Question on Repair Costs

[jg]

I spent most of my Thanksgiving vacation trying to get a new power steering
pump for our '96 850 wagon in the back hills of upstate New York, after it
failed (quite dramatically in fact, the shaft and pulley came completely out
of the pump body, thus also disabling the serpentine belt, the water pump,
and the alternator) in a blizzard, miles from anywhere and miles from cell
phone service.

During the 2005 Thanksgiving-of-hunting-Volvo-parts, I got a good bit of
experience riding around in my elder brother's Subaru wagon, of
approximately the same vintage. It's a typical low-end japanese car,
spindly seats, clicky controls, light-weight all around, poor low-end
torque, etc. It's also rusted all around the wheel wells. If the Volvo
were functioning, the Subaru wouldn't hold a candle to it, in any
competition. On the other hand, he's had it for 10 years and it has never
broken, other than routine maintenance, while our Volvo has had more major
systems replaced than I can remember. He will never buy anything but a
Subaru.

Apart from mechanical reliability, I had the impression the (newer) Subarus
were slightly more solid than the usual washing machine construction of most
cars, which lately makes them really hard to distinguish one from another.
Just another illusion?

 

[Tim McNamara]

Huh. My 1990 Volvo 240 has cost me less for repairs in an average
year than my previous car, a 1988 Ford Bronco II, did. Thus far I
have spent zero time standing next to it on the highway. But then
with only 158,000 miles on it, the Volvo is just breaking in- compared
to the Bronco II which was breaking down by this point in its career.
I fully expect another 100,000 miles out of the Volvo, which ought to
easily me to the end of affordable gasoline and beyond...

That's a funny thing - my next choice (for a newer car, later) could
well be a Subaru. Old volvos seem very reliable and new ones don't
sound as though they are as good. I guess it means we are a
discerning lot & Subarus are a good choice.

Subarus seems to be fine cars, but they are not inexpensive to repair
either. And they are not really suitable for most folks to do much
shade-tree work on, unlike the 240s and 7xx Volvos.

 

[~^ beancounter ~^]

yea, the are still a asian product...cheap, thin metal, cheap
lightweight fastners...but, overall, the quality is getting better and
better as the priduction moves out of asia....just look at some of the
ratings the asian cars get ocassionaly

 

[..................................................]

Well what class would you put a $40,000 car in? The Volvo does appeal to
different folks then a Lexus or a Bimmer and to be sure quite different then
a MB...OTOH I also think there is a lot of the same type of buyer in the
Subaru store as a Volvo store...

Well, how about the luxury of not having the car disintegrate under me.
The latest in the saga of my '03 XC is when I stopped at the Grocery
store yesterday, I pushed the lock button and then closed the door and
as always, looked at the small light on the fender for the flash to show
that the alarm was armed. There was the light, hanging by it's wire
aboout two inches from the fender. The clip that's supposed to hold it
in just snapped off. Got back in the car and called the dealer....
$48.Bucks???? You MUST be putting me on!!! AnyHoo, a couple of little
squares cut from an industrial grade, double-sided tape worked wonders,
Ka-CHING. I should have done that to the side trim that fell off of the
passenger side front door.
Oh, and as far as putting the price on so-called luxury, they could
probably crank those cars out all day long for $20,000 and still make
money on them.