Faults:

Fuel door hinge broke.

Interior dash lights occasionally flicker at night.

Headliner loosening.

General Comments:

I purchased this Volvo in 2018 from the estate of the original owner for $1500. It had 52K miles at the time. I have driven it 15K miles without any maintenance or repairs aside from two oil changes and two tire rotations. It is a wonderful vehicle that does not use any oil or have any leaks.

Very quiet on the highway, heavy and smooth. Even at 22 years old, the cabin is incredibly quiet at modern freeway speeds of 85+ MPH. Extremely versatile with the folding rear seats (I moved with this vehicle and it's more handy than a full size pickup).

I still have the factory CD/CASS player and use a tape adapter for music off my phone. This base model Volvo has an amazing speaker system. Better than the Mark Levinson system in my LS430. Really blows me away!

I love the leather interior. The seats are so comfortable for me even on cross country drives. I have 0 complaints!

This is my 7th Volvo in my lifetime and definitely the nicest. The A/C works great even in the Texas summer heat. It has many "Eccentricities" that you would find in a Volvo of this vintage. The ABS and SRS lights are on and my CD player can be finicky. My headliner is coming loose in the middle. The fuel door hinge broke, but with some JB Weld I had it fixed up in no time! This car has been such a wonderful, trouble free blessing. I just hope I never have to replace the timing belt!

Faults:

Water temperature sender unit failed, £34 genuine part.

N/S drive shaft gaitor (CV boot) replaced.

Rear tailgate struts became lazy, £28 for a new pair.

Main window switch in driver's door (rear windows stuck down). Removed and turned upside down, then filled with electrical cleaner, allowed to dry and re fitted, no problem since.

Rough running in damp rainy conditions, new distributor cap and rotor arm, £80 genuine parts (the inside of the old one was a shocking state). New lead set, coil (pattern) and NGK spark plugs, total cost £160. Also fitted a new starter motor and battery at the same time (old starter was getting lazy and the battery was 10 years old). Has run beautifully since.

Exhaust started blowing in January this year so took it 70 miles to Tony Banks in Leeds for a complete full S/S system including down pipe & cat, £600 fitted, now has more torque and power, getting around 5 MPG more, oh, and a glorious noise, not loud, just a deeper, more satisfying type of bass (no baffles, just 2 Resonator silencers). Fantastic quality job, highly recommended with a lifetime guarantee.

Sometimes the indicators don't work, so you just simply turn the key anticlockwise just a fraction after starting.

Micro switch in the driver's door has played up a little, copious amounts of electrical cleaner and close the door firmly, always checking that the interior light goes out as you lock the door.

Most of the steel clips that hold the roof channel strip in place have rotted away; just bought 16 genuine ones to replace them at £4.25 each.

Had new front discs and pads in March, and new rear pads.

General Comments:

This is our 5th Volvo in the past 20 years: '88 740 saloon, '86 740 estate, '91 940 estate, '95 850 estate, and now this one, all automatics.

It is a fantastic car which my wife loves driving; she does less than 4000 miles a year. I only drive the car now and again as I commute on 2 wheels.

Last autumn when the car was playing up in the damp weather, I had an 18 month old Honda Civic estate lined up for her; I took pictures and a video of the car to show her, but my wife would not have any of it, she was not interested in the slightest.

We have been to Scotland twice on holiday in this car and it simply eats miles in comfort, doing well over 1500 miles each time, a very well made car which is now 20 years old with a genuine 74000 miles.

My wife found this car and I drove 130 miles to buy it for £1850 with a full service history. We had a Gates cambelt and genuine water pump fitted as soon as we got it home; the last one had only done 17000 miles, but was 7 years old.

It gets a service every year at a garage 20 miles away by a guy we have used for 20 years who we know and trust; he is the only person allowed to touch our cars. We are its 4th home and she will never part with it as long as she can buy petrol. People sometimes say to us, "when are you going to get a newer more economical car". My wife says, "why"?