I havent driven a 850 prior to this and coming from an m3 I know I shouldn't have such expectations, but I'm pretty anal about cars so I want to claify some things. The car itself was pretty clean, the front bumper was cracked from someone bottoming out, the paint seemed to be in good shape over all though. The only mods were ipd flash, ipd exhaust, and the s60 R wheels in 17. The car had 125,000 on the odo.

I was a little hesitant about the mods but I decided to give a car a spin. The first thing I noticed was the ride as pretty damn harsh, harsh considering how much roll the car still had. I'm not sure if the 17s were causing that or thats just the normal ride of the car. The steering seemed to be pretty typical for a volvo, not too responsive but responsive enough. When I got to chance to spool the turbo, I could definately hear it. The car pulled pretty nice from 30 miles an hr. I was shocked to hear the blow off valve from the turbo when I let off, the owner told me that the volvo came stock with that and it wasnt aftermarket. He told me that it should be around 275 hp. I had trouble finding the right speed to feel the power properly since we were kind of in the city skirts. I havent ran a carfax on it yet and I'm thinking about picking it up once I drive it more and everything checks out.


Should I be paranoid about the ipd mods? I know the car was well taken car of by the current owner, but I dont know of the previous owners experiences since they were the modders.

How hard would it to be to track down a used R front bumper? and how much?

Is the 275 hp a little optimistic? and what gear should I feel it pull the most?

The blow off valve being stock?

The r wheels were a direct bolt on? It seemed that the front right offset was a little off as it stuck out a tad. Or would that be alignment issues.

I'm looking for a commuter car and a car that I can jump in and not worry about if Im going to make it.

Thanks for your time and I hope to be seated in another volvo soon.

Cheers :57:

IPD mods are very good products.
Not sure about the R bumper.
275 sounds like it is pretty close.
They have a valve on the turbo that can sound like a BOV that comes stock.
The R rims should be a driect bolt on I have seen it before with no spacers.
If you look at most 850's you will see a slight offset with all of them.
I have seen that many times as well.

If the car that you tested is a T5R, then you should know that the car is very powerful. The newer version of the S60 'R' series all come with 300 bhp as stock.
(http://www.volvocars.us/) :D

Mine is an old 855 T5 and it came with 225 as stock (but probably less now that I live near city area and can't find a decent stretch to turbo-charged the engine), so probably the T5R would hover around that.

I agree with Tech that IPD mods are the way to go! They are experts ar modding Volvos at that. (http://www.ipdusa.com/) :thumbsup:

I wouldn't be too worried about the R bumper as you may be able to fit in the common 850 bumpers as well. Unless of course, you like it to look that way. Someone I know here, had a bumper totally customised, and costs just about the same as a new one. But I don't know how much it would cost there. :unsure:

The front wheels do look offset a bit. But if your right one is sticking out like a sore thumb, just have it checked out. The 17inch size may be a bit 'monster-ful', though. :blush: Mine is a 16 and they occasionally rub, especially on full (and I mean, Full!) load, but then again, others tell me, my friends are all triple-X L (XXXL) in sizes. :grin:

Have a mechanic lift the car up, and look into the fender areas and see signs of rub. THe stock shock-absorbers should be able to handle all the pressures very well, actually. They self-level and self-adjust. That's also prolly why they cost a little more. ;)

I don't know about the Blow-Off Valve being stock but what's wrong with it? :haha: I'm trying to save for one, as well! :)

As for being a commuter car, the 850s will be able to do this, but if you turbo-charge your way to your destination everyday, remember to leave it idle for a minute or two for the turbo to cool-down (as in other turbo-charged cars) before switching it off. If you don't like to wait, then install a Turbo-timer so the engine will continue to run for a designated few minutes, even after the ignition is switched-off and the door alarm-locked. :thumbsup:

Thanks for the fast responses! Does Kelly blue book's used car value work with this car? I know kbb doesnt always do the best job at giving the cost of a speciality model. