Does anybody have, or have ever owned a 1985 Volvo 240 DL Wagon? What did you think of it? pros/cons THANKS!?

Question

Possibly going to purchase one - would like as much information as possible, thank you!

Answer 1

the parts are not expensive, they are fun to play with , the turbo wagons with help from ipd will snatch a knot into any hot thinking honda owners stomach, and are easy to get in and out of [6' 170lbs] and they last. plus they are comfortable on short and long cross country trips.

Answer 2

The 240 series Volvo was about as bulletproof as you can get. There were some quirks with the LH Jetronic fuel injection in early '80s cars but I believe those problems were ironed out by '85. The engines are sound and durable. There are plenty of 240s still around and group support is excellent. Negatives: not the best gas mileage or performance (especially with automatic transmission), brake pad life is a bit short depending on brand of replacements, and certainly not the fanciest car on the road.
I've owned 11 Volvos since 1968 and my 240 really stood out. I bought it new and drove it for 14 years, 365,000 miles with no major failures and more or less routine maintenance. Wish I still had it but it went in a trade for a 740. If I wanted or needed a wagon, it would be a 240. Be sure the one you are considering has its history documented and has been well maintained. Depending on the geographic area, rust could be an issue.

Answer 3

Volvo Dl

Answer 4

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RE:
Does anybody have, or have ever owned a 1985 Volvo 240 DL Wagon? What did you think of it? pros/cons THANKS!?
Possibly going to purchase one - would like as much information as possible, thank you!

Answer 5

I owned a 85 240 s/w for 8 yrs. I got it in 1997 and ran it until 2003 than it sat in my driveway until a month ago(I gave it to purple heart). It was not started in 2 yrs and with a good battery it started right up. I've worked in foreign car parts and serviced cars at a repair shop for a total of 15 yrs now. personally I think that car was a trooper, It handled snow like nothing i've ever driven, especially with studded tires. It wasn't the fastest thing going but very safe and reliable. only left me stranded once, timing belt broke, towed it home, put a belt on it with water pump and never stranded me again. They aren't that expensive to up keep especially with all the parts that are available for them.the brake pads and rotors are the same from 1975-1993 very easy stuff to find. I've also found that if you have to replace the tires, it will handle alot better with size P205/70R14 tires. Only con i had was a little rust in the spare tire wells in the rear. Ignition wise it takes a very common distributor cap,rotor, and plugs that fit a few different german cars i.e. V.W., BMW.

Answer 6

I owned a 1985 240DL sedan in college. I also owned a 1989 240GL wagon after that. These cars are totally worth the money. They are not without fault though. No car is.

The Good:

-A lot of quality car for very little money.

-Great safety record. One of THE safest older cars you can buy.

-Ease of maintenance/repairs. As long as you don't go to the dealership, maintenance/repairs are surprisingly reasonable a lot of the time. I took all my Volvos to a reputable independent Volvo mechanic who changed the timing belts for $125 a pop, for example. The only costly aspects are body/trim hardware and the A/C system, which is a real pain to keep working 100%.

-Very long lasting and reliable. These older Volvos are very dependable cars to have. I bought my '85 with 134k miles, drove it until 164k miles with no major breakdowns, sold it to a high school kid who is still beating the crap out of it 3yrs. later with about 190k miles now. Excellent cars!

-Very comfortable seats, a lot of headroom/legroom.

The Bad:

-Very unrefined cars. Lots of road, wind, engine noise.

-Odd overall design causes difficult entry/exit due to narrow door openings. The car handles poorly due to a top-heavy design and narrow wheelbase. They wear through tires quickly because of this. They also eat through brake pads very quickly. The front brakes last about 20k miles in my experience and I'm not hard on the brakes. Difficult to lower the back seat. You must first remove the headrests, find a place to stick them, then grab the release hand that is located on the center back of the seatback. It's quite difficult and troublesome to operate. Gas and brake pedals are positioned dangerously close together. It's too easy to accidently press both pedals at the same time...I've accidentally done this before.

-Pre-'86 model 240's rust out very very easily. My '85 was a rust free southern car it's whole life. I took it to the beach a few times and the rear fenders rusted completely through within a matter of months.

-Very spartan interiors. Even the upscale 240 GL is quite spartan. The 240 DL is about as bare bones as a car can get and is super bland.

-Dashboard is prone to cracking badly. I've yet to see an older 240 that didn't have the typical cracked dashboard.

-Exterior body trim is poorly designed. Exterior lenses haze badly, crack, and easily shatter as they age. These lenses are very costly to replace. Exterior trim pieces don't stay on the body very well and tend to pop off.

-Although the 240 is four-cylinder powered and slow, it only achieves fuel mileage comparable to the average V6 powered car of comparable size. Expect only 20mpg city/ 25mpg highway.

Answer 7

1985 Volvo

Answer 8

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first suspect is corrosion the quick disconnect terminals at the light. many times these will burn black and a bypass of the connector be done. [scotch lock a short piece of wire to the brakelamp wire and using a small ring terminaland a small sheet metal screw go directly to the printed circuit strip for the brake bulb. note another common problem is the melting of the plastic where the bulb holder makes contact to the lamp assembely, i have hot knifed the bad section out and glued the goodpart of a broken lens assembely into the same position. [this takes time and effort, it may be less expensive to purchase an aftermarket lens assembely these can be found for less than 100 dollars from such companies as KEYSTONE [an offshore parts importer usualy from tiwan or malasia] some fiddeling usually has to be done to fit properly but they work better than fairly well and are less expensive than original equippment. a last word on the subject: using a 12 volt test light check for power at body harness with brake pedal depressed if no power here suspect problems with the bulb check relay. the fact that the right lamp works becomes meaningless as the power for the left [if memory serves ]comes off of a seperate pin. these round red relays [under the driver side dash, above the felt liner] are expensive and available only from VOLVO or IPD USA

Answer 9

the parts are very over priced and they suck to get in and out of they are slow and the ac dosent blow cold no matter how much you service it I wouldnt buy it on top of that they are very ugly! I was a volvo mechanic for 6 years and grew to hate these cars you could never fix anything with out something else breaking they are too old and frail. Just try calling you local volvo dealer and ask for a price on something simple like brakes and rotors they are expensive compaired to other cars that can use regular parts. Volvos usually require their own brand because they are designed that way to keep you at the dealer. As a mechanic I encountered thousands of problems because some one back yarded it and tried to fix the POS themselves which lead to problems later on

Answer 10

still have our 1975 Volvo wagon since buying it new....the odometer stopped ages ago, but it shows about 170,000 miles. As of a year ago, we were still using it, but with now only one driver and a newer car it just sits. The last thing we put in was AC renewed, what a waste since we do not the car. Other than probably battery and need for new tires it runs great....so no cons only pluses