Volvo XC70

Funny, a quick look at the other XC70's of similar age on here shows most have similar km's on them. Its a reflection of the type of buyer more than anything.

That Volvo is worth more than twice that. You need to start being more realistic and stop pulling figures out of your arse. Comparing a car thats worth more than $10k against cars worth half that is stupid.

Btw OP, the Subaru Outback is a pretty good car as well. They are quite reliable, there is a lot of parts readily available for them, they have good space and pretty good ground clearance.

Hey thanks for your suggestion. I will investigate.

And thanks Mr Piano for all the time you put in to answering . I did let your comment go that it was a Turners-type auction because it was sort of: a local car dealer put a $1 reserve auction up on TradeMe. I looked at the car, drove it, took it to a Volvo specialist who looked it over, got an AA report and got another opinion as well, and talked to the people who worked on the transmission etc.It sold for $7850 tonight. We decided not to go that high because of the running and servicing cost (even going to our mechanic). We also priced in ORC, new cambelt etc of about 700 and 1100 for a mechanical warranty just to be sure -- about 2k all up. Also the fact that service history was not available (earthquakes can do that so it's nota reflection on the seller) and we don't know anything about dealing with Volvos. Having said all that, I think the buyer got a fairly good deal as prior to this it was listed for 12 or 13k. The car was very tidy and felt fine; I just felt disinclined to commit to what for us is a sizeable amount of money when we were not sure whether we were getting a great deal or a money pit (and I already have a couple of them!).