The Swedish Fish - 2000 Volvo V70XC

2 minute(s) of a 12 minute read

For the first post we'll back it up to when I got the car. Covid makes it feel like I just bought the car even though it was a year and a half ago at this point. (writing this in May 2021). But I'll go through all the stuff I've done in hopes that it helps anyone crazy enough to buy one of these 20+ year old cars.

I bought the car with 95k on the clock, and many more issues than I thought when I looked at it. I thought I was getting it in solid shape with just a few simple oil leaks, but that was not the case. It wasn't anything me or the local Volvo guru couldn't sort through, but I'm sure everyone knows feeling like you made a mistake buying a car. I started driving it immediately which helped expose all the real problems pretty quick. The slow test drive around town on a warm day masked a lot of issues. Here's the car the day I brought it home: 

It was clean, no major issues with the interior or exterior, and supposedly owned by an older woman. The low miles and shoddy maintenance definitely point to being owned by someone who didn't drive much and didn't want to spend much money on keeping it on the road. Also, those Lexani tires that came on it are complete junk. I don't recommend buying them if you live anywhere with rain or snow. They feel fine on dry pavement, but fall flat on their face as soon as you introduce any sort of weather.