Our compatriot Mark Tucker is somehow in the middle of yet another move, which means one of us needed to step up and fill in for him a bit this week. Since all of us spend roughly 26-27 hours a day on various car-selling sites, it could have been any of us, but I’m up first.
Also, and this is a terrible idea given my lack of parking infrastructure, but the algo has decided I want a Volvo XC70, and I still continue to see them everywhere. I’ll get there in a second. In the interim, I thought Friday offered two fascinating choices.
My personal vote was for the Pulsar, as I find the appeal of owning a Fiat with the engine in the back drowned out by the fear of owning a Fiat with an engine in the back. As often happens, many of you didn’t agree with me:
I think what I want will be clear today, and I’m also uncertain if you’ll be with me.
2006 Volvo XC70 – $1,750
Engine/drivetrain: 2.5-liter inline-five turbo, AWD, automatic transmission
Location: Vernon Rockville, CT
Odometer reading: 165,285 miles
Operational status: Was great, has a transmission issue
My last Volvo wagon was a 1993 Volvo 240 with that beautiful Ruby Red exterior paint, which is fairly similar to what you see here, so I’m a sucker for this car. It’s also at precisely the mileage I want.
I think old European cars should be purchased in the 140-180k range, as it implies the car has been well taken care of and has probably had the timing belt/water pump service that comes around 100k for most vehicles. At 165k, this is right in the middle.
Also, I like this black leather interior with the extremely green, early 2000s lighting I didn’t know I was missing. I’ve looked at a lot of these interiors on Craigslist, et cetera, and this one seems to be in great shape.
Is there rust? This photo is not helpful, other than sitting on what’s likely a salty road. It doesn’t look fully ripped, but any car in New England for this long probably has rust. It’s just a matter of looking around the car and seeing how atrocious it really is. At this price, though, I can probably live with the rust.
The one flaw in my “buy an XC70” logic is that they’re all automatics (in this country). Having been a part (mostly as a witness) of one European automatic transmission service, my sense is that I still barely understand how these labyrinthine machines actually work.
This one? At least there’s an idea of what’s going on:
Just passed emissions. Was running and driving great and then a check engine lignt came on for a shift solenoid (pictured). It was my spare car and I don’t want to invest
It’s nice of this person to pull out the OBDII and give a potential buyer an understanding of what’s going on (or, at least, one of the things going on). Kits for fixing this seem to range from $75-$200, but that assumes you have the time and space to lower the subframe, which I do not.
This is awfully close to my parents, so I am curious, but then I have two cars I don’t have space to work on or park.
1990 Chevrolet Celebrity Eurosport Wagon – $2,500
Engine/drivetrain: 3.1-liter V6, FWD, automatic transmission
Location: Keene, NH
Odometer reading: 163,000 miles
Operational status: runs and drives great
It’s been said before, but a Chevrolet Celebrity Eurosport is impressive just for how misleading it is. No celebrity ever drove one, and it is neither European nor particularly sporty, other than maybe the nice five-spoke wheels.
Because I’ve been looking at Volvo wagons basically nonstop for two months, I’ll get the algo guessing other cars I might like. This is often a Saab, or a Taurus SHO, although occasionally it’ll toss me something like this.
Hahaha, why? Why? This is not my particular strand of weird, but I respect that it exists, and I think it probably appeals to someone. As a 1990 model, this is the one to have, with the 3.1-liter V6 producing a not terrible 135 horsepower and 180 lb-ft of torque (according to Wikipedia, at least). Given the low weight, that’s probably not super slow.
“The underside of this car is a solid as the top!” is the brag, which means this thing must have been garaged or never driven in the salt, given that it’s in New Hampshire.
Granted, the top is showing some paint wear, so it’s not exactly the best brag.
My favorite feature? Eight seats! Not enough cars have eight seats these days.
So what’ll it be? How would you transport your friends and gear up north? The newer, nicer Volvo with a questionable transmission, or the seemingly too clean Eurosport?
I’ve got a Volvo of this generation, and they’re not as bulletproof or easy to wrench on as older Volvos, but they’re pretty damn nice and the price on this one is appealing, so…
Oh man do I love rumble seats. I have vivid memories of being packed into the very back of my parents’ grand marquis woody wagon with like four other kids where we sat facing each other on the double flip-up seats.
I wonder how long it’s been since that Volvo had it’s transmission flushed.
XC’s are really nice cars, I owned an ’07 from late 2012 till just a few months ago.
I wouldn’t worry too much about the mileage on these cars, they last forever if taken care of. I’d buy one with 265K and a ton of maint receipts over one with 100K less and no history.
165K sounds low, but it could be that it needs a complete steering and suspension refresh, and the timing belt may or may not have been done.
Since this was seller’s “spare car”, it likely hasn’t had anything other than the bare minimum done to it, with most other things neglected. That’s how I treated my XC once it became a spare and didn’t need to travel more than a few miles at a time.
I grew up in a 87 Eurosport, but that one was nicer. It had the steel rally wheels, and the bucket/console shift up front. I learned to drive in it, and honestly it wasn’t that bad even with the 2.8. The 2.8 actually sounded cool at WOT, it had a raspy growl to it.
