1994 Volvo 440 1.8i
Summary:
440: Shame for Volvo and Renault
Faults:
Clutch disk twice for 60000 km.
New transmission.
Engine problems.
Dash board shaking and creaking on every occasion.
Seats are very poor quality, they wear out too fast.
Left mirror mechanism broke.
Exhaust changed.
Horn broke.
Rust in a few places.
General Comments:
I purchased it second hand from Holland. It was produced originally with Vialle LPG system. I don't know if this is the reason (car has been driven on LPG all its life) but the steering wheel was vibrating and shaking too much on low revs (900).
The car is very bad mixture between Volvo and Renault 19 (engine and some other parts). I can say that all the bad things with this car are because of its Renault engine, which is very unreliable and problematic.
The interior was very poor and real shame for me - weared out too fast. Very weak paint and rust in few places. Dash board shaking and noisy plus falls apart, very bad material.
I had to change the whole transmission - very expensive repair. Something very annoying for this car and other Renault mades - the clutch pedal is very hard to push, so after couple of hours driving in city my knees start aching. Esepcially hard to push for my wife.
The luggage compartment of this car is too small, buy the 460 if you had to buy Volvo (I do not recommend).
I purchased this car because I heard that Volvos are ugly, but reliable. However this car is very bad and cheap built, and has nothing in common with the Volvo's from the past.
This car has few good things: very strong and reliable suspension - I drove it 70,000 km without any repairs (only the 2 stability rods must be changed every 20,000 km - cheap and easy), very good and comfortable drive, performs like a big car on the road, the parts are not too expensive because they are Renault, the car is well insulated for noise and no noise is heard inside while driving.
I do not recommend buying Volvo 440/460. This car is not reliable and is expensive to maintain. Don't deal with the official dealers (now Ford :( ) because it is not worth spending much money on such car.
Anyway, I must admit, that though this car has gave me a lot of hard timea, it never left me on the road during 3 years and 75,000 km.
Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? No
Review Date: 10th April, 2004
23rd Apr 2004, 11:40
I think your comments are completely wrong. Volvos are never bad cars. I have a 1992 440 1.8i and it is a good and reliable car. It has now 173.000 kilometers and it's now obviously old, but all the problems you seem to have with your car must be due to the fact it's a second hand one, and you don't know the use it's previous owner has given it. So your case must be simply bad luck.