Sadly, my Volvo knowledge only covers redblocks and the follies of the S80, so with these I am a bit in the dark. This one popped up recently, and given the hassle I've had finding a Prius, I figured I give this one a look. Or is it a no-go?
Sadly, my Volvo knowledge only covers redblocks and the follies of the S80, so with these I am a bit in the dark. This one popped up recently, and given the hassle I've had finding a Prius, I figured I give this one a look. Or is it a no-go?
In reply to Kartoffelbrei:
I have heard that there is a gear box in the all wheel drive system that is fragile. Fragile and expensive. I want to say it is the output from the transmission for the rear driveshaft. That is strictly rumor though, I have no experience with them.
The 01 and 02 had trans issues. Later ones not as bad. Regular changes with the corrected fluid helps a lot. Ours had 160k no issues when we sold it.
2000 was terrible for trans issues as well. If it's a manual, you are fine. Auto with AWD is to be avoided.
I think the v50 is cooler. Drove an AWD manual and loved it.
Expect to tear the dash apart as well to fix the AC (evaporator core)
I know the evap core was an issue on the 850/s/v70 of yore, but I didn't think it carried over to the '01 refresh.
V50 is too small for my liking. Go big or go home, I say.
What's the timing belt service interval on these?
eebasist wrote: Expect to tear the dash apart as well to fix the AC (evaporator core)
Not necessarily to be expected, though it is a big enough of a chore that I'd either avoid one with A/C issues all together, or use it as a bargaining chip to knock a significant chunk off of the asking price.
My '95 850 (P80 Chassis, different I know) still has its original evaporator. If the car had a cabin filter for all or most of its life, the evaporator core shouldn't be a major concern.
My mom is borrowing my Prius while i (supposedly) work on her S80. I think the S80 is a good car but as an early-00s Volvo it's not even in the same ballpark as the Prius (Volvo owned 7yrs 95-213k, Prius owned 4 years 217-252k).
So if you were looking for Prius reliability, you're definitely looking in the wrong place with one of these Volvos. Having said that, i'm still in love with the S80 design and still sort of yearn for a same-era V70R.
The 5 cylinder sounds berkeleying fantastic with an uncorked exhaust. 
The 04 you linked to looks nice. AWD uses a ramped cam setup by Haldax (they are all Haldax units btw, just different era/versions). Somewhat known to pop and lock on their own whim. NBD, but the car will occasionally go "BANG" as it unlocks. Transmissions are troublesome, especially if fluid changes have been neglected. But, they tend to behave poorly, not simply fail to work. Basically its a hang up between gears occasionally.
You will want an old laptop computer and the clone hardware software to talk to the car. It's Vida/Dice. There are lots of of threads about trying to make it all work on a vaguely semi modern computer. Lots of tears and frustration. Get an old laptop with a serial port and run Windows XP, and you're done. I highly recommend that route.
~225k on my 02 V70.
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