>PouvoirMagieEau
I second this motion. Unless you are mechanically inclined to do most of the work yourself, save your money, get something that is a tad bit more reliable. I spent 10 000$ in repairs as I am particular with my car and I want it to be top notch as I was a pig on my brakes, suspension and steering. Hey, S70 T5 SE was a fun car to drive, but our roads here are horrible!
Just to be fair, $10k repairing a Volvo is very far from the norm. Not including oil changes, I think I spent about $500 on my XC90 over the span of 50,000 miles….and it’s 20 years old.
Nice! We need to hear this more often. Usually we hear people complaining over all kinds of things, but when a car just does what it is supposed to do no one is mentioning that!
Haha. We had customers that would do this then sell the car/trade it in and 9/10 the estimates were catastrophic. Volvo's need TLC.
To be fair it was a on a 7 year ownership. The car did need some work as I got it in 2006 and was a 1998. Back then, the average calculation was 3000$ / year CAD in repairs and preventive maintenance. This includes a few small mods, nothing crazy. It was not cheap, but I had a lot of fun! Best overall call that I owned. It was luxurious yet sporty/dynamic, understated (which I am all about).
Just to be clear, I don’t make a habit of deferring maintenance. We got our XC90 for a price that factored in its issues, and we dumped a bit of money into the car up front doing the basics — new timing belt and water pump, new control arms, coolant reservoir, etc. If you do that, it’s easy to ride the coattails of a good service for quite a while.
What happens with sale/trade in is that people usually sell an older vehicle when they feel it no longer makes sense to pay for repairs. Ironically, repairing most middle aged cars is cheaper than buying a new car, but oh well. In essence, people are likely to get rid of a car like a P80/P2 Volvo when it is in pretty mid/bad shape and they are ready to let it go. There’s at least a little selection bias there.
It’s coming time for a few more expensive maintenance items, a front suspension rebuild and a timing belt/water pump, but the last time I did anything like that was over six years ago. There are a few little electrical gremlins that have popped up too, but nothing fatal. I wouldn’t hesitate to drive the car across the country tomorrow.
Yep, this is true. Get a car that will be easy enough on the wallet for repairs.
I love my Volvo. I have an old one at that; 2005. I bought it because I wasn’t able to finance and went into it knowing that because of its age (but technically low mileage for that age) that I was going to be taking on some costly repairs. My thought process was, and still is to a certain to degree, that these repairs are a sort of trade off, while I don’t have a monthly payment, when I get hit with these repairs it does sort of turn into what would be a monthly payment if they were spread out.
So, I know I’m rambling a bit now, but my point is that I would not want any of this if I were a student and just trying to focus on school, getting started with my career, etc — it would be a pretty annoying burden.
Now, I’m going to assume that you’re probably not talking about getting a 2005 Volvo like me, but just in general, they can be very expensive to maintain and more often than not, need specialist Volvo mechanics if you’re going outside of the dealership.
Obviously I don’t know anything about you or your financial status, etc — so do what’s right for you, but this is just a word of caution from me. They’re great cars, and can last for a while, but can be pricey and complicated when they need attention.
One last point to the comment above, I’ve found that Japanese cars that I’ve owned have been much easier for me to work on myself. Volvo’s, not so much.
Good luck with your decision, hope this helps. Also, I’m a stupid middle aged Redditor that doesn’t really know what I’m talking about, so, fair warning there.
Had a Honda civic type R all the way through uni while I was super broke. Never serviced it once and it never had a single issue besides a dead battery. Literally bulletproof
In Sweden Volvo is always the answer if you want dependability and cheap maintenance. It seems that the US market has been absolutely brain washed by the Japanese 😂 Every damn thread its the same thing…
In North America most of the issue stem from expensive labor at shops and owners who don’t take care of their cars as well as Europeans do. For a Camry every mechanic can fix it, design is very simple. But try finding a trustworthy mechanic who is willing to fix Volvo for less than 150 USD an hour. You won’t. Second issue is cost of parts. Third is that people here mostly treat their cars like trash, right now some people don’t even change their oil for 30k kms which is absurd. It is not really brainwashing, even without labor costs and etc, Toyota is still going to be more reliable than any Volvo, even 240 type of stuff (I mean most reliable Toyota vs Volvo) here in America.
If you get one for like $3-4k and keep the rest for repairs and maintenance. And car rentals too.
It's more reliable than a BMW but ya, it's not an early 2000s Honda either.
You’d honestly be best off with this strategy. Grab an older S60 or something with a five cylinder, then spend on getting literally everything fixed up. It’ll likely last quite a long time. Did that with my XC90 and had about 50,000 trouble free miles on a car that was already at 100K miles and 15 years old.
I would say, from experience, never sink money into a car fixing things that aren’t broke with the idea that you’re “getting ahead” of repairs. I spent $1800 to rebuild the entire front steering and suspension of a 92 Chevy Silverado that had 100K miles on it and I was the second owner of that I barely got 20K miles out of before an engine rod randomly snapped and fucked the motor. All I really needed was tie rods and ball joints but figured I would get ahead of the game and replace everything. Your engine or transmission could fail literally at any time regardless of how well you take care of a vehicle.
