I've been looking at an '89 240 wagon with just under 200,000km. Its in
decent shape with a bit of rust on the tailgate and a bit on the
fenders. The rest of the body is decent. The owner has recently put a
new starter in, a new muffler, and changed the pads in the front about
a year ago. His elderly father has been driving it for about 4 yrs and
another family owned it before since '89. I took it for a test drive
and it seems to have a rubbing sound coming from the front brakes as I
take off from stop position but it goes away fairly quickly until the
next stop. I haven't taken it to a mechanic yet but from looking
underneath it seems to have a possible fuel leak on the top of the fuel
tank, and may have an oil leak on the rear of the engine. The guy is
asking $2000 as is, or $2500 safetied. I've been looking for a 240 for
a while but they seem to get snatched up around here (Toronto, ON, CAN)
in less than 24 hrs of posting on the major classified sites. This one
is somewhat un-advertised and I came across it by accident. The owner
isn't really in a rush to sell and hasn't put it on the regular spots
such as Autotrader, Craigslist, etc. Does anyone have an opinion on
this before I take it to my mechanic?

Thanks.
cton.

cton wrote:

In my area rust is a deal breaker, where you find some there's always
more, and $2000 sounds more like a rust-free in good cosmetic and
running condition price, but then again in Toronto maybe they always
have rust?

Thanks for your experience on this. I ended up offering him $1200 and
he came down to $1800, but I had already decided that I wouldn't go
above $1500 for this particular vehicle. I agree, $2000 seems a little
steep and I think I'll continue my search. The guy was really hesitant
of me having my mechanic look at it anyways which is always a bad sign.

In addition to checking rust, remember to check if all the eletrics work.
When the key is in position 2, check if warninglights come on..

Check if the car brakes straigt (try a braketest in an empty parkinglot)
Check lights, A/C, etc. if applicable.

Then, the most important thing: The rust!
You can never know 100% if the car is rust-free, but if you know there is rust,
there most likely is more rust than you know.

To check a car properly, you would have to remove the carpet. However, you can
get your hand under the carpet to check if it's wet, simply by ripping out the
plastic cover by the door-opening.

"cton" <clayton (AT) claytonhanmer (DOT) com> wrote:

In article <1159417770.256178.56810 (AT) k70g2000cwa (DOT) googlegroups.com>,
"cton" <clayton (AT) claytonhanmer (DOT) com> wrote:

People selling used cars always overestimate the value. It's a natural
thing to do. Being reluctant to have a mechanic look at it before the
sale would be a deal breaker for me- but as the buyer I'd expect to pay
for the inspection.

On 26 Sep 2006 19:17:00 -0700, "cton" <clayton (AT) claytonhanmer (DOT) com>
wrote:


You may want to take periodic looks at this web site>

http://toronto.craigslist.org/

Thenk click on Cars&Trucks in the for sale box. Then type in Volvo in
in the search box.

You may find others including the 740 and 940 to be of interest.

Good luck,
Joe