Volvo - to buy or not to buy .

I would love to buy a volvo s40 2004 but a few people have rolled their eyes and said to expensive to fix blah blah blah.What are anyones thoughts on this.Really like Euro cars.

parts are extreme hard to get for most volvo in this country same as renault You can get normal parts cheaper in europe with fraight then what they are asking here. Fiat vw bmw and a few othersyou can get parts easy here , you just have to not let moronsnear them who dont actuarly fix or service your european car but charge heaps for nothing.

i own only 1 japanesecar and that is my tractor. registered hiluxSo yes i know loads about euros they want to be serviced on time every time , so you dont want to buy a heap thats been messed with.

I disagree slightly with intrade, I have had no problem getting Volvo parts in NZ but the price is quite high.

However, its worth considering that the S40 is one of the most reliable cars on the road (it is consistently right at the top of reliability data) so its rare to need anything other than regular service items.

What I would suggest you do is what I do with Volvo's. Grab the regular oil and filter type stuff in NZ, those items are not too hideously priced and can be got from the usual suspects (BNT, Repco etc).

Then when the big service rolls around every few years (timing belt, waterpump etc) just order the parts online (its very easy to do) and then get someone to do the service as labour only. That way you will get the parts stupidly cheap even after freight. The problem with parts BTW, is simply a lack of competition and those that do import take the piss on pricing. This is not true of all European cars in NZ BTW, Volvo unfortunately are about the worst.

Given that an S40 can be have for very little money they are worth considering though.

Aside from that, some things to be aware of.

* 2004 is a changeover year so make sure you know which model you are buying (old or new) and are paying an appropriate price.

* Some engines are Mitsubishi's GDI units which personally I would avoid if possible in favour of Volvo's units.

* They run a Japanese automatic transmission which is supposedly "sealed for life" this is nonsense. If its not serviced every 60'000km or so chances of an expensive failure are very high. Its also important those transmissions are run on the correct fluid. If you don't want to pay through the nose for the Volvo fluid, Castrol make it for Volvo and it can be bought from them under a different name. (I forget the name at the moment).

So obviously, look for service history on the transmission and continue to service it yourself. If there is no service history but its changing nicely and there are no service lights you could take the risk but do service it straight away. I wouldn't risk doing that with one with too many km's on the clock though.

Otherwise, grab a manual one, if you are looking at the older model there are quite a few around.

Other than that, great little car, well worth considering.

Oh, and if you are looking at the newer model that starts in 2004. I would suggest you also consider the MK5 VW Golf (also a new model starting 2004).

Personally I prefer the Golf as a car and VW parts are cheap and easy to get in NZ. I also prefer its DSG transmission, its not only a nicer more economical transmission its also going to cope better if a service has been missed. The DSG still should be serviced every 60'000km though but its actually quite easy to do and can even be done by a handyperson at home.

The Golf can be had from about $10'000 upwards, you want to go for the 2.0 engine though. The 1.6 is a bit of a dead duck in the power department and doesn't really use much less fuel.

For both the Volvo and the VW (and most cars of that age) unless the big service has just been done its probably due or over due. I would allow approx $2000 to get all servicing right up to date when you buy it. Then you should get around 5 years with just easy inexpensive minor servicing.

here is the problems i have had . generic stuff be ok here, but i needed some suspension bushes for early 90s model so right ordered them with local guy 2 weeks later i was told they cant get the parts in australia, so i went online ordered it all my self from germany12day later he tells me the parts are on the way , by the time they got here from australia i had already got most items from germany and said sorry buddyi only need this 1 part send the rest back to where it came from i cant wait 2 month for parts to fix clients cars.

Fair call, I have heard those earlier ones can be a bit tricky for parts in NZ.

