be heading:



Higher maintenance costs but my mate works for BMW Australia and he works on them all day.... He's convinced that they're a solid car. Once I've got a little more out of my Ford I'll be buying something exactly like that.

The resale value on them is surprisingly similar to the Ford XR6/XR8 (Sports version of the standard Australian Ford sedan) and should fall within your budget.

Off the top of my head that BMW meets your safety standards too.

[Chairboy]

Wow, thanks for all the great feedback!  We're heading out to the lots today to see some of these cars in person.  One other car has been added to the core list, btw, the Buick Lacrosse (it's the Regal replacement).  I'll check out the Beamers, with special attention to the 3 and 5 series.  Wifey has the Volvo XC90, and I'm not wild about a Volvo for myself just yet after seeing how restrictive it is in some ways for modification, but I'll check out the Sedans.  I'll sit in the Five Hundred again too.

Regarding leather seats, I rarely drive naked, so it's always comfortable.    It's also easier to clean by far.

I hadn't even thought of the Civic, but I'll try it out.

The VW seems all over the place.  I love the idea of the turbo diesel (diesel might be expensive, but the Jetta gets 40-50mpg and can run on vegetable oil w/ a little effort, something that might be useful in the near future, but the reliability concerns are well put.

I'll report back from the trenches, I've gotta get something loaded into the breech so I can pull the trigger when I get the check.

[mora]

The Jetta has a very solid body, suspension, engines and powertrain. The only "weak" part that I know of is the bushings of the semi-rigid rear axle, which last usually from 100 to 150 thousand miles and are easy to replace. If your dealerships are unable to troubleshoot some minor usual problems it might be another story.

[ROX]

Any Honda is a good choice.  If you want a car you can put enough miles on to go to Pluto & back, very low maintainence costs, almost no problems....Honda.

I used to be a dyed -in-the-wool GM Pontiac man....



ROX

[SD67]

I used to have a Vovlo 760GLE with a 350 Chev in it.
It's simply amazing what you can do in the NT!
I did test it's crashworthiness one night. An (illegal Vietnamese ) made a U turn in front of me with an unregistered Ford Econovan. I was doing 80kph and didnt even get to hit the brakes. I turned the van into a banana and punted it 15 feet down the road, this made the 6^1/2' long bonnet on the 760 a mere 1' long. The windscreen departed the vehicle in slow motion and the car stopped. The first thing I tried to do was start it to move it off the road
The thing that impressed me was that I could actually open the door and get out. From the bonnet or what was left of it back the car was perfect! The Viet guy was OK too, he gave the cops some fake ID and vanished. The ambos' took one look at the car and the van and told me if I'd been in any other vehicle I'd be dead