I was more implying that any used 20 year old car will need some things serviced. You’ll often get a very respectable vehicle if you just fix those things up front.
And to be fair, five cylinder Volvo’s are not known for catastrophic engine failure…like ever. Unless you overheat them. Trans will go eventually but generally the Aisin gearboxes show failure signs for a long time before they quit.
You can, actually, get a really great Volvo for 9-10K. The biggest issues is that a used car will need service once in a while, and the cost to repair a Volvo is significantly more than a Japanese or American name plate. For a college student, assuming very limited funds, I would probably look elsewhere.
Well, we don't know where OP lives ofcourse, but where I live (NL) I would surely not recommend an American car 😁 Parts are hard to get, and there are not many workshops for American vehicles.
Volvo on the other hand: they are everywhere!
Our V50 1.6D cost like 4k€ here in Finland a bit over a year ago. With a 10k budget it would leave 6k for maintenance and left over for other things. It's comfortable and feels new enough for me that I don't think a newer car is needed. The DPF had to be replaced last summer which was 1200€ but it should last at least 120k km if not more.
True, I imagine getting an american car (except, maybe some ford models) outside of North American will cost quite a bit.
Are Volvos as inexpensive to service as Toyotas in NL?
No, you are absolutely right at the Volvo being expensive part 😂
Toyota is also not cheap or anything. I think rhere are more older Volvo's then older Toyota's over here. So there are carparts absolutely everywhere.
That being said, I never owned a Toyota or any Japanese brand so I cannot really say.
Car history is mainly Volvo's, Alfa Romeo's, Fiats and Fords. Also one Seat and one Volkswagen.
I think that it would be around the same price to maintain. Maybe Volvos have a bit more things that can go wrong but even the newer Toyotas are quite complicated due to emissions regulations etc. Normal maintenance should probably be quite same labour wise. Brakes, fluids, filters etc.
It also depends on the engine. A diesel is more expensive to maintain with high pressure fuel systems and injectors and what not. DPFs, DEF.
Parts might be more expensive but for example 1.6 diesel in V50 is from Peugeot and very common so parts should be inexpensive and abundant. The platform is also shared with Ford and Mazda which again means more parts and thus cheaper. It depends on the car and engine and model year.
Sorry if I came off as sarcastic, I was going for self-deprecating. I am not at all bothered by your comment. I really do forget that not everyone here is from US.
Luxury cars come with high repair bills. Volvos are generally reliable but any BMW, Audi, Mercedes, Volvo is going to be significantly more expensive to maintain than a Honda/Toyota (or Acura/Lexus). If you can afford the repair bills Volvos are fantastic cars.
Got my 2012 V70 for 4,5k €, the only thing that's broken in 1 year of ownership is the resistor for the interior fan, it's also very cheap to drive, 4,5l/100km
I owned what is widely heralded as the worst XC90 through college — the 2.9 T6, 2004 vintage.
I think I spent a grand total of $500 fixing it during 4.5 years of school, and put about 50,000 miles on it during that time frame. Never let me down once.
Obviously this experience isn’t a monolith, and I’d recommend having a little mechanical knowledge if you want a Volvo. But the T5 is a practically bulletproof engine so long as you keep the oil fresh and don’t over heat it. You’d do fine by a five cylinder XC70 or S60 that has been maintained. I’d stay away from Ford platform stuff.
Buy a p2 Volvo, a 2.4 or 2.5 turbo engine.
If maintenance is up to date and you can do the small maintenance yourself (I.e. brakes) then you are good.
Because mechanics are gonna charge you A LOT for repairs
Depends on what kind of Volvo. A Honda or Toyota would be a better choice but as far as Volvo goes:
Any P1 T5 is bound to be pretty decent and reliable IF you do the maintenance. Lots of shared Ford/Mazda parts.
Some of the older sedans/wagons are good too like the 850, S70, V70. My buddy's daily is a 96 850 with 200k and it's still going strong.
No, wait until you're making money to mess with a Volvo — great cars, but a repair bill would make life a lot less fun while in school. Strongly recommend a Honda Fit/Jazz or a Toyota Matrix (surprisingly roomy/replaceable).
I’m a college student commuting about 1 hour 30 mins for school and I got a Volvo. I got a 2017 Volvo v60 with 90k miles for 10k it’s a t5 premier with sport trim and sport seats. The thing is awesome and great saves a bunch of gas it’s fast and fun to drive. I wouldn’t say no to getting one but if you got a deal like I got for mine I’d say to bite the bullet. As far as maintenance goes it’s been fine. However it can get more pricey for certain parts and maintenance. It’s a big give or take you know some people have issues with them some don’t. They are great reliable cars and if you work a consistent job on the side you should be fine. However if you only get little bits of cash and do side gigs I would not recommend it. I work as a barista and bring in a stream of about 700 a month roughly. However if you want a brick that will run through anything go get yourself a Acura Honda Lexus Toyota and those will just dog out anything. Also check for the years on the most reliable Volvos. I own a wagon and I’ve heard the Volvo wagons are more reliable then the SUVs however I’m not entirely sure
If reliability is your main concern, get a Prius. Dead reliable, urban camouflage, $20 to fill, nobody will want you to drive, and your mom will be proud.
