Used Cars: Volvo 240, exhaust system repair, volvo 240

Question
Hi--thanks for taking my question.

I've always liked the old 1992-93 Volvo 240 sedans. I'm thinking of buying one. (This is for general use around town. We have a newer, main car for the family.) I'm seeing a few out there--most of them around 150K miles. Am I nuts for doing that? Are they expensive to maintain/repair? Any advice is appreciated.

Thanks.

Scott

Answer
It is funny you mention this car.  My inlaws were in bad need of a car and I was looking at buying one of these for them, and yes I too noticed that most had 150k miles, I actually went and looked at 2 or 3 but everyone of them had problems, mysterious to generic.  I would never have bought the one that had the mystery drive a while sit a while problem, but one needed a new clutch and water pump, while the other needed a new water pump and exhaust system repair, it was leaking really bad at the manifold.  Those sound like really generic problems with any old car and they are, at least until you compare prices on repairs. I could get a water pump on almost any other car for under 200 dollars, 400 for the volvo.  The clutch job on almost any other car 600 dollars, the volvo almost twice that.  Then you have spent almost as much on the repairs as you could possibly ever get for the car.  I would steer clear unless you find that elusive 50k mile car...just my two cents...but you did ask for them.