VOLVO S80 QUESTION?

Someone we know is looking at one, and wants to know general opinion on these cars.Any help appreciated.Thanks.

Transmissions are GM sourced, and are shockers. The car in general does not have a good reputation for reliability, with electrical faults being common. The support network in NZ is limited and parts costs are very high.

I would avoid one, there are plenty other cars around which are just as comfortable but with much more reliability.

If you are fixated on volvos, apparently the newish s40 is a very good car

Hi pugmyre,

Firstly, the "General Opinion" and reality because we live in the land of the Japanese Import brainwashing brigade are going to be quite different things. Stick to opinions of actual owners etc for something closer to reality.

A lot of people are scared of the S80 for two reasons:

1. It was super sophisticated when it came out and people still view it as overly complex and therefore unreliable.

2. It uses a transmission that is known for failure.

3. Parts are very pricy if you buy them from Volvo dealers in NZ

The reality though is if you are prepared to give a little bit of thought to how you go about your servicing etc. Take some care in selecting a good one and service it properly they can be a HUGE amount of car for very little money.

Parts,
Realistically, you shouldn't be needing much in the way of parts, its not a Morris Minor. What I have found is that when a big service is due I just import directly from FCP Groton or similar, its easier IMO than buying parts for a Corolla from Repco.

If you do need the occasional part in a hurry who cares if you pay a bit extra, in the total scheem of running/purchase/depreciation costs its nothing.(especially as purchase price and depreciation are so low, assuming an early S80)

Servicing,
That transmission that many uninformed will take great pride in doing a big dance over and calling European rubbish etc is actually a Japanese transmission. Its made by Aisin who are partly owned by Toyota.

The great news is the transmission will actually be quite reliable if serviced properly and its easy enough to do this. One reason they are often neglected is Aisin had the stupid idea that they could seal the transmission for life and it would be fine. The reality is quite the opposite. Once it starts swimming in its own filth they fail very quickly. So, service it at least every 60'000km if not 30'000km like I do.

Reliability/diagnostics
In general these cars are not as unreliable as people make out. They are in fact pretty darn good if serviced properly. What scares people is the absolutely insane prices that NZ Volvo agents try and charge for simple tasks. SO its important if something needs attention that you see if it can be diagnosed on a regular scanner first. (I use my general $150 setup and my laptop for 95% of stuff)

If you do need to do a software upgrade or something more technical then shop around. These can be done by independent garages IF they have a proper Volvo diagnostic machine. They can access the software on a one off basis with this for a fee. I have known one Volvo agent to tell straight out lies and pretend that this is a big cost etc they have to pass on at massive cost every time. Its not as short one off licenses are available for home users or independent garages.

So, in a nutshell, if you are prepared to be a bit pro-active they are a great car and absolutely loads of fun, safe, luxurious and practical motoring for minimal cost.

The key thing is though you need to pick a good one. Early ones are old cars now and like all old cars 99% of the reliability comes form the condition you buy it in and how you continue to service it. NOT the badge on the front.

Hope that helps, I can advise a bit more about engines etc if I knew what year and engine they were going for.

LOL,
I see someone got to you with some myths and legends while I was typing my post!

myths and legends! Yea right. A mate has a s80 T6 sitting in the garage, for the last three years because the transmission is stuffed and it costs more than the car is worth to fix it.

It is a general motors transmission, 4 speed auto.

It also requires 4 new oxygen sensors which cost something like $1500 if I remember correctly, and are the same as generic bosch ones, but if you put bosch ones in instead of genuine ones then the computer will throw a hissy and wont work.

Sure it was a good cruiser but it drank the gas and now is useless. This car is not an isolated case either.

You can either listen to the person who will say every european car is a fantastic car, or you can listen to what I have just said and make your own decision. Its up to you. At least the transmission doesn't cost $15000 like the one for that DSG golf that Jazz convinced someone to buy.

