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.

Faults:

Although it has already had replacement seats, that's probably expected at that mileage.

There is water getting into the boot, somewhere, and that's starting to cause a little rust.

I have it's full service history and it has never had a clutch, head gasket or anything major.

General Comments:

The car handles very well and the steering is very responsive.

Even for a base model it has remote central locking, electric windows, airbag and loads more.

Although it's a pleasant car to drive when at 70Mph the engine is doing 3000Rpm, that can't be good for economy.

Serviced at a local Volvo specialist, parts are cheap and it is relitavely easy to work on.

Faults:

No faults have appeared yet.

General Comments:

The front & grille have been inspired by the 850, making this phase II 440 look quite stylish.

I was quite surprised by the levels of comfort, despite the car having a non-independent rear-axle.

Fuel consumption, if driven at moderate speeds, is low. At 90 km/h it consumes 5.6L per 100 km (or 50 miles to the imperial gallon).

The B18U (1800cc mono-point injection) engine is no speed-demon, but has plenty of torque right where you need it (max torque at 2500 rpm).

Very easy to upgrade, as most of the necessary wiring (for add-ons like fog lights, rev-counter etc.) is already in place.

Having previously owned a Citroen 2CV, I cannot over-stress the sensation of safety this car provides.

As I have not driven this car for very long, I cannot clearly anticipate the maintenance costs. But given that the car came with full service history and no failures have yet come to light, I assume this car - if serviced regularly - will not confront me with unpleasant surprises.