Hey guys,
I actually called that guy and asked him a couple of questions about that 1980 244 that I saw in the paper. So I figured I'd write out the pros and cons about owning this car:

Pros:
-It's a well maintained 244: The guy's dad is a master mechaninc and he did all the work to the car
-It's a sound investment, the car's an antique and it only has 140K on the car.
-He's selling it because of how much money it costs him to fill the car up with gas since he commutes 100 miles a day.
-I could drive this car in the summer so I don't put a lot of miles on my '91 244, which means it'll be easier to fix up down the road.
-There's only a little bit of rust along the wheel wells, which is far much less rust than what is on my '91 244. Not to mention, this means that there would be less work required to restore this car than my '91.
-It passed inspection in November which means there's nothing wrong with the engine/trans.
-It has a new exhaust from the cat. back
-Parts are really cheap for this car, not to mention monthly maintenance and repair will cost less than it will to restore my '91, since the '80 244 doesn't need anything.
-It's only $500!!!

Now here are all of the concievable cons that I could think of:
-It's a 26 year old car
-Stuff's going to break on it all of the time
-It'll probably cost you more money to upkeep this car than to just drive my '91
-You're inheriting someone else's problem
-The electrical systems in the older 240s suck.
-It'll probably need a new wiring harness....


Something tells me this car is a steal, and I should snatch this car up immediately....Whats the opinions of you guys???
Oh one more thing...Did I mention this is a 2 owner car, and the other person who owned this car was his GRANDMOTHER and he's owned this car for 2 years, which means good ol' grandma's owned this car for almost all of it's life.

"It'll probably cost you more money to upkeep this car than to just drive my '91"

You are correct sir.
No matter how you run the numbers, owning two cars is definitely more expensive than owning one. Economically it doesn't work until you attach a psychic value on owning two cars.

Torque (4 cars)
1997 850 GLT; 1993 240 Classic #190; 1992 240; some 2004 japanese 4 cyl.

About your list:
Now here are all of the concievable cons that I could think of:
-It's a 26 year old car
-Stuff's going to break on it all of the time
-It'll probably cost you more money to upkeep this car than to just drive my '91
-You're inheriting someone else's problem
-The electrical systems in the older 240s suck.
-It'll probably need a new wiring harness....

26-year old cars have things that conk out just due to time. Rubber hardens, plastic gets brittle, vibration can take a toll. This board has loads of people with experience in fixing or patching whatever. Stuff may break, but not all the time.

More $$ than the other? Yes, unless you do a lot of your own work.

Did you get any history on paper? Is the underside of the oil filler cap clean?

If he did the required work correctly, the car sounds like be a winner.

Electrical: The wiring harness deterioration problem began with the 1983 B23F, not the B21FT found in some '83s. The 1980 should be OK.

The B21F is a solid engine, some bricksters prefer it. A few new tools may be needed. Metric.

Call 1-800-25-VOLVO and see if there are manuals available for the 1980 240, plus the owner's manual (is there one in the car?).


Good Luck,

Bob

:>)

BC wrote Electrical: The wiring harness deterioration problem began with the 1983 B23F, not the B21FT found in some '83s. The 1980 should be OK.

The harness in my '82 245Ti was so rotted, the car used to keep running when I shut off the ignition. I've recently picked up a 1980 245, four round small headlights, B21F Kjet, and there's almost no insulation left of that harness, save some splices that the PO did. I think 1980 cars are subject to the harness problem if this car is any example.

--
Volvo Farmer:

21 Volvos '58-'91

445-544-122-144-1800-240-740

sorry, no FWD

My 79 245 was bad, my 82 245 was worse...

But my 78 245 never had a problem with the wiring

Alright, so I should def. be worried about how the wiring harness looks then??

I rewired in a couple of hours. No problem. Just did one wire at a time and follwed my own routes.
--
1980 245 Canadian B21A with SU carb and M46 trans in Brampton, Ont.

"26-year old cars have things that conk out just due to time. Rubber hardens, plastic gets brittle, vibration can take a toll. This board has loads of people with experience in fixing or patching whatever. Stuff may break, but not all the time....More $$ than the other? Yes, unless you do a lot of your own work..."
Yeah and that's what I'm worried about, not about things breaking, but how often things will break. Like I've previously posted on here, my '91 hasn't needed anything serious in the past year that I've owned her. Thus maybe this 1980 244 will make a good summer car and I can drive my '91 my winter car? It'd make sense to get this car, I can't ever imagine not having a 2nd car. You never know what life is going to throw you.

