My wife and i are grad students, so we don’t have a lot of money. Ideally, we would be happy not to have a car at all, but in a city with the layout and the awful public transport of Baltimore, that’s not really an option. Having a car in this town is pretty much a necessity if you want to shop, eat out, go to the movies, etc.
For the past year, we’ve been sharing a car with a friend of ours. It’s her car, but we pay for half of the ongoing expenses (gas, registration, insurance, etc.), and we take turns to have the car, one week at a time. It’s been a good arrangement, as we don’t need the car every week, and it’s also possible to use it in the “off” week if the other person isn’t using it.
Anyway, our friend is leaving the country, and she wants to know if we want to buy the car. It’s a 1989 Volvo 240DL sedan. What i’m seeking is some general advice from anyone with any experience of this type of car, or of buying old used cars in general.
Last year, a few weeks after we started sharing the car with her, it had some major work done. The muffler and tailpipe assembly literally fell off and started dragging on the ground, and when she took it in to be repaired she found out that a whole bunch of other stuff needed doing. I have the invoice from the mechanic with me, and the work that was done included:
[ul]
[li]R&R Rear Muffler and T.Pipe (Volvo exhaust kit)[/li][li]Rehang and Align Exhaust[/li][li]R&R Fuel Pressure Regulator[/li][li]R&R Hi Pressure P/S Hose[/li][li]Flush/Bleed Brake System[/li][li]R&R Ball Joints (L and R)[/li][li]Repack Front Wheel Bearings[/li][li]R&R Tie Rod[/li][li]Front End Alignment[/li][li]R&R Crank Pulley[/ul][/li]The total bill for this stuff—parts, labor, and tax—was just under $1,700. Because we had only just started sharing the car with her, and most of the problems were the result of long-term use, we only paid $300 towards this bill.
So, now that she’s leaving, she is asking $1,000 for the car. I looked up the Blue Book value (a rather imprecise guide, i realize), and it indicated that this car in its current condition is probably worth about $850-900. But the extra hundred bucks or so isn’t really the issue; we’re more concerned about the possibility that the car might require another massive outlay like the one described above.
Since the repairs, the car has run very well. It starts first time every time, whether it’s 20 degrees or 90 degrees outside. It drives fine, and has never stalled or broken down. The exterior has a nice big ding on the right hand side where our friend backed into a concrete pillar in the shopping mall, and the interior is pretty old and crappy, and the parts of the plastic door bins and the center console have broken off.
Now, my wife and i don’t care how the car looks, or how crappy the interior is. We just want a vehicle that will run reliably for the two years that we are likely to remain in Baltimore. If this car is likely to do the job, we’ll probably buy it, because we know the car, and my wife (who was rear-ended in her old car a couple of years ago) likes the fact that the Volvo has plenty of metal in case of collision.
What i’m wondering is what, if anything, we should be worried about in deciding whether or not to buy this car? The mechanic who did the work last year told our friend that it should run for another ten years without too much trouble. Well, no offense to any mechanics on the board, but that’s probably what i’d say too if i had just charged someone $1,700 to fix a $1,000 car. Does anyone know of any specific issues that this type of car might have? Should i get a different mechanic to check it out before we buy it? Should i run like crazy and look for another car?
Any advice most welcome.