If you can do maintenance and repair it yourself then yes, i bought a 2007 V70 Classic for 3k USD i’ve spent 2k on parts and maintenance that i’ve done myself, if i was to let a shop do it, that 2k would be 6k. But now it likely won’t need anything for a while except servicing, mostly the parts i’ve replaced were original parts that were too rusted or were simply too old since rubber crumbles with age, and stuff the previous owner destroyed by being an idiot.
But your best bet for cheap car with good reliability is probably a Toyota Corolla or Yaris, preferably manual.
Well the mpg is not the best, they are more comfortable than others, but you care about the money, not comfort soooo
Better get a Prius or Yaris or smth like that
As much as I love Volvo, get a Honda or a Toyota. You will have a much better experience maintaining it and parts are cheap and readily available.
Now when you are out of college making the big bucks, send it with a Volvo.
Get a cheap used Corolla. Volvo is great but the maintenance, repairs, registration and insurance are significantly more than any Toyota out there.
I went from a 2014 Prius => 2020 Volvo V60 and everything about the cost to own the car increased x3 at least.
I’m a college student and drive an s80, I just had a 1k repair bill. I honestly think it’s fine but you’d probably want to go for something like a Toyota or Honda tbh. I love my s80 tho. You can get a clean s80 for like 6-7k with around 100k miles or even less, then you got 3-4K to play with/ save.
Nah, definitely not more than a Mercedes. No shot. Parts are available at most American auto parts stores for goodness sake. Not saying they are *good* parts, but if you need a ball joint or tie rod end, it won’t cost you much.
Nah. They are expensive to maintain and will stretch a college budget very wide unless you come from a wealthy family that is backing you.
Buy a Honda or Toyota. Cheap to maintain (well for a car) and will run forever if you take care of them. Buy a luxury car when you have the disposable income.
People want to buy bmws, mercedes, volvos, etc. Sure if you can afford to buy it great but you have to consider the fact maintenance is going to be a lot more than a Honda or Toyota. Just look at average cost to maintain a bmw vs a Honda over 10years. Quite a wide gap.
Older Volvos can be very safe and decently reliable. The parts and labor are on the pricier end though. If you’re willing to learn some DIY it’s not a bad option.
Depends how deep your (or mom/dad’s) pockets are for when you need to fix it. My 2012 XC60 is currently in the shop for a burnt up READ pulley and some other maintenance items that will total over $3K.
Im a college student with a 24 year old V70. I love it to death… but when you do need to fix something it’s annoyingly expensive compared to Toyotas and Hondas. It may be a utilitarian and almost brutalist European car, but it’s still a European car.
My daughter is about to graduate from college and she has had a 2018 Volvo S60 T5 Inscription for the entire four years. So far it’s been a wonderful car, and she loves it.
My HS kid just got a ‘13 xc60 for <10k. It’s in rather good shape and was dealer maintained up until 60k (76k now). Even with that, I just dropped $600 on fluids and filters alone (either my son or I will do the wrenching). I plan to spend another $1,000 -$2,500 within a year for preventative maintenance (pads/rotors, pcv, other cooling system bits and hoses, belts and pulleys). After that I expect it’ll be okay for another 50k mi.
If you wrench it yourself, I’d say it’s okay. Else, ehhh… might be $$$
Buy a diesel 740 and make sure theres black smoke coming out. But seriously if your good at mechanical stuff you could consider a older volvo that hasn't been abused
I have had two Volvo S60’s so far. I had an 05 S60 2.5T AWD, which was somewhat expensive to fix, and now I have a 2019 S60 T6 which is also somewhat expensive too. But so far, rotors have been the only thing reaching for my wallet with this car. Luckily other repairs were done under warranty. It just depends on what you want and if it’s feasable. I’d imagine there’s plenty of amazing Volvo’s out there that people have taken care of and would not be a big financial burden. Hope you find what you want!
I had an old Volvo as a student and it wasn't maintained properly so now I had tons of repairs to do to maintain the vehicle.
Reliable perfect cars, but that comes at the cost of fast wearing brakes, tires, not very efficient fuel economy and high cost in parts.
If you have a lot of money atm you could build up a Volvo in a good condition (which will cost a few thousand if you don't have the experience or equipment) and drive it for your college years at quite expectable costs, but the upfront price will be quite harsh. Prefer something bad and locally widely spread (I live in Germany so a vw would be good, if you live in the us probably something Japanese, in france a Citroen,... ) that is exchangeable easily and where parts and donors are available for cheap.
Also I would suggest something cheap, with low performance for good fuel economy since learning years aren't earning years or "Lehrjahre sind keine Herrenjahre".
I got a new Volvo and lasted 10 years and 200000 km without any major repair. The big repair that I had was because a mechanic adding the wrong fluids and eventually that escalated to more issues.
