1995 Volvo 850 Turbo from North America - Comments

Got the car 8-20-02

3-6-03 @ 45,000 miles: Check engine light, belt squeal

4-13-04 @ 59,000 miles: burning smell with heat (Volvo had a recall), check engine light continue to run

8-5-05 @73,000 miles: left ball joints, right front sway bar, and bar link, gear shift arrow blinking (won't go out of first gear)

10-20-05 @75000 miles: hard start, needed new battery

2-27-06 @79,126 miles: all new brakes, pads, and rotors, left strut mounts, right ball joints, right lower control arm

6-22-06 @82000 miles: low idle, tail pipe extension, turbo waste gate solenoid

7-10-06 @83000 miles: hard transmission shifting= gear position switch

1-8-07 @ 88,000 miles: coolant leak, milky oil, oil leak.

Now for the little annoying faulty items: transmission shifter light is out, moonroof light is out, gas gauge intermittently works, dash board creaks with the SLIGHTEST bump or dip in the road, the moonroof leaks, back righ door has no spring, hood paint is peeling, check engine light is still on, and there is more, but don't have the patience to list them all.

All of the repairs listed above totalled around $2,300! That is in about 4 years and 52,000 miles! I would never buy this car again! The repairs are too much. The only thing that is OK with this car is possibly the power from the turbo, even though the turbo solenoid blew from very light use. It doesn't handle well in the snow even with FWD, winter mode, and traction control.

Every vehicle is going to need new brakes, a battery & an exhaust system now & then. These really are wear & tear items, as opposed to faulty equipment.

Buy a ford and find out what expensive maintenance is. Most of that stuff is just basic maintenance on an older car. $2300 over four years and 50000 miles is just not that bad. Mind you an 850? What style is there?

Yes! And one time I bought a pair of shoes and after a few years I needed new laces. I'll never buy shoes again!

I agree with above comments. Most of those items are wear & tear, and even those were about year apart, so that is not too bad. I only see minor problems here.

What I can't believe is that all that the owner had wrong only added up to $2300.00. I have to agree with the sentiments of the owner though. Sure, these are wear and tear items, but, everything eventually is. The question is, how quickly do these "wear and tear items" wear out. Just because brake pads are wear and tear does not mean that I shouldn't be POed if they only last 10,000 miles. Sorry, but all those supension problems at that mileage?? Come on now? Plus, there are a lot of problems that the owner didn't fix. Still, $2300.00 for all that. Shoot, on my car that work would have easily cost double that.

The repairs are annoying, though the Volvo vehicles are of exceptional quality and safety. The check engine light in my 1995 850 GLT has been on/off since I purchased the vehicle in September. I do believe it was originally from the mass air-flow sensor. When I cleaned out the aircleaner compartment the light went out, and stayed off. I need to replace the wires to the spark plugs as I detect a miss while driving, though I only notice this issue. I only replaced the spark plugs, but should have replaced the wires too. The issue causes the light to become illuminiated. The light does go off after a while. The ride is rough, however the vehicle does deliver very good fuel economy.

If you are spending $575/yr to maintain are higher end luxury car that is 10+ years old you are doing great!!! It is obscene to think that you can run a car of that age with no maintenance costs. I would suggest if you wanted a BMW 3 series or Mercedes c-class of that are you would be spending $1500+ a year, not to mention the 850 turbo is far more powerful, and could be considered more as competition for the 5 series and e-class but at the cost of 3 series and c-class. And even if you got a little Acura or Honda they would still have some maintence costs associated with them.