1989 Volvo 480 Turbo from UK and Ireland - Comments

OK, to start with the electronics on this car are very unreliable.

The heating system never seemed to work properly.

The engine suffers from erratic idle, especially when cold.

Various bulbs needed replacing, along with electric circuits.

Leaking in the boot from the glass tailgate which is known to be a common problem.

Inferior quality interior trim, always breaking or cracking.

This car is an unusual entry by Volvo, which is why I initially purchased it.

However saying that I wish i'd never had done now.

The irritating niggles this car suffers with can be quite heart wrenching sometimes if you are the sort of person that likes everything working and in perfect condition like me.

As for driving experience this car is very comfortable on long journeys and quite spacious considering it's only a four seater with 2+2 seating.

Solid Volvo build quality as you would expect, with good rust protection even mine being 11 years old it had hardly any rust whatsoever!!!

Handling was second to none, which was always the great selling point of this car and being as it was front wheel drive made it even better (which was a first for Volvo)

The car in retrospective was however sadly, let down by it's poor reliability in terms of electrical build quality and interior trim quality. Many a time the famous info-center would stop working, as being as this was digital which showed you how much fuel you had left you were almost left guessing sometimes as to how much petrol you had left in the tank.

On many an occasion I would shut the door and the front door pocket trim would snap or break off and end up on the floor, only for me to have to take another trip to the breakers yard to source more replacements parts for it.And the ironic things was that out of four that were there,all of them were missing the same pieces I needed so it was obviously a common thing to happen with many people resorting to breakers yards rather than paying silly prices from these local Volvo dealers.

Being as nearly everything was electronic such as the mirrors, sunroof, dash etc you'd often pray that something would not stop working as sure enough, something else would start playing about.

Auto electricians hate working on these things, and so do many Volvo dealers as there wiring inside them is like spaghetti junction and there more than happy to charge you silly amounts of money per hour just to look at it.

In the short time I had this car I always felt it was unreliable, which is a shame as ever since I was young I'd always go on about them and now since owning and driving one I no longer am interested in them at all through my bad experiance in owning one.

I'd recommend that if you do decide to purchase one buy from a proper car dealer, or better still a genuine Volvo dealer.

They are getting rare to see around now as they stopped making them in 1996 on a N plate which is the last edition "celebration" model with the 2 litre engine in it.

My "celebration" was getting rid of the dam thing unfortunately.

These car's never appealed to the "boy racer" so your guaranteed a thrashed free car when looking around. However in saying that on turning up the boost pressure and fitting a super-chip they do shift quite surprisingly fast for the type of car and weight (Volvo's are known for being on the heavy side)

To sum up, if your looking for something unusual like I was then go for it. However if your like me and expect a reliable, problem free car that don't require bits of interior replaced and various trips to breakers yards every five minutes or dealers then look elsewhere!! As someone else on here has already said Don't press too many buttons!!! Which is very true, and i'd wish I'd known that now.

I have owned a 480 from 79k to 174k miles and not yet had an electrical problem. It is a two tone limited edition 1992.I think they sorted a lot of the electrics on later models. Sadly though when it rains you could grow rice in the boot as the leaking lights turn it into a paddy field in five minutes, taking 3 months of heavy sunshine to dry it out.

I have got the silicone sealer gun out.