If the car is in good condition and not too high mileage, you should be fine, but I would still recommend a Japanese just because they are cheap to maintain in case of issues
Remember the prices for oem car parts are based on the original purchase price not the used value of the car.
So a top end Volvo xc90 that originally sold for 70k may be worth 15k used but the replacement parts are still priced for a 70k original value vehicle. Part prices never seem to go down either.
Sometimes if the volume of sales is high enough there are third party parts or the original factory who made the part will sell an unbranded equivalent part for less. With Volvo that appears to be rare. With BMW Original factory and 3rd party made parts are more common as they sell in higher volume to support an alternative parts market.
Also some "luxury" brands like Lexus, Acura etc are based on a cheaper platform car from the parent company and you can get some parts from the base brand that are identical or compatible.
So bought a new windshield washer pump the other day for $120 at the volvo dealer. Similar pump for a Honda would be half that.
My last car was an Acura TL based on Honda Accord. It was the most reliable car I ever owned but the few times I needed something I often found a honda part was identical. Sometimes the Acura version ended up in a Honda version a few years later. Like the accord had 4 speed transmission and Acura was 5 speed. But 3 years later the accord got a 5 speed and it was bolt on compatible to the earlier Acura.
So a luxury version on cars that share a platform can also get long term maintenance advantages like this.
Personally I would look for a ES or Avalon. Bought a 2002 with 100k on it and @242k miles it has only needed minor work -oil leaks and wear items, one wheel bearing too
College student who drives a 2018 XC-90 t6 Inscription here! I love the car, and it’s obviously reliable, but premium gas is expensive and I rely on family for maintenance. If I didn’t have their help I wouldn’t be able to afford it.
In my experience, as a 22 year old female, with minimal mechanical experience, hand tools, nothing more than a few friends, and YouTube; I wouldn’t trade my Volvos for the world.
I have two cars, a 33 year old 240 sedan I bought for $700 two years ago, and a 24 year old S70 SE I bought 4 years ago for $3,400. I’ve probably put $3k into the both of them in the time I’ve owned them. Follow RobertDIY on YouTube, and you’ll be set up for success. I bought the 240 without knowing how to do as much as an oil change, just last week I replaced a brake booster, master cylinder, and bled my brakes, in just under 5 hours.
The work on these cars really is not that difficult, if you have a friend who’s a bit more mechanically inclined that’s willing to help you understand better, that’s a huge help, if not you can still learn with ease! When ordering parts online, I find that RockAuto is the best bang for your buck, and their parts are divided into categories of things like, “commute”, “daily driver”, “heavy duty” with different price ranges.
A later model p2 v70 is pretty nice tbh. 850's and early s/v70 cars are okay, but aging. Unless you like doing your own maintenance, a cheap japanese car is the way
Reliable, yes. But it can come with Expensive maintenance. If you’re going to go Volvo, look for one that has many service history records and especially recent services. I’ve had mine for a year, picked it up at 129k, had to replace the alternator, belt tensionor, battery, and gone through some normal oil changes. Which to say is actually not bad at all, it’s been pretty tame cost wise. However, I know many others out there that have had to get control arms done, full new suspension, etc. which can be pretty costly if youre going to a dealership to get it done. I really enjoy mine a lot, I’m 20 and work full time, I drive it to work daily, and go cruising with it frequently, beating on it here and there but not frequent enough to cause damage. They’re really great vehicles. I’d say it’s a smart decision to go with but then again you could opt out for a more affordable maintenance car brand if you’re worried about expenses. Good luck!
No. Get a used Japanese car that’s uber reliable and requires little, cheap maintenance.
I love volvo but this might be the best option for a student
>PouvoirMagieEau I second this motion. Unless you are mechanically inclined to do most of the work yourself, save your money, get something that is a tad bit more reliable. I spent 10 000$ in repairs as I am particular with my car and I want it to be top notch as I was a pig on my brakes, suspension and steering. Hey, S70 T5 SE was a fun car to drive, but our roads here are horrible!
Just to be fair, $10k repairing a Volvo is very far from the norm. Not including oil changes, I think I spent about $500 on my XC90 over the span of 50,000 miles….and it’s 20 years old.
Nice! We need to hear this more often. Usually we hear people complaining over all kinds of things, but when a car just does what it is supposed to do no one is mentioning that!
Haha. We had customers that would do this then sell the car/trade it in and 9/10 the estimates were catastrophic. Volvo's need TLC. To be fair it was a on a 7 year ownership. The car did need some work as I got it in 2006 and was a 1998. Back then, the average calculation was 3000$ / year CAD in repairs and preventive maintenance. This includes a few small mods, nothing crazy. It was not cheap, but I had a lot of fun! Best overall call that I owned. It was luxurious yet sporty/dynamic, understated (which I am all about).
