is the volvo 240 a good first car for my teenage son?

Answer 1

The old Volvo 240 is a great car. It is also a great car for a teenager. The car has a 4 cylinder engine and is not that hard on gas at all. I bought one as a gas saver to drive to work in place of my diesel truck back when the gas prices first began to spike and the car did just fine on fuel. Parts for the car are easy to come by as well. You can do a Yahoo search for Volvo 240 parts and come up with countless web sites. IPD and voluparts just to name a few. There is no need to take a Volvo 240 to a Volvo mechanic either. They have been around for so long that any shop can do the work on them. Even the most novice of do it yourselfers can do some repairs on the 240 with the repair manual available at any auto zone. Besides all of this they are a very dependable and safe car. This is very evident when looking at Volvo 240's for sale on e-bay and other places with mileages in excess of 2 and 3 hundred thousand miles. Furthermore, the old square Volvo 240 is a very classy looking car( I wish they still made them). If the car is priced right I think you would do well by buying it. Good luck and happy motoring.

Answer 2

I have a 1985 240, and I love it! It has been a really good dependable car, and they are definitely very sturdy and safe. I have had a few problems with it, but nothing too major. It does seem to cost more to repair, especially if you go to a Volvo dealer. My dad found a small mechanic shop that works on volvos and it was a LOT cheaper. And I have noticed that the gas mileage is not all that great anymore, but it is 21 years old and has almost 200,000 miles. All in all I think they are pretty good cars.

Answer 3

I totally agree with the Volvo mechanic above. About 3yrs. ago I sold my 1985 Volvo 240 DL sedan with 164k miles. A couple bought it for their 16yr. old son, who is still driving the car now with about 190k miles on it. I bought it the summer before I started college. I wanted something cheap, safe, and dependable for college. It was an excellent car!

The Volvo 240 is relatively cheap to buy, they are NOT expensive to maintain. They are not a high maintenance car at all and require infrequent repairs. They are responsive, but slow, so in this respect they are great for teenage drivers. Being the crazy teenage driver I was, I wanted to see how fast I could make my 240 go. I could only get it to do 100mph, and that was with the pedal to the floorboard and a forced automatic downshift to 3rd gear to maintain that speed. As soon as it shifted back up to 4th gear, the speed would drop to about 90mph. So needless to say, they are not fast cars. I once drove a 1986 240 GL sedan and with the pedal floored, could not get the car to go over 86mph. They are slow cars, so great for teenagers. Also great for teenage drivers is how incredibly safe they are. I once read that the Volvo 240 had the fewest fatalities of ALL vehicles in California one year. Pretty impressive I though. The only real negatives I can think of with the 240 is that they aren't terribly fuel efficient. Expect to only get about 25mpg on the highway, which is OK for a boxy, midsize car, but terrible for a 4-cylinder motor. That's what mine averaged on the highway. Also, they older Volvos have terrible air conditioners. They are very unreliable, barely work when they are working properly, and are costly to fix.

I think the Volvo 240/740/940 cars are IDEAL for teenage drivers. Cheap, dependable, safe, and not fast. Definitely get one of these for your teenager if you can find a decent one for a reasonable price.

I bought my 1985 240 because my Mom had bought a used 1989 740 turbo wagon a couple years earlier and it was the oldest, yet most reliable car she's ever owned. She had such great luck with it that she sold it with 225k miles with no major engine or transmission work and bought a used 1995 Volvo 940 sedan, which too is an incredibly reliable and long-lasting car. Her next car may be another Volvo, her 3rd one. And this is a woman that has owned mostly used American cars her whole life. She is just so impressed with these older Volvos. Excellent cars! Definitely get your teenager one of the models I mentioned above. They all have the same engine, just don't get a turbo model. They are too powerful for a young driver and eat a lot more gas.

If you do get a Volvo for your son, DON'T take it to a Volvo dealership for repairs! They will tear you a new one, if you know what I mean. Find a good independent Volvo mechanic who will fix it for reasonable prices. Parts for these cars are mostly abundant, so you may have good luck finding reasonably priced parts online or at junkyards like I used to do for my 240. I once bought an exterior turn signal lens cover that looked almost new for $10, and it's about a $50 part if you buy it brand-new.

Answer 4

ok listen volvo is THE safest car in the world with no exceptions.The 240 is not a fast car its more of a cow than a cougar so its a good choice in those two areas.
the people who are saying they are expensive to repair do NOT know what they are talking about at all.
Im a mechanic working in a volvo specialty shop.The 240 still has alot of parts available new original or aftermarket as well as alot of used parts.
Maintaining them is not a big issue as they do not require alot of maintanance.
the newer volvos starting in 93 the front wheel drive ones yeah they are expensive to own and repair but the 240 is an excellent choice.

Answer 5

It's a good, solid car. 240's with manual transmissions get very good mileage on the highway, betwen 27 and 30mpg.

There are still plenty of 240's on the road, parts are plentiful, and they cost about as much to repair as most imports.

They are rear-wheel drive cars, so if you live in a snow area you should put a set of winter tires on for the snow season. It also helps to put extra weight in the trunk.

Answer 6

volvo's are great cars. not to alarm you, but they are great in accidents. very sturdy. The thing is that with teenage sons, they do like to speed and the volvo 240 is a nice little speedy car. so, you might want to make him pay for speeding tickets if he gets any.

Answer 7

Volvo 240s are great cars. I have a '76 and I love it. My parents bought it new and now I drive it... just watch for rust. Take care of it and it will take care of you. They are very safe cars, very roomy.

Answer 8

It will cost you to maintain it. More than if you drove it...after all this is a teenager behind the wheel. It will get bad gas mileage as well.

But he could get T-boned by an SUV or put the car into a ditch and come out of it all cause it is a Volvo.

Good first cars for kids are:

Mazda 3
Mazda 323
Mazda 626
Mazda 6
Mazda Protege
Honda Accord
Honda Civic
Toyota Camry
Toyota Corolla
Geo/Chevy Prism (Toyota Corolla with Geo badges)
Hyundai Elantra (cheap throw away cars after few yrs)
VW Jetta
VW Golf

Answer 9

maximum bent rims could be straightened for below $one hundred. Or attempt to discover an same used one on the "yunk" backyard. everyone that could can charge you $one thousand for a Volvo exhaust could desire to be named Jesse James. look into the internet Volvo internet-sites. maximum Cat back OEM structures are around $3 hundred, a touch extra with clamps and suspenders. you may somewhat wreck out with paying for the actual Volvo equipment your self and paying a muffler save $50-60 funds to place in it. in case you have bent or unfastened tie rod ends, extra desirable get that carried out first. this could reason wobble at velocity, only like tires no longer being balanced. additionally, verify for caught brake calipers. you're in all possibility way previous due for a brake fluid replace (each 2 years) besides. This could desire to be carried out to evade untimely placed on of the high priced grasp cylinder and forestall caliper sticking. sturdy success!!!

Answer 10

one last . i purchased a 1979 242 for my daughter when she was 5 or 6 yrs old and we have worked on it together re building the engine, complete ipd suspension vented fnt brakes ,overdrive manual trans,air dams and spoiler [ she picked the one from ipd it actually looks great] new paint , rims and tires etc. this has become a very good car with lots of appeal and i have spent only about 7 grand she is now about to start her 2nd year of college and the car is just fine, reliable and fun and for the money spent you could not purchase a crappy little neon.