Thinking about buying a 240 wagon

[smrobbi]

A neighbor of mine is selling his 1988 240 wagon it has 176,000 miles and it needs a complete brake job, otherwise it runs fine. How much should I expect to spend to get the brakes done on this car?

[matherfresh]

i have an 88 240 dl wagon. the thing is a beast. ran great for a good while but when it hit 220,000 miles. all hell broke loose. it stalls whenever it feels like it. it wasn't a big deal for a while because it would onley act up if i braked hard, but now it just does it whenever it wants to. i have tried to clear it up by changing out various parts and testing for what the root of this problem might be. no luck. the other problem that this era seems to have is the gauge pannel getting weird along with small other electrical problems like brake lights not working all the time. for a car of it's age and milage i can't complain too hard but talk to some other people and think it thru. it depends on how much love you are prepared to give.

[Mike_Brace]

I run a 1987 245GLT which now has over 270k on the clock. I cover 35k per year with it and have over the two years I have had it replaced quite a lot of parts to ensure trouble free future running. Have used it for towing holiday from UK to France (4000 miles in 2 weeks) and would go anywhere anytime. You have to be prepared to so rt out any problems as they arise and also carry out preventative maintanance to prevent problems. They are a good car but do like any others need looking after. If you can do it yourself running can be cheap - last year I spent about £700 on tyres and mainteance + about 3-4 days of my own time.

Mike

[macs Windstar]

I have owned a 1988 240 wagon for the last 8 years (bought with 147K, now has 237K miles)

An excellent web site for Volvo enthusiasts is www.brickboard.com. I have done most of the maintenance for the time I have had the car. I am currently fixing an intermittent no-start and stall problem which is frustrating.

Having said that, this car has cost me relatively little to maintain and gets 25+ mpg consistently (with the 5 speed manual tranny).

1988 is one of the best years for the 240 series Volvos. If it is in decent shape it could sell for $3000 in Seattle. Not sure how much a brake job costs. A friend helped me do mine last year. We had to do the front wheel bearings along with replacing the front rotors.

The engine is rock solid and is non-interference (broken timing belt will just strand you, not damage valves)

I consider it my "pick-up" for doing odd jobs

Overall a great car if you don't mind being slightly faster than a vw bus!

Mike