Wifes Fabia vRS paid off. Want to sell it (hopefully about £8500/9000) and get a nice V70 volvo for about £5k and bank the balance.Need space and leather that wipes clean from chaotic kids!

Seen ex police cars.80k on the clock.5 years old.Very tempted.

Seen private cars between 80 and 120k.Very tempting.Said I would never worry about high mileages...but I am a bit! Anyone trust Volvo engines/cars as rock solid at these miles.

Thanks..Anyone want a lovely black shiny vRS Fab .Onlly 17k miles in 2 years? Edit...for money,not free obviously

I look at ex-plod cars going through an auction, they looked very scruffy.

But if you buy from one of the specialist places that will have cleaned it up, plugged the holes and removed the vinyl sticker traces from the body then it should be fine.

Dont get an AWD Volvo.

I'd go for a high-mileage / low age private car over a high mileage / low age ex-police car any day (assuming the prices were similar), as the former will probably be a former fleet car, and thus driven up and down motorways at a constant 80mph. This creates much less wear mile-for-mile than stop/start driving, and with ex-fleet, it should have been serviced according to the manufacturer's requirements.

The ex-police car may have been serviced over and above the manufacturer's requirements, but it will, however, have been driven much faster than 80mph on occasion, will probably have driven (relatively) long distances in reverse, will have had God-knows-who sat in the back, and (most importantly to me) will have holes of various sizes everywhere. The kind of places that sell on ex-police vehicles are usually pretty good at filling holes in the bodywork, but there's not much that can be done about the interior. Not just the dash, either - I've even seen ex-police cars with holes cut out of the back of the front seats! (Imagine fishing Power Rangers and Jelly Babies out of that! :eek: )

And to finish off, I'm not convinced Volvos are any more robust than other brands these days. Ask ScoobyChris about his Mondeo, if you're after a cheap second-hand baby-lugger. The estates are HUGE, and I don't think there'll be any drop in reliability compared to a Volvo...

HTH

80K miles is nothing these days, dont worry about it.

80K miles is nothing these days, dont worry about it.

Good point.

I wouldn't hesitate to buy a high mileage car. Passats with 100k on the clock seem a great buy at as little as £2k.

As for the Volvo, a great choice. I wouldn't go for an ex-police car though tbh, they must be abused soooo much.

If you do go for ex-plod, there are a few here......

Ex police car special offers - High performance used cars for sale

Avoid ex-traffic cars at all costs!

To put a different angle on the high miler question, I tend to look at lower miler cars because the seats, pedals, steering wheel are less worn and the interior generally feels and looks better, but then I tend to rack up miles reasonably quickly so if I bought high milers I'd be forever chopping them in

Here are some hints and tips on what to look for in the V70.... I believe they were featured on Watchdog a few months ago due to an ECU/DBW throttle problem but this only affected certain models....

Nice, well kitted cars and very understated, but the cost of servicing put me off when I looked into it (minor every 6k and major every 12k) but that might not be an issue if you will be a low mileage user.

Chris

If you do go for ex-plod, there are a few here......

Ex police car special offers - High performance used cars for sale

I wouldn't trust a company who's only contact details are a mobile phone number

I wouldn't trust a company who's only contact details are a mobile phone number

I also liked this comment from their website.....

"Enough fuel for the start of your journey home":rofl:

I also liked this comment from their website.....

"Enough fuel for the start of your journey home":rofl:

So that'l be just enough to drive of the forecourt.

I wouldn't go for an ex police car unless it was operated by the force driving school. They're really the only ones that are maintained to a high degree.

The operational ones are serviced by the main dealer until the warranty runs out by which stage they're ready for resale. Any other problems then they are simply fixed to a minimum standard by the in force mechanics to get them back out on the road. they are often crashed and repaired by the force body shop as well. Ask to see any insurance claims that have been made on the car by the cops.

If you imagine most police traffic depts cover the whole force area, so to get to an accident or pursuit that's on the other side of the force area, then they are gonna rag the boobs off the car to ensure a quick response.

The 2.3 L turbo engine used in older T5's is prone to the gasket seal failing. This seal costs about

I'm amazed no one has said "what about a MK1 Octavia L&K estate?"

I look at ex-plod cars going through an auction, they looked very scruffy.

But if you buy from one of the specialist places that will have cleaned it up, plugged the holes and removed the vinyl sticker traces from the body then it should be fine.

Dont get an AWD Volvo.

I wouldn't buy an ex police car as they take some right stick. There won't be any extras and alot of wear and tear, holes etc inside plus the inevitable exterior.

I agree with the statement about the AWD. I bought an 850AWD a few years back - it was the worst car I've ever owned in my life, spent five months out of the twelve I owned it back at the dealers . Luckily virtually everything was covered under warranty. I traded it in for my Octavia which is the most relaible car I've had.

And remember, if a Volvo does go wrong it will cost alot of money. :thumbdwn:

These people are probably too expensive for you but they've usually got some nice cars in:

PGI Farnham - Used Volvo Estates

Was also going to post link to PGI, Have had a few chats with them over the years very knowledgeable people.

I wouldn't worry about high milers..... I would worry more about low milers, a short trip to work and back every day (less than 8 miles say) will really kill a car when nothing gets heated up properly.... standing on driveways for days at a time isn't too good too, seizing up brake calipers ect...

My bet would be an ex-company car, most of it's miles done at 80 mph on the motorway, and serviced/repaired correctly, almost no wear on them cruising on a motorway I wouldn't be worried about one with 100k + that had had this kind of life!

....

And to finish off, I'm not convinced Volvos are any more robust than other brands these days. Ask ScoobyChris about his Mondeo, if you're after a cheap second-hand baby-lugger.

Yeah i agree that chris is the right person to ask, esp now that Volvos are essentially from the ford parts bin.