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Volvo 850
by tree568
If you've got deep pockets and value quality of the driving experience over cheap running costs, then this is a great car to own. Ours is now 14 years old, (1996 vintage) cost less than £1,000 a few years ago and is still going okay.
The seats are incredibly comfortable, and have heaps of fine tuning adjustments - you can ... make the back support firmer, can tip the whole seat back (as opposed to just adjusting the back of the seat) and can also lift them higher or lower, which I found quite useful. Plus the front seats have their own heaters. I never thought I would use this, but being leather seats, and sometimes needing to use the car on a cold 6am winter's morning, I've found its a feature I have used.
Our car is automatic - I've never understood the love on manual cars here in the UK, and would much rather drive an automatic. Having driven a few over the years, I would say the Volvo 850 is more responsive than is usual for automatic cars. The power steering is quite good - not underpowered like you get on some cars. And, for its size, it's surprisingly easy to park. It helps not to have the bit sticking out the back, like you get with sedans - at least you always know where the back of the car is :-)
There's a few little extras I like about the car - things like cup holders which hold bottles and cups and a digital display which shows the temperature outside.
Even though this is a 2.6 litre car, the insurance, to my surprise, was quite cheap - only £218 fully comp, with 5 years no claim bonus. Mind you, it wouldn't exactly be an easy car to steal, as cars go. So maybe that's reflected in the insurance premium.
Our car feels really safe to drive, which could just be an illusion, but driving around in a Clio recently, I missed the "safe and secure" feeling I always get in the Volvo.
On the downside, it costs an arm and a leg to run. Petrol costs work out to 20p a mile and if it needs fixing, it isn't cheap. What you save on insurance, you lose out on the road tax, which is relatively expensive. Also, I don't really like the headlights. I would have expected them to be stronger, or more focused, but even fiddling with them over the years, they don't seem to be as good as the new cars you get nowadays.
Also, you have to be alert when you are driving it, because it really doesn't understand things like the speed limit is 70 miles an hour, and will edge up in no time at all if you don't watch it. It has that annoying ability of large cars, to make 70 miles an hour feel pedestrian. If our car could talk it would say "When are you moving to Germany? I'll settle for france, I suppose......"
Being an estate, I would expect it to hold a lot of stuff - and it does, but I have noticed that the height between the base of the boot and the ceiling of the car is not as high as I expect it to be, looking at the car from the outside. This can be a bit of a hassle, and means we usually have to use the roof rack for the bigger items, even though we bought the Volvo specifically to carry items that don't fit easily into a normal five door hatchback.
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Volvo 440
by ChaosFleabag
Traditionally, when you think of Volvo, you think of old men in caps, sitting in the middle lane of a motorway, doing 50. So a Volvo might not be an obvious choice of car, but it's a dark horse that can serve you well.
The 440 series of Volvos are now very cheap, you can pick up a decent one form anywhere between £300 to ... £700. I've had two 440's both purchased for £400 with around 70,000 miles on the clock. Normally this amount of mileage might be a concern, but for a decent Volvo, it's only just getting warmed up.
The 440 are a spacious, easy to drive and very reliable. They come will all manner of specifications, from a basic runner to one with all the electrical goodies, such as heated seats, electric windows and sunroof and trip computers. Like any car, things will go wrong with them from time-to-time, but this is usually down to the age of the car; such as a battery dying after a cold night. It's not uncommon to see 440's, or any Volvo for that matter, with around 200,000 miles on the clock and still running well.
There are many variants of the 440; I'd personally recommend a 1.8; it's slightly more powerful than the 1.6 but cheaper to insure than the 2.0 petrol version. As a side note, the 2.0 liter does have a lot of power, even an older one will shift when you need to put your foot down!
For a smaller car, the 440 is a bit of a tardis, it's hatch back style boot and folding rear seats mean you can pack a whole lot of stuff into one of these machines. The suspension and reasonable engine sizes mean that the vehicle wont struggle, even with a heavy load.
There are a few problems to be aware of when buying 440's. Because of it's age the electrical system is prone to faults, a common one to watch out for is that heated seats might not work or instrumentation lights might not function as expected, a good look and test drive will give you an idea of how well the car works.
Rust can build around the arches easily so check these. Another place to check for rust is at the fuel filler. Seals at the back end can perish so check for any moisture in the boot space and double check the spare wheel compartment in the boot to make sure there's no water buildup.
Spare parts are readily available for 440's if anything major should go wrong and they're not massively expensive. I purchased a used ECU for an old Volvo and paid £35 for one stripped from an scrapped unit an it worked fine.
The 440 is a fine car and provided you dont mind driving around in one it'll serve you very well, a good rule of thumb is to ask yourself; when was the last time you saw one broken down on the side of the road?
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Volvo S40 1.8 (122 bhp) 4dr
by bluetulip
I purchased m,y Volvo S40 a little over a year ago from a family member for a bargain £750.00. It is an X reg and at the time had done 38,000 miles.
I always thought of the Volvo as being a bit of a frumpy car, but with a family I knew they were renowned for safety so I thought what the heck. I haven't looked back! I love ... my Volvo!! I feel very safe in it and confident about driving around in it.
With regards to reliability, it has never let me down, although the indicator did stop working and needed to be replaced.
Another flaw the Volvo has is that as soon as you start the engine the lights go on, which I can only presume is why I forever have to have the bulbs changed.
I feel this is a real work horse of a car and it is comfortable, not bad looking and safe.
I hope to continue buying Volvos and am happy to be driving one!
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