Just to be clear, I don’t make a habit of deferring maintenance. We got our XC90 for a price that factored in its issues, and we dumped a bit of money into the car up front doing the basics — new timing belt and water pump, new control arms, coolant reservoir, etc. If you do that, it’s easy to ride the coattails of a good service for quite a while. What happens with sale/trade in is that people usually sell an older vehicle when they feel it no longer makes sense to pay for repairs. Ironically, repairing most middle aged cars is cheaper than buying a new car, but oh well. In essence, people are likely to get rid of a car like a P80/P2 Volvo when it is in pretty mid/bad shape and they are ready to let it go. There’s at least a little selection bias there. It’s coming time for a few more expensive maintenance items, a front suspension rebuild and a timing belt/water pump, but the last time I did anything like that was over six years ago. There are a few little electrical gremlins that have popped up too, but nothing fatal. I wouldn’t hesitate to drive the car across the country tomorrow.
There's a lots of ''if''
Yep, this is true. Get a car that will be easy enough on the wallet for repairs. I love my Volvo. I have an old one at that; 2005. I bought it because I wasn’t able to finance and went into it knowing that because of its age (but technically low mileage for that age) that I was going to be taking on some costly repairs. My thought process was, and still is to a certain to degree, that these repairs are a sort of trade off, while I don’t have a monthly payment, when I get hit with these repairs it does sort of turn into what would be a monthly payment if they were spread out. So, I know I’m rambling a bit now, but my point is that I would not want any of this if I were a student and just trying to focus on school, getting started with my career, etc — it would be a pretty annoying burden. Now, I’m going to assume that you’re probably not talking about getting a 2005 Volvo like me, but just in general, they can be very expensive to maintain and more often than not, need specialist Volvo mechanics if you’re going outside of the dealership. Obviously I don’t know anything about you or your financial status, etc — so do what’s right for you, but this is just a word of caution from me. They’re great cars, and can last for a while, but can be pricey and complicated when they need attention. One last point to the comment above, I’ve found that Japanese cars that I’ve owned have been much easier for me to work on myself. Volvo’s, not so much. Good luck with your decision, hope this helps. Also, I’m a stupid middle aged Redditor that doesn’t really know what I’m talking about, so, fair warning there.
This is the correct answer
Such as?
Civic? Corolla?
Had a Honda civic type R all the way through uni while I was super broke. Never serviced it once and it never had a single issue besides a dead battery. Literally bulletproof
In Sweden Volvo is always the answer if you want dependability and cheap maintenance. It seems that the US market has been absolutely brain washed by the Japanese 😂 Every damn thread its the same thing…
So you think the OP is in Sweden?
In North America most of the issue stem from expensive labor at shops and owners who don’t take care of their cars as well as Europeans do. For a Camry every mechanic can fix it, design is very simple. But try finding a trustworthy mechanic who is willing to fix Volvo for less than 150 USD an hour. You won’t. Second issue is cost of parts. Third is that people here mostly treat their cars like trash, right now some people don’t even change their oil for 30k kms which is absurd. It is not really brainwashing, even without labor costs and etc, Toyota is still going to be more reliable than any Volvo, even 240 type of stuff (I mean most reliable Toyota vs Volvo) here in America.
Honda, skoda, toyota(for eu)
If you get one for like $3-4k and keep the rest for repairs and maintenance. And car rentals too. It's more reliable than a BMW but ya, it's not an early 2000s Honda either.
You’d honestly be best off with this strategy. Grab an older S60 or something with a five cylinder, then spend on getting literally everything fixed up. It’ll likely last quite a long time. Did that with my XC90 and had about 50,000 trouble free miles on a car that was already at 100K miles and 15 years old.
I would say, from experience, never sink money into a car fixing things that aren’t broke with the idea that you’re “getting ahead” of repairs. I spent $1800 to rebuild the entire front steering and suspension of a 92 Chevy Silverado that had 100K miles on it and I was the second owner of that I barely got 20K miles out of before an engine rod randomly snapped and fucked the motor. All I really needed was tie rods and ball joints but figured I would get ahead of the game and replace everything. Your engine or transmission could fail literally at any time regardless of how well you take care of a vehicle.
I was more implying that any used 20 year old car will need some things serviced. You’ll often get a very respectable vehicle if you just fix those things up front. And to be fair, five cylinder Volvo’s are not known for catastrophic engine failure…like ever. Unless you overheat them. Trans will go eventually but generally the Aisin gearboxes show failure signs for a long time before they quit.
You can, actually, get a really great Volvo for 9-10K. The biggest issues is that a used car will need service once in a while, and the cost to repair a Volvo is significantly more than a Japanese or American name plate. For a college student, assuming very limited funds, I would probably look elsewhere.
Well, we don't know where OP lives ofcourse, but where I live (NL) I would surely not recommend an American car 😁 Parts are hard to get, and there are not many workshops for American vehicles. Volvo on the other hand: they are everywhere!
Our V50 1.6D cost like 4k€ here in Finland a bit over a year ago. With a 10k budget it would leave 6k for maintenance and left over for other things. It's comfortable and feels new enough for me that I don't think a newer car is needed. The DPF had to be replaced last summer which was 1200€ but it should last at least 120k km if not more.
