Should I buy a Volvo?

Hey Emma. Good to see someone doing their research!

There are mixed opinions about Volvo's and European cars in general. European cars are known as more technically advanced and this does lead to some reliability concerns. However, Volvo's are really not too bad. Volvo tend to play it safe a little bit and not experiment too much with their technology, and the basic powertrain systems are well designed and have usually all been around for a long time and are tried and tested. In terms of safety, there will be no other car on the market of that age in that price range that would be safer than that Volvo.

I'm a Volvo mechanic at Berry Motor Group in Mitcham (VIC) so I work on different models all the time. I've driven hundreds of V50s and their sedan/hatch/convertible twins (S40/C30/C70 respectively) and they are, generally, really solid cars. I've also owned a V50 before along with the fleet of other Volvos we currently or formerly owned.

Things to look out for on a V50:
• Front lower control arm bushes: Someone already mentioned this. During a road test, press the brake hard and let go of it again rapidly (hope that makes sense). You basically want to just jerk the brakes and the car, you don't actually want to slow down. This procedure puts a lot of stress on the control arm bushes, as such, if they are worn you will hear an audible thump coming from the front as you brake. You have to brake fairly hard to make the noise, unless the bushes are totally stuffed then it will do it all the time. If there are no noises no matter how hard you try, the bushes are in good condition. These bushes can last as little as 50,000kms if you live in an area with lots of speed humps and like to fly over them. But generally they go longer than that. They don't take very long to replace them, actually they're probably the easiest control arms to replace out of any car I've ever worked on. If you shop around for the part you can also get them for reasonably low prices, so not a big issue by any means.

• Engine mounts: the most common one is the drivers side. It's a bit hard to see it but it's there, it has a metal bracket over it which hides it a little bit. It's a hydraulic mount, so filled with fluid (oil, essentially). When it splits it leaks everywhere. A car with a failed engine mount will exhibit more vibrations when driving and idling. These cars are fairly smooth but most will have a very slight vibration when accelerating. That's normal, but if it feels really bad, that's not normal. When I say the most common, I've only replaced about 2 of them in the last year. The other one on the passenger side, I've never done that one. Theres also a big bush down the bottom which I've also never replaced.

• Coolant expansion tanks: I replace these on just about every V50 I service. It's the coolant reservoir on the drivers side (actually it's close to that aforementioned engine mount!). If its all yellowy and horrible and has cracks in it, replace it ASAP as they can split and leak coolant everywhere and that could lead to serious overheating issues, obviously. It's not an expensive fix at all so I wouldn't even worry about it if you buy a car that needs it.

• If you can avoid the 2004 model. The really early cars seem to be the most prone to failure. This is fairly typical of any new car that hits the market, that first year is really ironing out the creases. So try and shoot for around a late 05 onwards car.

• If you buy a car with a sunroof check for leaks as the drainage system is pretty poor to be honest. Where the drains connect inside the car, over time they shrink and pop out so it leaks water inside the car. We've become pretty good at fixing these now and have done many of them and they never leak again. But you'll need to take it to someone like us who is familiar with the problem and have tested many different ways to permanently fix it. You're average Jo mechanic won't know our little secrets ;)

• Also check for windscreen looseness. Volvo seemed to have a bad batch of windscreen seal on a few different cars as the windscreens start to come loose. You will be able to push it from the inside and feel it lifting off the car or even see it a little bit. This also results in water leaks. We have the windscreens removed and re-sealed, no need to replace the actual windscreen as it's just the glue that is faulty.

• As for most of the technical gizmos, the AM part of the radio seems to be an issue for some as is the CD player on occasion, but I've only seen about 1 or 2 cars with those issues. All of the buttons and switches we're new to the V50 at the time, hence why I suggested to avoid the very early cars, but Volvo have had little issues with them as most of those switches and electronics continued into the later cars such as the newer V40 and the XC60.

• For going over 200,000kms. Many of the ones I have worked on are getting very close to or have already gone past the 200,000 mark and to be honest, if I blocked out the odometer I wouldn't be able to tell the difference between a 50,000km V50 and a 250,000km V50 assuming both had been well looked after. They are solid cars and very well built, the engines are well proven and had already been around in one form or another for about 15 years by the time the V50 came out. The highest mileage V50 I've seen so far was at about 320,000 and was still going fine, the owner had no interest in getting rid of it anytime soon.

