My neighbor offered me his '89 Volvo 740 wagon last night. He knew I was in search of a new daily driver and he's short on cash. After a few minutes of talking about it, I told him I'd have to think about it. His car is in really good shape, like I'm kinda jealous that it's in the condition it's in for what he paid for it this past spring ( $600)
The pluses - It's a volvo...it's a wagon... it's a turbo
The minuses - it's an automatic... and it may need a set of rotors and a caliper.
I was tryin to hold out and find a 5-spd car and something decent on gas as I have a 56 mile round trip commute to work everyday, but this is a really good deal, and I think I can squeak 25+ mpg out of it with a little work.
What do you think?
They rock!
If it needs rotors anyway then upgrade to the 93+ rotors and callipers with braided lines. Huge difference and no more warpage!
Loved my 945T even though it was a slushbox. Make it yours!
EvanR
HalfDork
7/6/13 11:01 a.m.
Having owned both stick and automatic versions of this car... and even though I love shifting... the automatic is a better car. This is still fairly early in the days of turbocharging, and unless you powershift every time, you lose all your boost every time you clutch.
go for it.
In reply to EvanR:
This is good to know as I'm looking for a turbo brick myself as a daily so I can put the Mustang away for the winter.
Don't despair over an auto, everyone wants a stick but they're hard to come by and the auto is better suited to the car anyway, as noted by the previous poster.
Here's mine. Other than a lowered suspension, its stock. I've enjoyed the car, lately I've been using it to haul my things from a storage building to my house. Even when not using it as a truck, beware that the plastic in the interior will break if you merely look at it. I use it as a daily driver though and sometimes I have issues but they don't happen often.
[URL=http://s32.photobucket.com/user/plance1/media/P6230095.jpg.html]
[/URL]
My step-mom has an early 745 with the quad headlights... she is not at all sympathetic to vehicles. Other than being un-turboed, dented, and having the interior completely destroyed , it just plain refuses to die
We just had a 940 in the shop the other day for a new ignition with 255,000mi. on the original engine and tranny.
tuna55
PowerDork
7/7/13 12:09 p.m.
Small little fiddly bits that are $0.34 on the internet are unfindable locally, making daily driving a bit of a chore. They are easy to work on, cool looking, good handling and quick. Parts availability ruined it for me for a primary, though.
I have an 86 740 turbo wagon, mines a 5 speed with 257K everything is pretty much original, The AW71 in that one is a very strong transmission, look up the accumulator mod, and flush its fluid regularly. I have mine tuned with larger injectors to run e85 and its very quick.
My 90 240 is a non turbo that I turboed, with a larger turbo.
These cars are stupid easy to work on, I wish the interior quality of the 7 was as good as the 240s. They are live axle cars and you can notice that when you push them around corners.
tuna55 wrote:
Small little fiddly bits that are $0.34 on the internet are unfindable locally, making daily driving a bit of a chore.
Only because you live on Mars or something. Hell I bought a whole interior for my 745 for $200 at pull-a-part and had 3 cars to choose from. Where did my car end up anyway?
tuna55
PowerDork
7/7/13 9:26 p.m.
Junkyard_Dog wrote:
tuna55 wrote:
Small little fiddly bits that are $0.34 on the internet are unfindable locally, making daily driving a bit of a chore.
Only because you live on Mars or something. Hell I bought a whole interior for my 745 for $200 at pull-a-part and had 3 cars to choose from. Where did my car end up anyway?
Sold it to Mark (donalson) a few years back after doing the head gasket, a JY transmission, all cooling hoses (all special order), turbo, oil drain line (special order), converting to R134a, evaporator, and a bunch of other junk.
It was a fun car, just too much little crap to do for a DD.
sethmeister4 wrote:
Did you get it yet?!?! 
Not yet... I gave him some time to think about selling the car just to make sure he was serious.He wanted the car for a long time and takes good care of it, I'd hate to make a quick decision and then end up with having to deal with sellers remorse.
I had a 92 740 turbo wagon auto. Bought it for $3200 w/102k sold it at 189k for$ 1700. A/c will not work or stop working soon if that's a big deal, as mentioned most plastic bits will break, replaced front, then rear trans seals, fuel pressure regulator, front suspension bushings. Needed another trans seal when I sold it. Cool looking, don't rust, wife loved it except for the bs a/c,. Not a load of fun to drive stock but a very big front swaybar helped. Low 20s mpg driven rationally. Hauls lots. Some seat 7 if 2 can look backwards, lots of kids can't. Comfortable seats. Overall 7/10
