Hello everyone-
I was driving my 2005 Volvo v50 home to Brooklyn yesterday. Broke down just on the other side of the Brooklyn Bridge, towed the car to my mechanic, who now tells me there's a giant hole in the oil pan and I must have hit a pothole or something, the oil completely drained out, the engine seized up, and now I need a new engine or I should junk the car.

I'm a bit stunned at all this- has anyone heard of this happening? Can the oil really drain so quickly and cause the engine to seize like that? Oil level may have been a little low to begin with, but…

More importantly though, does anyone have experience replacing an engine in one of these cars? Is this a plausible idea or a terrible one? We are of course weighing the costs and wondering if it's worth it, we paid 7K for the car about a year ago, it has 120K on it, my mechanic is telling me a used engine could be put in for roughly $3500. Sheesh.

If anyone has any thoughts on this, love to hear them, thanks.