My gut says the XC was decently maintained until not long ago. It looks good inside and the matching tires look like they still have plenty of life in them. Most neglected vehicles I’ve seen have thrashed interiors and mismatched tires or just old tires bathed in armor all. This one has none of that, although they seem to have skipped on transmission services (which is quite common on most vehicles) which ultimately led to failure
@Matt Hardigree . . . give in to your desires and buy the Volvo. Throw $500 and a weekend at it to get it in good running condition
. . .
. . .
. . .
. . . and then sell it to me.
Matt, I’ve said it before, this is precisely the mileage you don’t want on one of these Volvos, because it’s when all the consumables in the suspension and engine come due (plus this one has a transmission issue for funsies) and you will get nickel and dimed to death. Unless there are lots and lots of relatively recent receipts, it’s a trap.
Like last week, Celeb gets my nostalgia vote, no matter how terrible it is, and in this case, I’d put it and the Volvo on about an equal footing. It would be nowhere near as comfy or as nice to drive…if the Volvo was drivable, which it’s not without a lot of work that’s going to be way more painful than anything the Chevy would need.
Like our long-ago family Celebrity, this one’s a three-row Eurosport wagon, this one with the somewhat rare tailgate wiper. Unlike our ’86, this newer version has composite headlights, much more modern-looking alloy wheels, three-point seatbelts for the back seat, and the third row in matching fabric rather than vinyl. Swanky!
Besides the third-row vent windows, another cool wagon feature that the A-bodies have is a rear window that can be opened independently of the rest of the tailgate (which is why the wiper is mounted at the top—it hinges when the glass is raised). To get that in a modern Euro wagon, you’d have to be looking at a BMW.
Yeah, maybe 200k is better for these cars? My 230k BMW has been surprisingly trouble-free.
I’m leaning Volvo. But, what on earth would prompt someone to photograph a car-for-sale in such dim natural light?
I’ll grant that it does lend a bit of drama. Kind of like people who hose down a car to show how it still beads water, I guess?
Volvo, hands down. As I mentioned in Mercedes’s last car buying advice post, I am a four time Volvo owner. In the New England climate, there’s no way I’d take an old A body over a P2 XC70. Volvo’s rustproofing is no joke and the Volvo will just be a nicer place to be.
And the seats are SOOOO comfortable…
I am on my first winter with my manual (hah!) xc70, and I can warmly recommend it. Splendid in the snow, the heated seats are hoooooot, and there is so. much. room.
AMazing! Where do you live? Which generation? P2? P3?
North east England, so we have loads of them kicking about ( we also have all the Mazda Bongo Friendees up here). Mine’s an 05 diesel. It was the nicest manual one within a hundred miles, even tho it is a weird colour.
Which color? When these become importable, it’s something worth considering.
That weird not quite gold, not quite green not quite silver colour they do. Fuck knows what it’s called, I have 3 different sets of documents for the car, and none of them agree what colour it is. I’m pretty sure you did an article about Volvos a couple months back and there was one that exact shade in one of the pics.
XC70 for me… even if it needs major transmission work. After it’s fixed, you’ll have a much nicer and better performing vehicle than that old Chevy.
But having said that, that Chevy does appeal to me somewhat… just not as much as the Volvo.
Being the one year of Celebrity with the 3.1 is a big feather in its cap
Small project: Volvo
Genuine shitbox with cockroach superpowers: Celebrity
Both have their redeeming qualities.
The Chevy will be a cheap-to-maintain and hard-to-kill form of utilitarian transportation until it inevitably rusts away in NH winters; it’s a quintessential shitbox.
A broken Volvo is a really nice shitbox if it can’t be repaired economically or if one repair leads to another, and another, and another. On the other hand, if it can be economically fixed and stays fixed, then it’s a bargain and will turn out to be a nice car for however long it lasts.
I’m not afraid of wrenching, especially on a well-defined trouble code. I’ll roll the dice on the Volvo. Also, I know what a Celebrity is like to drive, even the later models and the Eurosport which claimed to be better sorted-out. It’s still a Celebrity. No. I have standards. I will take, and even like, a K-car. But never a Celebrity or its platform ilk.
I’ll have to go with the Celebrity Eurosport. Not a good reason, but years ago on the Jalopnik of yore, I came across the Celebrity sales film, which now kinda lives rent-free in my head.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7SgCDPXKkQ
Forget the ’80s malaise and aspirational commentary, we know it was a pretty awful car. It was shaped like the bricks it was moving and its drivers were snorting back in the day. And the video link up there perfectly demonstrated that.
See y’all at Radwood or a Concours d’Lemons!
Funny, because this is the Celebrity promotional sales video that popped into my head when I also decided to go with the Eurosport (much like the Very Successful Finance Man in the video).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P62j8PirlyU
LOL that also pops into my head too. They’re both memorable, I just remember the sales film because I would think about how what they said about the car doesn’t match up with what the car actually was. I could seriously kill a whole week binging these old videos.
Love these old videos too. It’s like watching old episodes of Motor Week, except kinda sad.