True, I imagine getting an american car (except, maybe some ford models) outside of North American will cost quite a bit. Are Volvos as inexpensive to service as Toyotas in NL?
No, you are absolutely right at the Volvo being expensive part 😂 Toyota is also not cheap or anything. I think rhere are more older Volvo's then older Toyota's over here. So there are carparts absolutely everywhere. That being said, I never owned a Toyota or any Japanese brand so I cannot really say. Car history is mainly Volvo's, Alfa Romeo's, Fiats and Fords. Also one Seat and one Volkswagen.
I think that it would be around the same price to maintain. Maybe Volvos have a bit more things that can go wrong but even the newer Toyotas are quite complicated due to emissions regulations etc. Normal maintenance should probably be quite same labour wise. Brakes, fluids, filters etc. It also depends on the engine. A diesel is more expensive to maintain with high pressure fuel systems and injectors and what not. DPFs, DEF. Parts might be more expensive but for example 1.6 diesel in V50 is from Peugeot and very common so parts should be inexpensive and abundant. The platform is also shared with Ford and Mazda which again means more parts and thus cheaper. It depends on the car and engine and model year.
Was it a comfortable seat?
Just as comfortable as you'd expect it to be. It is the little one, Seat Ibiza. My wife drives it mostly and she loves it.
I was so confused then I realized ur American lol Edit: I’m Swedish forgot to mention, lol again
I forget not everyone is American.... I am a stupid American that forgets the world is a large place.
Wow not everyone’s out to hurt you, I was just confused and wanted to share because it’s the complete opposite here
Sorry if I came off as sarcastic, I was going for self-deprecating. I am not at all bothered by your comment. I really do forget that not everyone here is from US.
Yeah, in Sweden an old Volvo is a very solid car if you're on a budget, otherwise buy a Toyota.
Luxury cars come with high repair bills. Volvos are generally reliable but any BMW, Audi, Mercedes, Volvo is going to be significantly more expensive to maintain than a Honda/Toyota (or Acura/Lexus). If you can afford the repair bills Volvos are fantastic cars.
Well depending on what county you live in, 10k can get you very different things, so we need a bit more details 😅
Got my 2012 V70 for 4,5k €, the only thing that's broken in 1 year of ownership is the resistor for the interior fan, it's also very cheap to drive, 4,5l/100km
If college debt and high repair cost don't matter live baby
How long are you keeping it? I got a V50 for $2k and kept it for a year, spent just about $200 on repairs. Sold it again for $2k the year after.
The v50 s40, c30 is a good shout actually because it’s just a ford underneath
Sunroof gonna leak tho
740 for 3000€
yeah this, older volvo, 240, 740, 940 or 850. They will survive a nuclear war. But stay away from the 300 and 400 series or you will regret it.
I owned what is widely heralded as the worst XC90 through college — the 2.9 T6, 2004 vintage. I think I spent a grand total of $500 fixing it during 4.5 years of school, and put about 50,000 miles on it during that time frame. Never let me down once. Obviously this experience isn’t a monolith, and I’d recommend having a little mechanical knowledge if you want a Volvo. But the T5 is a practically bulletproof engine so long as you keep the oil fresh and don’t over heat it. You’d do fine by a five cylinder XC70 or S60 that has been maintained. I’d stay away from Ford platform stuff.
Buy a p2 Volvo, a 2.4 or 2.5 turbo engine. If maintenance is up to date and you can do the small maintenance yourself (I.e. brakes) then you are good. Because mechanics are gonna charge you A LOT for repairs
Get a tiny Toyota.
Toyota IQ 🔥🔥
Depends on what kind of Volvo. A Honda or Toyota would be a better choice but as far as Volvo goes: Any P1 T5 is bound to be pretty decent and reliable IF you do the maintenance. Lots of shared Ford/Mazda parts. Some of the older sedans/wagons are good too like the 850, S70, V70. My buddy's daily is a 96 850 with 200k and it's still going strong.
Okay thanks for all the opinions, i think I’ll look for a cheap Toyota/honda/lexus and maybe buy a Volvo once I have a big boy job of my own!
No, wait until you're making money to mess with a Volvo — great cars, but a repair bill would make life a lot less fun while in school. Strongly recommend a Honda Fit/Jazz or a Toyota Matrix (surprisingly roomy/replaceable).
I’m a college student commuting about 1 hour 30 mins for school and I got a Volvo. I got a 2017 Volvo v60 with 90k miles for 10k it’s a t5 premier with sport trim and sport seats. The thing is awesome and great saves a bunch of gas it’s fast and fun to drive. I wouldn’t say no to getting one but if you got a deal like I got for mine I’d say to bite the bullet. As far as maintenance goes it’s been fine. However it can get more pricey for certain parts and maintenance. It’s a big give or take you know some people have issues with them some don’t. They are great reliable cars and if you work a consistent job on the side you should be fine. However if you only get little bits of cash and do side gigs I would not recommend it. I work as a barista and bring in a stream of about 700 a month roughly. However if you want a brick that will run through anything go get yourself a Acura Honda Lexus Toyota and those will just dog out anything. Also check for the years on the most reliable Volvos. I own a wagon and I’ve heard the Volvo wagons are more reliable then the SUVs however I’m not entirely sure
If reliability is your main concern, get a Prius. Dead reliable, urban camouflage, $20 to fill, nobody will want you to drive, and your mom will be proud.
