Volvo 480 Club Europe

Just a kind of 'covering letter' to explain my recent posts.

My turbo was bought almost in desperation, which is a lesson I have already learnt twice with VW beetles. Need a car, dont want a fiesta, buy the 480 now. I'm sure I'm not the first person on the site to make this mistake.

So, why is it a lemon:

arches rusty
laquer peeling of rear wing - looks like lepresy.
pop ups don't work
abs doesn't work
suspension is knackered - I suspect most of the bushes and the shocks.
infocentre doesn't work
spoiler missing
fog lamp missing
thermostat stuck open
heated seats don't work
electric windows are ridiculously slow - how long till they break?
boot struts don't hold the boot up
water leaking through the (badly craked) rear clusters
washer fluid light stuck on
aftermarket sunrook sealed shut with silicone

£500. And I've only just woken up to it. What a d***head.

My 2.0es is STILL with the insurance company and my, what a much better car it was.

At the moment I'm thinking about going outside and giving it some

but I suppose I should work out what to do with it.

Adam

I'll give you a Statoil Start Pack - liter of petrol and matches

i know how you feel mate, i bought my last turbo (the one i am breaking) as an impulse buy basically, and it turned out to be a lemon, the previous owner had thrashed the crap out of it, result, knackered turbo, cat with no internals and oil pissing out of all available exits on the engine block
add to that, the fact that it leaks like a seive and has rusty front wings. it was a big mistake, i decided i would make more money back by breaking the bloody thing than i would trying to sell it.
maybe you should try looking around for another, but then i guess you have to dispose of the old one and find some money
sorry to hear you got a lemon.
Dan

Know exactly what you mean mate. Check my posts on this forum. Almost all of them are about problems with my car. At least it's running but I'm not throwing any more good money after bad. It's getting the minimum attention it needs to keep going (still far too much as far as I'm concerned) and I'm fairly certain it will fail it's next test miserably.

I'll wait until then to decide whether it's broken for spares or might pass another test with some cheap work.

It's unfortunate that this is the first one I've ever owned. You know the old saying about first impressions.....

Once rid of this one I will never buy another.

Also sorry to hear that dude...

I was a 440 memeber on here about a year before i got a 480-i read and saw alot-so when it came down to getting a 480, i was fairly knowledgeable on problem points etc. Got some great help from the forum etc. In the end i bought it from a member of the Volvo Owners Club, at a sum of £1400. Alot of money i guess, but i got what i paid for-new front/rear clusters, new bumpers, new info-centre, new clutch and cam-belt, new rear calipers discs pads and cables, and new front seats-the bloke was an enthusiast and all work had been carried out by Volvo dealers, so the price was justified. I did however, have some quite bad running problems-and i thought i'd got a right good-un. So it just shows that it happens to all-so try not to dispair!

I wouldn't let it put me off another 480, i'd just be very careful about what i chose! I do feel for you dude-perhaps it's time to call it quits and look for another (if you can afford it that is!).

Chin up-you're not the first to post about it like this-as per the club flyer, the forum is here to help! I hope there's some light at the end of the tunnel for you dude...

Ouch....

Vader was a lemon 480 Really sexy body and everything was just right untill driven then everything would brake otherwise it looked mint well until i found my mind and stabbed it to death.

Martin, what is that in your signature?!

Yes, it does sound a bit shitty now doesn't it. hmmm. Sounds expensive to put right but woud probably make a fine runaround for someone as it is?

pol

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Aaah, ok, it's obvious now!?

pol

That's not a Lemon, its a disaster!

engelmere wrote:My turbo was bought almost in desperation, which is a lesson I have already learnt twice with VW beetles. Need a car, dont want a fiesta, buy the 480 now. I'm sure I'm not the first person on the site to make this mistake.

For sure, you're not the first person to make this mistake. "Act in haste / Repent at leisure" as they say, or something like that.

My first 480 was bought sight unseen on eBay for £205 - I could have rejected it when I saw the condition but I was already in the middle of Yorkshire. Luckily it made it home and survived until a berk in a van wrote it off just before the MOT was due. His insurance paid up and I have a nice shiny Two Tone now.

But I still gotta wonder just how you bought this nightmare car? Did you give it a once-over first? Did you test the suspension on every corner? Did you even test drive it?

I know when I have bought lemons in the past it was because I really, really wanted it and let that desire override my judgement. It's only later that you notice whats wrong with it and start to feel sick... Well, £500 is a lot to pay for a parts/project car but just remember what made you pay out the money in the first place, You musta been seduced by the idea of Turbo. Stay with that...

default_user wrote:Know exactly what you mean mate. Check my posts on this forum. Almost all of them are about problems with my car. ... ...It's unfortunate that this is the first one I've ever owned. You know the old saying about first impressions..... ...Once rid of this one I will never buy another.

Deepest sympathy - but before you give up on it, try out a good one. Get a taste of what a well maintained 480 can feel like... And if Martin can stick with 480s after Vader, there is hope for everybody.

Yeah I gave the thing a test drive - fell in love with 'boost' and that clouded my judgement a fair bit. I new about the bodywork but I know a man who'll sort that out for £100 quid each rear arch. So I thought, wow, nearly a perfect turbo. This month I can sort one arch out, next month I'll sort the other one. I probably had a big grin on my stupid face at this point. Thought I could live with the other cosmetic stuff - especially since at the time I had another 480 with accident damage that could be used to donate the foglight, rear clusters and boot struts etc..

...but the insurance company took it away and haven't paid up. Yet.

As for the suspension and brakes they worked fine for several days after I bought it and then started to go wrong. The previous owner was an old fella that hardly drove it and I get the impression that now its been put back into active service everything has worked loose. I love to say it was because I thrashed the pants off it - but because of the brakes and suspension I just can't. A badly repaired pot hole will make the whole thing resonate and judder and the braking distance is so huge that unless you get onto a motorway you need to start thinking about using them about halfway through third gear if you've been giving it some welly.

Same goes for the electrics, they've all started failing recently. Nice engine. Shame about the car.


Worst bit is the 2.0l ES I bought off ebay for 360, unseen. And it was a beauty...

No more time nor money will be wasted on this s***box. Thats my decision. I'm already looking for my next car.

Adam

Squeeze the lemon!

pol