I will take the broken Volvo over the functional Chevy.
No matter how cool Radwood is, it will never erase the reality that American cars of this time period were terrible. When everything functioned as designed they are terrible. Terrible is the best that these cars can ever hope to be.
I have no desire to own a Volvo of that vintage. The Celebrity at least looks neat and interesting, to my eye. It will also be way easier to fix.
It’s an Aisin 5 Speed, basically a Toyota transmission. That is a relatively common failure and easy to repair.
I have a 2002 V70 T5 with 250k on it – it’s been pretty solid but it’s rusting away now. Mechanically, it’s a great vehicle. This one is a solid buy.
Ohhhh you’re right, it is an Aisin 5 speed.
P2 Volvos are pretty well built. They have shown that they will rust but nowhere NEAR the way A Bodies do. They were built to last a long time – which means there’s tons that got scrapped because an expensive, fixable thing happened to an otherwise rather spotless car
It’s true. I recently traded my 07 in because it needed a ton of work. Nothing too major or fatal, just cumulatively more time and money than I wanted to invest in it. I was going to donate it, but my dealer gave me 2K for a trade.
They eat frond ends every 80K or so. LCA bushings, upper strut mounts, etc
So about double that of a Forester?
About the rate of Forester head gaskets
100% an Aisin transmission – My wife had a S60 years ago and we had to have one of the shift solenoids replaced at a reputable Volvo shop – I think that portion of the service was less than $600. I’d take the Volvo every day of the week over the Celebrity.
I’m guessing that Celebrity ended up in Keene with MA plates because the owner accidentally committed to buying it while high on mescaline and decided to go through with it because to do otherwise would be a violation of the non-aggression principle.
If my Keene impressions still hold true ten years later.
I’ve only been away from NH for about six years now, and that was still accurate when I moved away… I doubt much has changed…
I grew up pretty close to Keene (but on the better side of the Connecticut River), and there’s never been anything as interesting as mescaline there. Not from the ’80s onward, at least.
Volvo, without a doubt. that Celebrity Eurotrash is useful for radwood runs, and thats about it.. i would not trust that to continue running without a major going though. a ford-era volvo can be troublesome, but they are generally not all that bad to fix, and also tend to stay fixed for a long time. that extra clearance and AWD is genuinely useful in the winter, and its a very comfortable place to spend time driving.
the Volvo is probably fine to part out even if the repair in the end financially totals the thing, but for what I would use either of these for which is simply put a winter beater, I would probably go with the one that is running now.
There is no money in parting out old Volvos (at least of this vintage) – unless you’re into tue scrap metal business
My brother owned a Celebrity Eurosport sedan. I drove it once. Never again. XC70 by default.
I own an XC70 just like that one but black. Including the transmission problems. So I guess my vote is pretty much set, since I love the thing!
The second Celebrity wagon in a week, that is an accomplishment.
That has to both left on the road.
I believe you are correct. If Matt finds another that would make him a witch and we must burn him at the stake or a tire fire.
Or we could make him ride in a Pinto in fast, heavy traffic.
First, shouldn’t we see if he floats?
I guess we should
There’s an early model with wide slot mags and yellow driving lights, a light blue six-passenger (no rear vent windows), 20ish miles from Keene, and a 6000 Safari (in a Land Rovery dark green) closer than that.
I don’t know what witchcraft draws these cars here, and I’m not sure I want to know.
Just a few months ago I drove an XC70 with over 300k miles coast to coast for a family member. Even brand new I wouldn’t try that in the Chevy because of the seats.
Yeah, if seat comfort is a priority there is no comparison between a Volvo and an A body.
I didn’t like the seats in my S60s. Mostly due to the non adjustable head restraints that were set at an aggressive angle to contact the back of your head at all times unless you hunched forward.
Yeah, that’s becoming a real thing now with a lot of seat manufacturers. All the recent (2020 or so) F-150s I’ve driven in our work fleet have that. Makes me nuts, like someone always looming behind you & breathing down your neck.
I’ll risk the minor increase in whiplash to avoid that.
Yep – I turned the headrests around backwards in my Ranger
I swear, the Volvo seat engineers must have done some dark voodoo sacrifice in the late 90s. To this day, they are still some of the best seats on any vehicle I’ve ever tried.
If the person buying the Volvo can fix and maintain it will last a long time , if they can’t it’s going to be a money pit.
The Chevy obviously didn’t live in Keene long or it would be a rusted pile by now but today it might be the better choice for the ever age shitbox buyer?
Average ^
The Chevy is sporting Massachusetts plates, which isn’t any better in terms of rust. Someone took care of this & didn’t drive it in the winter, if their claim about the underside is true.
There doesn’t seem to be a link to the ad for that one.
Should Autopian start its own classified section as we all seem to spend a lot of time on other websites looking at cars to buy and sell?
Then we will all buy each other’s shitboxes and thus end up bankrupt and divorced.
The advantage to that would be no longer having any debts and enjoying the freedom of autonomy and second bachelorhood.
opposite-lock.com has classifieds.
While not a perfect circle, the Venn diagram of Autopians & Opponauts must have a ton of overlap.