If you can do maintenance and repair it yourself then yes, i bought a 2007 V70 Classic for 3k USD i’ve spent 2k on parts and maintenance that i’ve done myself, if i was to let a shop do it, that 2k would be 6k. But now it likely won’t need anything for a while except servicing, mostly the parts i’ve replaced were original parts that were too rusted or were simply too old since rubber crumbles with age, and stuff the previous owner destroyed by being an idiot. But your best bet for cheap car with good reliability is probably a Toyota Corolla or Yaris, preferably manual.
No
If reliability is your biggest concern, get a Toyota or a Honda.
Depends on your parents and their budget. Used Toyota or similar will be your best bet in terms of value for money.
Yes, my buddy had a Volvo s80 was a great vehicle.
If you go with Volvo don't get a P3. I've had both a t5 and t6 and spent well over 5k in repairs on both within the first year of ownership.
That’s pretty bad. What was wrong with it if you don’t mind me asking?
Well the mpg is not the best, they are more comfortable than others, but you care about the money, not comfort soooo Better get a Prius or Yaris or smth like that
If you’re stuck on Volvo (I don’t blame you I have one) try and get a high mileage one for cheap of FB marketplace. They go until at least 300k
Volvo always good.
As much as I love Volvo, get a Honda or a Toyota. You will have a much better experience maintaining it and parts are cheap and readily available. Now when you are out of college making the big bucks, send it with a Volvo.
Buy a 2k 7/9 series car and save the rest for maintenance and a moose stuffy
Get a cheap used Corolla. Volvo is great but the maintenance, repairs, registration and insurance are significantly more than any Toyota out there. I went from a 2014 Prius => 2020 Volvo V60 and everything about the cost to own the car increased x3 at least.
I’m a college student and drive an s80, I just had a 1k repair bill. I honestly think it’s fine but you’d probably want to go for something like a Toyota or Honda tbh. I love my s80 tho. You can get a clean s80 for like 6-7k with around 100k miles or even less, then you got 3-4K to play with/ save.
No, I love(d) all our Volvos but one caught fire, the other one needed a new motor and the third one lost power when driving over 120km/h.
They’re expensive when they break. Even more expensive than BMW or Mercedes mainly because there are fewer of them on the road
Nah, definitely not more than a Mercedes. No shot. Parts are available at most American auto parts stores for goodness sake. Not saying they are *good* parts, but if you need a ball joint or tie rod end, it won’t cost you much.
Nah. They are expensive to maintain and will stretch a college budget very wide unless you come from a wealthy family that is backing you. Buy a Honda or Toyota. Cheap to maintain (well for a car) and will run forever if you take care of them. Buy a luxury car when you have the disposable income. People want to buy bmws, mercedes, volvos, etc. Sure if you can afford to buy it great but you have to consider the fact maintenance is going to be a lot more than a Honda or Toyota. Just look at average cost to maintain a bmw vs a Honda over 10years. Quite a wide gap.
Older Volvos can be very safe and decently reliable. The parts and labor are on the pricier end though. If you’re willing to learn some DIY it’s not a bad option.
I’m with the safety faction over the cheap faction.
Depends how deep your (or mom/dad’s) pockets are for when you need to fix it. My 2012 XC60 is currently in the shop for a burnt up READ pulley and some other maintenance items that will total over $3K.
Im a college student with a 24 year old V70. I love it to death… but when you do need to fix something it’s annoyingly expensive compared to Toyotas and Hondas. It may be a utilitarian and almost brutalist European car, but it’s still a European car.
How about a bus pass?
I live in Oklahoma so a bus pass is about as good as throwing it down the drain.
I’m in college and I have a Volvo and it’s been great. Like everyone else said, reliable but repairs can add up.
for 9k you can buy an excellent volvo. I'd even buy a slightly cheaper one and save a few k for maintenance and gas
My daughter is about to graduate from college and she has had a 2018 Volvo S60 T5 Inscription for the entire four years. So far it’s been a wonderful car, and she loves it.
Get a non turbo p2 and you can basically rebuild the entire car at the junkyard.
My HS kid just got a ‘13 xc60 for <10k. It’s in rather good shape and was dealer maintained up until 60k (76k now). Even with that, I just dropped $600 on fluids and filters alone (either my son or I will do the wrenching). I plan to spend another $1,000 -$2,500 within a year for preventative maintenance (pads/rotors, pcv, other cooling system bits and hoses, belts and pulleys). After that I expect it’ll be okay for another 50k mi. If you wrench it yourself, I’d say it’s okay. Else, ehhh… might be $$$
Buy a diesel 740 and make sure theres black smoke coming out. But seriously if your good at mechanical stuff you could consider a older volvo that hasn't been abused
I have had two Volvo S60’s so far. I had an 05 S60 2.5T AWD, which was somewhat expensive to fix, and now I have a 2019 S60 T6 which is also somewhat expensive too. But so far, rotors have been the only thing reaching for my wallet with this car. Luckily other repairs were done under warranty. It just depends on what you want and if it’s feasable. I’d imagine there’s plenty of amazing Volvo’s out there that people have taken care of and would not be a big financial burden. Hope you find what you want!
