I'm probably close to purchasing a 94 960 sedan.
I'd be interested in the experiences or opinions of others related to
960s of this vintage...
Thanks
EDIT: First of all I feel stupid, I realize I just replied to a really old thread. But I'll leave it maybe someone else will read it in the future and it will help them.
I have a 94 960 sedan purchased in late Dec 2017 so I've had it over 2 years now. I put about 35K miles per year on it combination of city/highway driving. I really like this car and plan to keep it long term. It had just over 150K miles when I bought it now it has about 223K miles
What makes the purchase of a car of this vintage and this model at
ANY price a good value, or not, is the availability (or lack) of its past maintenance history. If you don't know the maintenance history, you
have to assume first of all you need to immediately replace the timing belt and water pump which are often done together like some other cars. Or if you're doing it yourself at least pull the timing belt cover and check the condition of the belt, and then change it.
Also does the rear end sag at all and/or is it quite soft/spongy? It has Nivomat self leveling shocks on the rear which are very expensive to replace. I'm talking like $280 EACH. Mine were worn out when I bought the car, very soft in the back and sagging somewhat, you could tell the self leveling function wasn't working. I opted for a Nivomat conversion kit from IPD Volvo in Oregon which is like $430 for replacement springs to match normal replacement shocks BUT the shocks are adapted on one end to the mounts for the OEM Nivomat shocks. I saved at least $150 versus simply replacing the Nivomat shocks with new ones.
I have had good service from my car but had to sink quite a bit of money into it at first, due to the engine needing a head gasket which I didn't any mixing of antifeeze and oil when I test drove it, but it had a pretty nasty miss. It turned out it needed a head gasket.
The rear end has a factory auto locking differential which is awesome, works great for me in the snow. It means I don't have to own a Volvo XC which was my previous car and which was a lot more expensive to operate and keep up maintenance on than the 960 is.
Let's see, if you've bought or do buy it, go over all the ground points and clean them up, these can cause quirky electrical issues if they become corroded. By the way I'm not trying to talk you out of buying the car. I love mine and I plan to keep it long term. I'm just trying to inform you of some expenses you might have right up front as soon as you buy the car, so you're not surprised. In spite of me getting my 960 for $1100, over the first six months with new tires, exhaust, head gasket, timing belt, it turned out I had almost $3000 in it. And it was worth every penny and I really like it! I don't look at it in terms of resale value and do I have more in it than it's worth. I look at as I don't have a car payment and this car runs great and I plan to keep it and drive it as long as it is still affordable to operate. I haven't put any money into it over the last year or so other than oil changes and normal wear items like front brakes.
Parts are readily available that I've needed, except I had to really search for an AC clutch, not the compressor I could have bought a brand new complete compressor and actually for a decent price but I just needed the clutch. The AC clutch was tough to source, I had to do a lot of looking around, partly because none of the web sites were totally clear, like it wasn't certain that if you have a Sanden such and such compressor then this is the clutch for you. Some would indicate a certain AC clutch but when I dug in a little deeper to be certain, I found that it wasn't the right clutch. So I had to keep looking until for sure I found the right clutch. And even then my indy Volvo mechanic had to adapt it slightly to fit. That's been my only negative experience with spare parts. And in retrospect perhaps I should have spent more money and just bought the entire compressor. This was during the initial period when I was catching up on maintenance and repairs and had already spent quite a bit of money so I was trying to save.
One more thing, the 94 should have (mine does) the 201 HP engine but that comes with the higher gear ratio (lower top number) rear end versus the 95-and-up 960 which has the lower HP engine but the lower gears in the rear axle. The higher gear ratio really affects performance. It has plenty of power and good acceleration if you get into it, but if this car had lower gears in the rear end or another gear in the tranny like a 5 speed automatic with 5th gear being the same as 4th in the current tranny, it would be absolutely awesome. It's low revving at all speeds including highway speed, I think mine turns about 2300 RPM at 70 MPH on the highway, as I recall that's what the tach reads.
Hope this helps.