Other makes, can't help you I've only been dealing with Volvo's for the last 4 years. Since I bought my first Volvo (V70XC) in Jan 2014 I've never bought any other brand, only Volvo's, and my friends and family are starting to follow suit as well. Other models in the Volvo range however I can definitely help you with.

Your real only other option is the V40 for size and cost. My sister has one (I actually chose it for her). My sister used to have a horrifically unreliable Mazda 323, then she traded that in for a near new Honda Jazz on finance. A year with this tiny buzz box she ended up wanting to, like you, consolidate her finances and get a older/cheaper car so she could go travelling etc... My sister wanted a nice small station wagon. She liked my Volvo because of all the things you can do with a wagon. She goes camping all the time and wanted to sleep in the car instead of a tent. However, she was adamantly against buying a Volvo, soooo I bought it for her and told her if she didn't like it I'll just resell it. Well 8 months later she doesn't like it... she absolutely loves it and wouldn't part with it even if I tried. She says she'll only replace it wayyyyyyy down the track with another Volvo. She's put like 20,000kms on it in the last 6 months!

I chose a 2003 model V40. If you go for a V40, look for a 2003 or 2004. They are the last of the breed and the best ones to get as they have all the upgrades and facelifts and are the most modern and well sorted of them. I found a lovely metallic red one (my sister loves red cars) in good condition with 128,000 on it (at the time). It's a base model (2.0L non-turbo) but that's what I wanted. My sister is only really interested in a car that works. Even this poverty pack though still had: Alloy wheels, 6 airbags, ABS and traction control, power windows, power mirrors, power steering, climate control (not just air conditioning, legit climate control), leather and wood everywhere. And it was just, nice. All the materials are so nice to touch, the car is quiet on the road and handles well. My friend had a Corolla hatch of similar age (2004) which I considered buying but the difference between the two cars was chalk and cheese.

So why did I choose a V40 over a V50? Mostly budget. The V40, which is a really nice example, cost my sister $4,500 when she decided to pay me after falling in love with it. A V50 at the time was at least 6 and was usually at the "not so well looked after" end of the scale, with a million miles on them and dents everywhere. To get a V50 in similar condition with similar mileage at the time would have set me back at least $8,000 and we just couldn't justify that kind of money when the Jazz was only worth about 12. Also because I had to pay for it and I'm a poor uni student, I could barely afford the V40 led alone anything else.

But more than that. Like I said my sister came from a very unreliable Mazda and she was afraid of a European car because of the stigma which I talked about before. So I needed to make sure that if she was to keep this thing, it would serve her really well and not have anything go wrong. The V40 simply just does not have as much to go wrong as a V50. I mean, something could go wrong in the V40 as well, I just know that theres less chance of it happening and it's usually easier to fix it if it does. Almost nothing involves going to the dealer on a V40, whereas you replace any electrical component on a V50 and you'll likely be up for a trip to the dealer to have it "programmed".

Also, the Jazz she had was great on fuel obviously being so small, so the thought of getting her out of a 6L/100km car into a V50 which will usually sit on about 12 as a conservative estimate would have been a bit of a shock to her. The V50 has a 5 cylinder engine, the V40 just has a 4. The V40 is not that fast if I'm honest and if you are a fast driver, get a V50 or a turbocharged V40 as my sisters non-turbo is pretty ordinary. My sister is such a careful driver that it doesn't make any difference to her and it's certainly not a slug by any means. I like scrolling through the trip computer on all of our customers V50's and most seem to sit on about 11-13L/100 so my conservative estimate was pretty on the money but is around 2-3L more per 100km than my sisters V40 gets. It's not a huge margin, but the margin becomes far greater in traffic. It seems the extra cylinder in the V50 can cost you up to 5-6 litres more per 100 than the V40. It adds up.

Anyway my helpful advice is rapidly turning into a works-thesis so I better wrap this up. Good luck with your search and buy a Volvo, once you buy one you'll never buy anything else as they're just so damn good.