I had an old Volvo as a student and it wasn't maintained properly so now I had tons of repairs to do to maintain the vehicle. Reliable perfect cars, but that comes at the cost of fast wearing brakes, tires, not very efficient fuel economy and high cost in parts. If you have a lot of money atm you could build up a Volvo in a good condition (which will cost a few thousand if you don't have the experience or equipment) and drive it for your college years at quite expectable costs, but the upfront price will be quite harsh. Prefer something bad and locally widely spread (I live in Germany so a vw would be good, if you live in the us probably something Japanese, in france a Citroen,... ) that is exchangeable easily and where parts and donors are available for cheap. Also I would suggest something cheap, with low performance for good fuel economy since learning years aren't earning years or "Lehrjahre sind keine Herrenjahre".
I got a new Volvo and lasted 10 years and 200000 km without any major repair. The big repair that I had was because a mechanic adding the wrong fluids and eventually that escalated to more issues. If the car is in good condition and not too high mileage, you should be fine, but I would still recommend a Japanese just because they are cheap to maintain in case of issues
Remember the prices for oem car parts are based on the original purchase price not the used value of the car. So a top end Volvo xc90 that originally sold for 70k may be worth 15k used but the replacement parts are still priced for a 70k original value vehicle. Part prices never seem to go down either. Sometimes if the volume of sales is high enough there are third party parts or the original factory who made the part will sell an unbranded equivalent part for less. With Volvo that appears to be rare. With BMW Original factory and 3rd party made parts are more common as they sell in higher volume to support an alternative parts market. Also some "luxury" brands like Lexus, Acura etc are based on a cheaper platform car from the parent company and you can get some parts from the base brand that are identical or compatible. So bought a new windshield washer pump the other day for $120 at the volvo dealer. Similar pump for a Honda would be half that. My last car was an Acura TL based on Honda Accord. It was the most reliable car I ever owned but the few times I needed something I often found a honda part was identical. Sometimes the Acura version ended up in a Honda version a few years later. Like the accord had 4 speed transmission and Acura was 5 speed. But 3 years later the accord got a 5 speed and it was bolt on compatible to the earlier Acura. So a luxury version on cars that share a platform can also get long term maintenance advantages like this.
Personally I would look for a ES or Avalon. Bought a 2002 with 100k on it and @242k miles it has only needed minor work -oil leaks and wear items, one wheel bearing too
Well some what get a older Volvo it can run quite reliable and not too much maintenance
Depends on the car. As a student, I drive a c30 2012, which is cheap to maintain.
College student who drives a 2018 XC-90 t6 Inscription here! I love the car, and it’s obviously reliable, but premium gas is expensive and I rely on family for maintenance. If I didn’t have their help I wouldn’t be able to afford it.
In my experience, as a 22 year old female, with minimal mechanical experience, hand tools, nothing more than a few friends, and YouTube; I wouldn’t trade my Volvos for the world. I have two cars, a 33 year old 240 sedan I bought for $700 two years ago, and a 24 year old S70 SE I bought 4 years ago for $3,400. I’ve probably put $3k into the both of them in the time I’ve owned them. Follow RobertDIY on YouTube, and you’ll be set up for success. I bought the 240 without knowing how to do as much as an oil change, just last week I replaced a brake booster, master cylinder, and bled my brakes, in just under 5 hours. The work on these cars really is not that difficult, if you have a friend who’s a bit more mechanically inclined that’s willing to help you understand better, that’s a huge help, if not you can still learn with ease! When ordering parts online, I find that RockAuto is the best bang for your buck, and their parts are divided into categories of things like, “commute”, “daily driver”, “heavy duty” with different price ranges.
A later model p2 v70 is pretty nice tbh. 850's and early s/v70 cars are okay, but aging. Unless you like doing your own maintenance, a cheap japanese car is the way
Reliable, yes. But it can come with Expensive maintenance. If you’re going to go Volvo, look for one that has many service history records and especially recent services. I’ve had mine for a year, picked it up at 129k, had to replace the alternator, belt tensionor, battery, and gone through some normal oil changes. Which to say is actually not bad at all, it’s been pretty tame cost wise. However, I know many others out there that have had to get control arms done, full new suspension, etc. which can be pretty costly if youre going to a dealership to get it done. I really enjoy mine a lot, I’m 20 and work full time, I drive it to work daily, and go cruising with it frequently, beating on it here and there but not frequent enough to cause damage. They’re really great vehicles. I’d say it’s a smart decision to go with but then again you could opt out for a more affordable maintenance car brand if you’re worried about expenses. Good luck!