LOL,
It seems we have attracted morristroll,
morrisman for the uninitiated just bags anything European. He holds on to any myth, half-truth or ridiculous nonsense he hears and regurgitates it on demand. (You can see this in the nonsense above, where there is just enough vague resemblance to the truth to make it sound plausible)

He also loves to twist people words out of context and try to use them against them for his own amusement.

morrisman has had zero first hand experience with Volvo's as far as I am aware.

For the record, the transmission he refers to is the AW50-42LE, the AW stands for Aisin Warner.

Transmissions don't cost $15'000 for a DSG Golf they are only about half that brand new, which is much the same as you would pay for any modern technology automatic transmission.

Some S80's are incredibly economical for their size/age.

I can't be bothered pricing the oxygen sensors to see if thats nonsense as well.

Thank you guys.Will print out and pass on all info.Thank you for your help.

Your welcome. Like I said come back with the specific details if you can. There is a bit difference between a T6 and a 5 Cylinder one in terms of service costs etc. There is also a range of transmissions etc although they all tend to suffer the same pros/cons.
There are also a lot of Singapore imports around which are generally worth less and may or may not be a good buy.

Our friends are looking at the following auction:474726304.They are using our computer as they don't have theirs back yet from being repaired.And by the way, I don't think you made anybody buy a car.It was their choice.

Thanks,
Yes, particularly in the case morrie is referring to. The lady already had the car in mind and even said afterwards it was her choice. BTW, it wasn't even a fault with the transmission in the end. Just a case of an incompetent garage as far as I am aware.
I will have a look at the auction for you now.

They are heaps of shit TBH. Never ending little problems, crappy transmissions, but they have good solid bodies. Buy a 4 cylinder Toyota Camry (with service history if possible) instead, much much better cars.

Nice car if you can afford the upkeep. Keep some money aside in case things go wrong as will be expensive, if does go wrong just thow the car away and start again will becheaper .

O.K I have had a bit of a look.

2.0T is possibly a Singaporean import. I have not had a 2.0T but knowing that engine it should get along O.K even though its a small engine in a large car. I would expect surprisingly good economy for the size of the vehicle.

Timing belt access should be O.K so servicing is straight foward enough. Timing belt could be overdue based on age.

It get the feeling its a car thats had some neglect and hard use/abuse by at least one owner looking at the interior, but has been tarted up as best as possible.

SO, it depends really on what they want from it, how long they intend to keep it etc.

Overall its really pretty much bottom of the barrel stuff. Old, far from pristine, possibly a bit neglected in the service department and we assume no records of transmission service. There is a definite "roll of the dice" with this one especially if buying sight unseen.

With that in mind if they were to buy it my advice is only buy it if its cheap. That means top dollar is $2500 IMO and they would need to be fully comfortable with the "roll of the dice" factor in terms of what sort of state its in and what if anything it may need.

If its going to be anything other than a temporary fill in or a $1500 buy until it dies and then take it to the wrecker proposition. They would want to budget on some serious servicing straight away. The esscentials in my opinion are:

* Transmission service including filter and ABSOLUTELY ESSENTIALLY the correct fluid.

* Timing belt, tensioners, waterpump

*Coolant, brakefluid, filters and anything like accessory belts which are likely due for changing while on the job.

I would advise importing the parts and getting a friendly labour only mechanic to do it for you. Allow say $2000 going that way to bring it all up to scratch (You might get lucky and do it cheaper but don't count on it). More if the mechanic orders their own parts.

The genuine transmission fluid from memory is made by Castrol and can be bought cheaper from them than the agents. Fluid is often not worth freighting from overseas due to the weight.

Hope that helps. If they don't like the sound of it in light of that I may have some other ideas. Overall, I am luke warm on it as a proposition its not something I would be in a rush to buy unless I did the servicing myself to get it up to scratch thus costing less. Unless of course it goes super cheap.

$2000 worth of servicing would be a decade's worth for any decent car. Any car that requires that much special attention should be ringing alarm bells in your head, also so should the salesman pitch that Jazz continuously spews in attempt to get people into anything european

And for the record, I hate just as many jappas as I do euros, I hate toyotas because they are lame, I hate mazdas because most are hideous, I hate mitsubishis apart from the evo. I love subarus because they almost make the perfect car but certainly some models are lemons, and I love some of Nissan's offering but some are just a bit bland.