I still havent gotten the chance to go up there yet. It's about an hour away from where I live, and I'm a full time college student, so finding the time to get up there is quite difficult. I am going up there on Friday, so I will be asking him if he does indeed have any of this "work" done to this car on paper. For all I know, he could be BSing me. I'm kind of confused of why I would check the underside of the oil filler cap? I'm quite tired so spell it out to me haha...But I am happy that the whole wiring harness deterioration was with the B23, and not the B21. Are there any pros/cons to the B21 to the B230s?

love my 79 242 dl up here in maine. Is it a stick or an auto? B21F is great, look out for the rust though. Flew out west to grab mine rust-free. I know about the inspection up here in the NE it is no joke!! If it is good then snag it for the engine, the cool factor, the brickiness, and the (relatively) easy access to anything you need to get at. Good luck!

It's an auto. Yeah this car has less rust than my '91! And I do need luck...I have to figure out how I'm going to get this car and keep it off of the open market until I get my tax refund money in!

You have car inspections in Maine? Whenever we drive up for a vacation on Acadia (Mt. Deset Isl., that is), which is every year, I'm amazed at how some of the locals' cars don't fall apart right on the roadway ahead of me. Talk about rustbuckets, noisy (nonexistant, actually) exhausts, screeching brakes, and wobbly wheels, etc., it's sometimes scary.

Don't get me wrong, I *love* your state -- it truly is "the way life should be", except for vehicle safety. I'm not a lover of emission testing, but I'd like to know that the local guy tailgating me can stop if he has to, or the guy coming at me won't just lose his steering rack and swerve right in front of me.

So, what do they examine as part of that vehicle inspection you mentioned? ....

Best regards, anyway.

They probably run it like the old Connecticut program, which we finally did away with a few years back:
the car, at the time of registration, has to pass a safety test, as well as the emissions test. However CT started its emissions program using big, state run purpose built testing garages.

After a while, they figured out that they could have the emissions contractor do the safety inspections. Cheaper than doing it at the dmv offices I guess. Then they got it a big dispute with the emissions company, closed the doors of the garages and sold the buildings. No safety, no emissions tests for awhile.

Now we have a garage-based testing system, which has had it's ups and downs- the shop I had three of my cars done at when the program restarted, has been pulled out of the program for fraud, I guess passing cars for $$. Oh well, I got my certificates.

So now, in any case, no safety checks at all, except for, the one case you can't avoid, Salvage Vehicle inspections. And you'll NEVER pass one of those, it simply isn't worth your time and aggravation (not to mention towing).
--
Rob Bareiss, New London CT ::: 87 244DL- 249K, 88 245DL- 181K, 84 242DL, 89 244DL parts, SOLD: 86 244, 88 244GL, 87 244, 91 244, 82 245T, 88 744GLE, 86 244

You should be able to tag the car as historic depending
where you are. It's gotta be close!
Then there is no inspection or emissions testing.
I tagged my 78' historic and drive it alot.
Never been bothered by the police about it either.

Just food for thought.

$500 actually sounds pretty good if you don't need
to have it inspected. All your points
pro & con are valid reasons to consider about
any purchase of any older car.

Good luck with your decision!
I say, what the heck, buy it!!! :o)

karl

Well that's the good thing, is that this car passed Massachussetts inspection, which is pretty freakin' tough to pass! You're right, if the car is older than 25 years, the car is then tagged as an antique and you do not need inspection. But the guy still got the sticker for it, which makes me feel pretty darn good....The only problem is I'm waiting for good old uncle sam to send me my tax refund so I can get the darned car...I told him I'd put like...$100 down just so he knows that I really want this car and I don't want it sold to someone else, but he balked at it, and I have no idea how to get him to wait for the money to come in. Thus I'm so anxiety ridden because I do indeed want this car, for crying out loud, it's a steal! It's a low mileage 244 that has practically no rust, which is unbelivable for a New England car!

No question I'd get it. I have an 86 and had an 83 but it rusted out. The idea of having two Bricks is starting to appeal to me at the moment. I have a chance to buy a pretty good looking 86 700 wagon for $500 bucks. The appeal comes when one breaks down the other can have the insurrance activated and driving in a hour. All the while the other one has time to sit to be repaired and even maybe recieve some needed maintenance done. That alone will save you thousands over the next five years in needing a mechanic to do it now so you can get to work tomorrow.

The idea that things get old? That just means that when you fix them they are fixed for the time your driving it. If its true that the engine doesn't break in til around 200,000 miles then you still have 150 to 250 thousand to go, if you replace all those things that will break. Most of them you can check over by just reading the archive on this site. Plus the headlights don't have the problem of snow building up during a blizzard like the later 240's.

that's what i was thinking! i just dont remember how to check the wiring harness...Could one of you guys please enlighten me on how to check to see if it's bad or not? I don't even remember where it is located anymore! It's been forever since I've driven a brick that's had one!