The newer and more popular V40, S40, S60 etc of the age group discussed here though,I have had no problems with personally, other than price.

with renaults you dont even bother to try and get parts here.
I got a traffic van from renault. failed wof on inner tierod rackend. so ring up renault agent auckland for a part. Yes we can get it for you be 3 weeks and costs 248$ . I said ok thank you for the information i get it elsewhere and hung up the phone. Orderd both side not just one plus a tail-light for 300$ including fraight from germany .delivered in 12 days
For fiat on the other hand i always got parts overnight , never needed mutch but once a waterpump , timingbelts and window winder mechanism all delivered the next day for fiat from euro-italian in auckland they do bmw-fiat

Auction # 515799214 - hope its ok to put this on here.This is the one I was looking at.How do you know whether it is a Mitsi engine or not.

first owner in nz. check from where it has come from singapour maybe!

That is exactly what happened to me with a Clio Lutecia or whatever it was, Renault couldn't even ID the correct rack end for it, I got told oh there is three parts listed for that model and we don't know whats fitted to what, they are all ex France and approx $300 each, I asked if pulling the rack end off and giving them the length and thread diameters etc would help and they didn't have that info either.Completely hopeless.None of the usual aftermarket suppliers locally even had listings for them, and naturally the sizes didn't cross over to another part due to a weird thread pitch being used on one end. The same part for a Toyota Starlet you could have had the same day or overnight at worst from any of the parts suppliers or even Toyota.Got one made up by a specialist and fitted that instead, only took 4 days.Its totally unacceptable to wait three weeks these days to get parts in from anywhere, the official distributors for these brands need to wake up and get decent and accurate systems in place.The stuff is only coming from the other side of the world, not bloody Mars or Venus.

Is this the model with the GDI sealed for life trans!

well i would only pay 4 grand for stuff from singapour
Previous Country Of Registration: Singapore
and never buy anything that has mitsubishi plants
http://www.carjam.co.nz/car/!plate=fdg997

franc123
http://seekpart24.com/
shipping seems to have gone up used to be flat rate 50 euro dont know if you now get charged 110 euro as it states up to 20kg-- 110euro

Parts dear on eruo cars the older they get the worst it gets the cost of parts and finding parts

Are cars brought in from Singapore inferior to Jap imports.

Bit of a sweeping statement their 'dairyboy' !and what has your experience been in owning 'eruo' cars!/!!Have found the older stuff easier to get parts for ,used to get e28 735i parts from BMW chch on the shelf,and they would drop the price to move it,not much went wrong anyway!

! 735i BMW isnt e28 model.e28's were all 5 series BMW's! But yes the e28 stuff was and apparently still is readily available, when I owned one of them 10 years ago.

That's a far to general and thereforeinaccurate statement. I have many old European cars, I should know.

O.K so this is the first of the new model.

You don't need to worry about the GDI engines with these as I am pretty sure they discontinued all GDI engines in the second generation. Also, being a 2.4 it definitely is not. That's the really good Volvo engine.

I am less familiar with this newer model so I suggest you do some further research. However I think that the new model V40 still has the same or similar Japanese automatic, the later ones again had the option of a DSG style twin clutch unit. With those km's you will probably be O.K even with no service history so long as you service the transmission straight away. That would be on the proviso that it is currently shifting nicely and there are no warning lights. Remember to use the correct fluid and have the transmission filter changed at the same time. in other words have it done properly.

With regard to the engine, also look up the timing bet interval in YEARS and km's for that car. Volvo's can be confusing as some can go as long as 15 years before a belt is due yet others are the more normal 5 years. Km's wise I would expect it to be about 160'000kmbefore its due, timing belts are aways a certain time and a certain amount of km's whichever comes first.

If in any doubt get it changed. Also, if the service interval is not yet due I would have a mechanic have a peek under the cover at the belt to be doubly sure. I did a cambelt on one of those engines on a Japanese import Volvo, it was only supposed to have done 30'000km from new but the belt looked well worn and could have snapped at any time. So, better safe than sorry.

If it is due a change then obviously allow for that as well.

As others have said, see where it has been exported from, I would also be checking what oil it is running. Those engines don't like to be run on cheap mineral oil in my experience so hopefully it has been running synthetic.

If in any doubt and it is running nicely with no warning lights and no sludge under the oil cap you could just change it to full synthetic straight away and you should be O.K.

Hopefully that helps you out a bit.

