Purchase a 960?

Hi Folks...

My 87 240 wagon has gone to the great car repair in the sky due to a
too-expensive to repair accident. I'm driving a 92 940 sedan which is
ok BUT......it isn't my wagon. With the little insurance money and
selling the 940 I could probably get into a mid-90's 960 wagon. I
throw crap in the back, haul the dogs, tow a small camper and
generally treated the 240 as an indestructible covered pickup.
Recognizing that the amenities in the 960 are more luxo than I've had,
is it mechanically the beast of burden that the 240 is/was? I'd
appreciate your comments and suggestions.

Regards

Pat

 

The 960 is a great car, smooth, refined, powerful, luxureous, that said, if
you're used to beating on a 240 you'll probably want to skip the 960 and go
with either another 240, or a 740/940 with the redblock 4 cylinder. The
inline 6 is a strong very smooth motor, but it's rather shoehorned into the
engine compartment so working on it is no picnic, also I cannot stress
enough how important it is to keep up on maintenance and have the timing
belt replaced on schedule, a broken belt will effectively total the car
unless you can find a good used motor. Fuel economy is not as good as a 240
either, pretty much expected given the much larger more powerful engine. For
towing a camper you might check out a late 940 Turbo, same nearly
indestructible engine as the 240 but the turbo adds about 40HP and a big
lump of torque stock.

 

I don't have experience of the 960, but am aware that it uses a more
complicated independent rear suspension which the 940 does not.

For reliability I cannot recommend the bulletproof 940 enough.

 

I found my '92 960 wagon infinitely more reliable and had better mpg
(with my lead foot) than any of my previous rustbucket 240s.

If it had AWD, I'd still own it.

 

I can only add to the other accolades about the 960. It is a very
smooth running car with ample power to pull the car along comfortably
at high speed. Because the car will be 10 plus years old do look for
evidence that routine maintenance has been kept up and consider having
an experienced Volvo mechanic do a pre-purchase inspection. He can
alert you to potential problems that might figure into the final price
for the car.

I really enjoyed driving my 1996 960.