I have a opportunity to buy a 960 wagon with 143,000 miles on it for $700.00
maybe lower?
The owner says it needs a Evaporator for the A/C. Is this a very expensive repair?
He also says he puts in Reg 87 Octane gas , Is this OK?
What do you think of this car? The body is in decent shape,I have not seen the interior yet,
Please respond, Thank You!! in advance.

If it runs good and the interior is nice I wouldn't hesitate to pick it up for $700. The evaporator is an easy fix on these 960's. It is accessible when the glove box and passenger side airbag is removed(remove the negative battery connection for a half hour or so before starting the job). There is a cover(held on with a few screws) over the evaporator. It took me about 1-1/2 hours to replace one the first time. Just make sure the freon is evactuated before loosening the evap fittings. Borton Volvo has good prices on genuine parts.
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John R.

Evaps are a hassle to get to and it may not be the evap. There is no way that car is supposed to run on 87 octane gas as a stady diet, one can only hope the knock sensor was retarding the timing. The CR on that engine is abt 10 1/2 to one, as I recall.

143 on the tranny is pushing it if the bogus factory "lifetime" fluid recommendation was followed and driving was anything other than long road trips. Pull the (low) tranny dipstick and look & sniff fluid.

Its like buying a cheap horse. The initial cost isn't the point, a few hundred one way or the other.

The 960 was designed to run on 87 all day. It says so in the owner's manual. You can use 89 or whatever if you want more power at 6000 RPM, but im willing to bet at least half the people on this board are running on 87. Mine has been on a steady diet of 87 octane for over 100k miles. It manages 26mpg on long trips, has a steady idle and tons of power all the way to 6500 rpm.

How do you get to 6500 RPM? my car's automatic always shifts at about 6000 even in "S" mode at WOT.
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'96 965 with 16' wheels at 121K. Had '85 745 Turbo Diesel for 200K.

Maybe because its a 94. I don't know. I know for a fact it does because I got really scared the first time I saw the tach go half way into the red zone before shifting from first to second. It was the day I bought the car and I was afraid I might have hurt the engine. But I've repeated the excercize many times since. It sounds perfectly fine when it does and the engine is still pulling stong.

The answer is, of course... it depends. Assuming you've done your homework with respect to records and checking it out either yourself or preferably by an experienced Volvo mechanic, if you don't know 960s, it could be a great deal. One way to approach this is to ask yourself how much you CAN or are willing to spend on a car. This sort of provides an upper limit for you on the $700 car with some repairs to which to immediately respond. I wouln't necessarily be afraid of the mileage, but as you know things do wear out.

One big ticket item may be the rear shocks, although easy to install. If they're nivomats and haven't been replaced, you may be facing that task. I like the Nivos but others have converted to regular gas (Boge) shocks and change to stiffer springs. One other item you need to know about is the timing belt. I'm not certain of the interval on the 94, but it might be as high as 50K. Make sure with abolute certainty that it has been changed at the proper interval (with documentation) and you know exactly when to change it next. Even at that, I may be inclined to change it regardless and start your own baseline. Also change to all synthetic fluids, at least motor oil and AFT. The PNP swtich is also problematic on these cars.

Some things to check into and there may be more that lies ahead. $700 seems cheap, so there must be a reason...

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John Shatzer, '97 V90 @ 105K

It depends whether you are going to do the mending of your ac evaporator yourself or will take the car to a dealer. I suspect that if you take it to a dealer, he will charge you somewhere between $800-1000. If you are going to fix it yourself, then I have seen evaporators for as low as $250 and as high as $420.

Ta-ta, j.
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Nautica-Blue Volvo 2001 XC70