Tips on Buying Cars: Volvo 240, 1993 volvo 240, manual tranny

Question
Im looking at a 1993 Volvo 240. It has 137k miles on it, and i was wondering how many is too many for this car.  Also, i have heard bad things about the pickup for the 240.
Its a manual, and i think that makes it a little better. Can you shed some light on that?  Also how long will this car last?

Answer
Wow, lots of recent volvo buyers... I don't know why... anyways, as for the pickup, its a volvo... If you are worried about pickup you're shopping the wrong brand, the 3000lb car has a tiny 1.8L 114HP 4 cyl. It will be slow, very slow, a manual tranny will help alot but it will still feel sluggish, consider test driving it... (it will be slower than your average civic, or almost all more modern cars).  As for reliability there are a few factors: Its a volvo so repair costs are going to be higher than most, it has alot of miles, and its pretty old.  A underpowered 4cyl with that many miles has probably been put under some serious stress, and every little component (fuel pump, water pump, alternator) is just waiting to die if it hasn't already with such high miles.... If your looking at older cars my advice is usually the same... avoid european cars... why? they are nice right? well they are also not famed for reliability, cost a ton to fix, and long term durability is usually sub-par.  To end, its risky, real risky, unless you have plenty of spare cash to fix it when it breaks, the best built cars of the early 90's were the honda's/toyota's/fords/chevy's (chevy had their engines running near perfection, the interiors were built VERY poorly though)/ nissan's also seem to have had pretty good quality in those years... and as always their respective luxury lines acura, lexus, lincoln, cadillac, infinity... No one can really know how long a car will last, but based on general knowledge, research, etc... I would guess it will last close to 200,000 miles, like most cars will, only it will be more trouble-some and costly to get it there than the other brands I listed.  So there you have it, I don't recommend it, but I tried to give you some other options, if you have anymore questions feel free to ask.  Sorry I didn't have better news, and good luck with your search.
-Robert