Thanks for the replies everyone - good to hear there shouldn't be any major showstopping issues!
Gonna message the seller and see how things go from there. I have NFI what the sports suspension/exhaust setup is either but as long as the exhaust doesn't sound too obnoxious I'm not fussed.
Does anyone know what the parts/service situation in Sydney is like?
johna If you are in NSW then you will need to add the cost of blue slip, NSW registration and getting it home. Budget for close to $1000 to register it on NSW assuming blue slip inspection finds no significant problems.
Yep, I'm expecting it to be around that much to get it back home and registered. Not the end of the world as my current car only has a few months left on it.
I'd also be leaning towards getting an RACV inspection as a sanity check before committing to buying as well to cover anything obvious I may have missed.
Spac Depending on what the seller means by “lag”, it is most likely a dying coil pack. Possibly an AMM.
Price is at the top of the range. Haggle hard.
The Carsales listing says it might be a throttle body sensor issue. Replacing an AMM/MAF is something I can definitely do myself ?. Seller also says coil packs have been replaced recently but I'll see if they have any more information about this issue.
The price is definitely right up there (last S40 T4 manual I saw went for around $2800 IIRC, right before lockdown). I'm hoping there's some room to move.
240 These are great cars for the money, my brother had a T4 manual and it was a really fun car to drive
The engines themselves are very reliable being white blocks, money you spend will probably be on missed maintenance etc
This might be useful:
https://ozvolvo.org/discussion/13398/know-stuff-about-first-generation-s40s-and-v40s#latest
This thread is a goldmine, thanks for the heads-up!