Volvo 850 reliability

Asked by Dmitry Apr 01, 2015 at 03:50 PM about the 1996 Volvo 850 GLT

Question type: Maintenance & Repair

am thinking if buying 1996 Volvo 850, used car with 102K mileage for $1550, I want to ask few questions relating to maintenance and car in general;
- does this car have lots of issues come up, the older it gets
- is it easy to do maintenance on your own, i.e. are engine parts accessible or needs special tools, taking lots of things out to get access to others....
- is it easy to get replacement parts...
- how is the reliability...?!

and anything else anyone can mention...

2 Answers

7,845

One thing to make sure of before buying is when the timing belt was last replaced. Timing belts on 5-cylinder Volvos should be replaced every 70,000 miles or so along with the water pump. Because once it snaps, the engine is no good. These cars a very reliable and extremely safe, and at that mileage, it has a whole lot of life left in it. Maintenance is fairly easy compared to other European brands like BMW or Mercedes, most things can be done yourself. Check out matthewsvolvosite.com. Lots of great information for Volvos over there. $1,550 is a fairly low price for a '96 850, so I'd make sure I know all about the car before doing anything. Make sure there are maintenance records, etc. Good luck!

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