lasercowboy
kinda hard to say without seeing it. what's the colour by the way?
the best price is the lowest one that the seller is willing to accept ;) don't go above $1500 unless they'll roadworthy it... just my thoughts of course - many more experts in these matters on here!
240
No I wouldn't go above $1500. But your words are wise ones, in terms of going as low as the seller will!
Colour is a sort of dark red/maroon.
lasercowboy
Sounds nice! There is/was a smart sedan on carsales in that color, with an insane price tag...
240
Yeah I think I may have seen that one actually. It's quite a good colour, I think.
lasercowboy
It's still there, $6,800... which is an astonishing amount for a GL, even in good nick with low miles.
by comparison, $1,500 sounds like a bargain ;)
egads (she/her)
Sounds in the 1-2k. Depends on amount of rego remaining too. 11 months vs 1 month is a lot of money.
240
Yeah I thought of that. It has ~3 months, which is worth about $300 here.
egads (she/her)
Who have the services been through?
240
Don't really know. There are about 4 services in the logbook that have been done at a dealer (at about 30k, 60k, 120k and 180k from memory). The rest are black.
The seller claims he's serviced it himself for the past 8 years or so.
Is this of concern?
lasercowboy
Depends a lot on the seller and how competent they are. Backyard servicing can mean anything from an enthusiastic expert who is on top of every tiny thing, right down to an occasional oil change because some nuffer thinks they're a mechanic (and every gradation in between).
For me that would be an alarm bell, but then it's a cheap car in good nick that runs and goes.
240
He sort of indicated that he hadn't done much other than oil changes, so there might be a bit of maintenance I'd need to catch up on. On the other hand, the engine did run pretty well. (Although the idle probably could have been smoother, is that cause for concern? )
lasercowboy
An engine that can happily get to 600,000 kms with minimal servicing will survive on only oil changes. That's not an indication of blue skies ahead! If you notice any white or blue smoke on starting the engine from cold, that's a bad sign. If the car has "been warmed up for you" when you arrive, the seller is probably hiding something.
Rough idle can mean a lot of things: from something as simple as fouled plugs from lazy servicing through to more expensive/annoying things like fuel system issues, vacuum leaks and air mass flow sensors. Hard to know without seeing the car, but lucky for you, some of the best Volvo 240 diagnosticians read this board.
240
Unfortunately I wasn't able to travel to his house, so I met him somewhere - so the engine was warm.
The last 240 that my dad had went from about 440000 km to 520000 km with no servicing whatsoever and it still ran perfectly, so I'm not too concerned.
The idle wasn't that bad so I'm hoping it's just plugs or air filter out something.
In any case, I feel more confident with this forum behind me!
egads (she/her)
Where is the car? I am local so perhaps can have a squiz with you and can arrange to check it cold.
240
Thanks for the offer. It's over on the Northside of Canberra.
To be honest I'm feeling fairly confident (after further negotiations I think I may be able to get it with a roadworthy included) but if you think it's imnportant to check it cold then I could try and organise something. As I said though, the engine ran well and it drove nicely so I'm not too concerned.
timbo
Ill be opening our workshop in phillip this weekend if you want to bring it in to check over on a hoist
240
Thanks for the offer, I'll think about it. I did have a quick look under the car and it all looked OK, although I stupidly forgot to check the exhaust (I couldn't hear any exhaust noises though). Is there any reason to be concerned about the exhaust at all?
timbo
Have a close look at the Diff bushes and trailing arm bushes they are a big job to replace. Exhaust isn't a big deal they usually rust out the rear muffler
240
Well the seller has pretty much agreed now to sell it with a roadworthy, so I'm assuming the inspection will pick up on anything like that.
egads (she/her)
Cool, that should kill any worries really. ACT roadworthy check is pretty thorough.