I dont understand how Jazz has managed to fabricate this "Euro hater" out of me. Maybe it is because I only participate in the euro threads where I see concern about someone's decision, the others I dont really care about If I agree with what they are doing. This leads to him only seeing an anti euro opinion.

I, unlike some, can see past that euros are just another car, and have no more or less personality or character than japanese cars do. What the europeans do far far better than the japs is marketing. The japs suck at marketing!

I like European cars. but ss above my mate had a S80 T6, and while a nice car, and cheap initially it drained him in terms of upkeep. Don't think it had a transmission problem but plenty of others. To be fair, he did take it in to Archibalds every time

As far as we go, we had Jaguars and Hondas for years, have now got 3 BMW's.We have no problems with any of them.However we know nothing about Volvo's. Hence the question to give info to our friend.

Similar sort of deal to a high end BMW, but parts are dearer if bought in NZ. Just like with a 7 Series etc, its all about buying one in really good order and continuing proper service if you want a good shot at low ongoing costs.

Thats pretty much what I am expecting, most of a decade of neglect.
Try asking a mechanic to do cambelt, tensioners, oil fuel and air filters, automatic transmission service, waterpump, brake fluid, accessory belts and leaving a healthy balance for any other bits that crop up and you will burn through that much on most twin cam cars.

ALL similar cars Japanese or European would be due for a similar amount of servicing when presented in that sort of condition and age. There are plenty of idiots around who try and pretend automatic transmissions don't need servicing etc but they ignore it at their peril.

Your silly nonsense just confuses people who think you might actually have some experience with the vehicle in question.

We appreciate the input from both you guys -Jazz and Morrie.You obviously both have a wealth of knowledge that you could share with people like us that know bugger all about anything mechanical.It would be real good for us people if you two teamed up and instead of a war where no one wins, call a truce and we all win.Because us guys need guys like you to get us out of the crap and most people sort of ignore a war with words.Appreciate your time.Both of you.

But $2000 is a huge amount to spend in a short time. Lets take a generic Japanese car, for example a Primera. In ten years you would be doing about 150,000km.

thats 15 oil changes = $975
Gearbox oil three times (being really nice to it) = $100
Cambelt = N/A
Brake pads = $120
Coolant = $50
Brake Fluid = $50
Misc = $200

So all up thats $1945 for scheduled servicing, no neglecting the car. If it's an auto then add $250 to all that, for a drain and fill every 50,000km.

As you have already said for us, $2000 doesn't go far on a Volvo does it. Id hate to be a volvo s80 owner, having many sleepless nights worrying about what special service requirements I might have forgotten.

Morrisman does have a wealth of knowledge, just not about vehicles like this. The trouble is he carry's on like he knows what he's talking about anyway and then it just makes my life tedious correcting everything.

I would happily "team up" but I don't see how thats going to work when he is actually bringing nothing to the topic. Other topics, absolutely, but in this case absolutely nothing.

1. An old primera is in no way even vaguely similar to a top of the range luxury car.

2.You gave also neglected to include any filters, belts, waterpump, labour, you didn't include and automatic transmission in the tally etc. Then you tried some silly emotive car dealer nonsense as well.

Its all just silly missinformation designed to fool those who are not mechanically minded.

I wish you would just stick to what you know and leave the rest alone. You are only making yourself look stilly as any mechanic with half a clue on here who can do basic math can see the how silly you are being. They complete invoices every day and know how quickly things add up.

Most importantly you are distracting/confusing people who are trying to get some help.

Yes.We see your point exactly, but we also note that you would "team up".That's great news.As we all know, it takes guts to make statements like that.Us "don't know it all's" are starting to win already.Cheers.

Glad you can see that I am not being intentionally nasty. I know I can sound quite snippy but it just gets tiring with the same old misinformation every time.

Especially as he has been corrected on the same things before, given the evidence etc but still trys to use it just to stir the pot.

Keep us posted if your friends want to know anything else.