I've heard really good things about this model, and I absolutely love the way it looks, however I'm hesitant to buy it with so many miles. Is this worth buying or am I getting too excited?
Posted May 30, 2021, 8:36 PM UTC
If I’m correct the 242 should have the red block and those things are super reliable and easy to fix. The rest of the car(like any classic car) will probably require bearings and some overall elbow grease to get it right but for an old Volvo none of that should be expensive providing you can do the work yourself.
As long as you have the ability or will to work on it yourself I’d go for it. If you’re going to take it to a shop when it needs stuff pass. It’s an old car it’ll break and need fixing.
Vintage cars are worth whatever somebody is willing to pay for them.
The early '80s Volvos are pretty solid cars. Get the car's maintenance history in writing and get it checked out by a mechanic -- preferably one who works on Volvos a lot -- before you make a solid offer. But there's not a lot of electronics and so forth to go wrong on a 242 like there would be on a more recent Volvo, which is good, and the engines from that era are generally reliable-but-slow if they're not turbocharged.
I almost bought a similar vintage 242 in my younger days and did quite a bit of homework on them at the time. Of course, that car was a lot younger back then than this Volvo you're looking at is now. But it's one of those cars I kinda wish I had bought, in hindsight. If you do the background on it and it seems like a good deal that won't leave you in financial strain, do it.