Thanks for all your replies on my Carfax question! I'll definitely use it before I buy!

Victor,

I'm with Roger on this one. I bought a 1989 240 wagon in August 99 from a dealer. While I was out on my test-drive, I pulled into a parking lot and rooted through the glovebox. The owner's manual still had the previous owner's name in it, so I wrote the info down. When I got home I looked the owner up in the online white pages and gave them a call. They told me all about the car, and gave me their mechanic's number. I called the mechanic and got a rundown on what had been done in the last 30,000 miles (car had 137k on it), and he agreed to send me copies of the repair records. This made me feel pretty safe about buying the car. I did have several problems with it when I got it (the blower motor, then the ECU a month later), but it's at 175k now and pretty reliable, if a bit squirrelly at times.

So I just went to Carfax to see what they would say about the car, since I'd been reading all the posts. The 5 "important" records were emissions checks in Conn. at 106k and 130k, and my purchase info. Nothing at all on the original purchase/registration, and nothing about the first 100k miles. And nothing about the auctioning of the car to my dealer and her subsequent use of it for ~15k. Useless.......

I would still check them if I was going to buy a car, but I wouldn't stop there. If you're not familiar with Volvo's, get a Volvo-experienced mechanic to go over it. For instance, on my car the blower motor rattled. I had no idea that Volvo charges $600 to replace a blower motor, and that the part is $200, so I didn't worry about it. The dealer knew, that's why she was selling the car. She had her mechanic spray some lube down in there to try and shut it up long enough to sell. And I didn't know that the ECU's on '89's are defective and just stop working one day. Mine stopped on the very day I sold my previous car, leaving me stranded for four days while a replacement was shipped to my house. This wouldn't stop me from buying an '89, but it would give me something to talk about when I'm haggling with the dealer.

In the end I replaced the blower motor myself, with the help of the fine folks here at the BB, but buying a car and immediately removing the entire dash was a new experience for me..&^)

victor

i know that you have made up your mind to use carfax but, let me throw my 2cents into the mix. my wife works with a lady who bought the 'full' service from them. she offered to run a few cars for me before i bought my 240dl. none of the reports showed anything special about any of the 4 cars i had her ceck. on paper, they were perfect. one in particular was a '90 240dl. the carfax report showed records only up to '92 when it suddenly sold at an auto aution in florida. going by the paper, i decided it was worth my time and took it to my mechanic. this was the BEST thing i could have done. turns out the car had been flooded, destroyed in the front end, wrecked multiple time, etc. after that, i thought i'd do a bit of investigation of my own. i called volvo of america and told him i was interested in knowing background on the vehicle. he said that confidentiality would not allow him to do so but, that he could not agree with certain statements that i would make *hint,hint* please don't waste your money on carfax. get the vin number, tag numer and person who registered the vehicle and call you state and local govt to check the vehicle (just ask them to tell you if there are any signifcant records that would cause concern) and then call the manufacturer to see what there records may show. alos, look in the glove-box for repair records and call that delership/repair facility and ask them about the car. please, beware of carfax and save your money.

Thanks for the warning. I guess Carfax can only tell you what's in the database. It sounds like the person who bought the car at the auction didn't do everything by the book.

possibly not. all i know is the car was truely a death-trap. when the mechanic put it on the lift and gave it a 'look-see', he was amazed that this car was still on the road. on the surface, the car looked decent and they were asking 4500. i asked my mechanic what he thought about the asking price and he just laughed. he said that if i offered anything over 500 i'd be crazy. the front end was completely shot (neglect, wreck, etc.), needed EVERYTHING for brakes (neglect, wreck, etc.), oil pan was bent into the pump (more than likely from a nasty wreck or running over something serious). nothing of this sort was on the carfax report. volvo gave me tons more info (as limited as it was) than carfax.

one point to note - if you live in a state/area that does not require emisions testing, carfax will give you little to nothing. get a good mechanic inspection and run the id #'s.