Thanx for the info.Wow - I'm so confused though!So it doesn't matter that it is from Singapore! Also excuse my ignorance (owned a diesel Hilux for the last 7 yrs) but are all these thingsI need to do expensive!

Do your homework carefully.

First thing to consider is that electronic displays can have 50 thousand km's wiped off them in 5 minutes, all you need is a laptop.

All those things that need doing are expensive unless you have a bottomless pit of money.

NZ and Australian Volvo dealerships think they have a licence to print money and will happily part you from your money. Buy everything overseas, but you'll have to wait 10 days for it to arrive. Do you have another car you can use whilst the Volvo is parked up for 2 weeks!

As has been mentioned you need to find an independent mechanic who only services Volvos, otherwise you'll end up with the wrong oil in the gearbox etc etc.

Make sure the car has a FSH and don't touch it with a barge pole if you have no evidence of how it's been looked after for the past 8 years

What Euro cars a better than Volvos then.Sounds a bit too complex for me.Especially as I live in Kaitaia so the nearest Volvo specialist would be Whangarei - maybe!

You're welcome, happy to help.

Firstly, Singapore imports are less desirable, they tend to be harder to sell and worth a bit less.

The reason is some cars (not necessarily Volvo V40's) have been known to have more problems if they have been on the road in Singapore. In particular the climate over there has been known to upset some electronics etc.

Personally, if the car checks out really well it wouldn't put me off too much, but I would tend to look at the vehicle even more stringently. Each to their own though.

With regard to things to check and costs etc.
Realistically any car you buy of that age and milage regardless of make/model is most likely going to be due for a thorough going over.

You will find car dealers and such may try and pretend that cam chain driven cars or some particular make/model will magically not need any significant servicing at that age. However, that's simply not the case. Most cars have similar moving parts and the majority of items will be due for changing about the same time on most makes and models.

I am pointing this out as there seems to be a real attitude in this country that you don't need to service vehicles as the manufacturer recommends, its a real problem with these "grab one" type deals too. The current trend seems to be to sell people an oil change and a bunch of "visual inspections" and call it a comprehensive service. Sorry to digress but I think its important to note.

With regard to cost, well that depends a bit on how you go about it and whether the cambelt is indeed due.

Assuming the cambelt is due I would set aside say $1500 - $2500 to get everything properly up to date. What you pay would depend on where you take it and whether you order your own parts (as suggested above) and then get the job done as "labour only" assuming you can find a friendly mechanic happy to do that.

Pretty much any car you buy of that age is going to set you back at least $1500 to get the same amount of work done. If you buy your parts in NZ and/or pay Volvo agent hourly rates you will get stung the $1000 extra for it being a Volvo as opposed to some super basic shopping basket. Feel free to price this up yourself too, I am taking very approximate figures here.

Of course you don't HAVE to get all the servicing up to date and done properly, there are others on here that may argue against it. However I always follow this practice and its exceedingly rare for me to have any unexpected problems with any of our various European cars. Certainly with regard to the cambelt, I think everyone will agree that is essential if due.

To give you a comprehensive list for your reference, in general, I would do the following, if the cambelt is not due you could leave that, the tensioners and waterpump until it is.

* Transmission service including filter (Correct Volvo fluid MUST be used)
* Spark Plugs
* Air, Cabin and Fuel filters replaced
* Accessory belts and tensioners (at least inspected most likely replaced)
* Timing belt, Waterpump, Tensioners and seals
* Brake fluid changed
* Coolant Changed
* Oil and Filter changed, correct fully synthetic fluid used.

Plus anything else Volvo recommends in their service schedule as being due.

If you get as far as purchasing the car I am happy to help guide you through the process of putting a parts order together and advice on choosing a mechanic etc. So don't stress too much about ordering parts you probably know nothing about.

Don't forget to check the car out really well before you purchase it. I wouldn't bother with the AA or VTNZ for a pre-inspection check, the best people would be an independent Volvo garage, European specialist or if its not too expensive a Volvo dealer.

Remember, regardless of what you buy, if you do your homework (like you are now) make sure you are buying a good example and maintain it properly chances are you will get a great run.

Best of luck with it all.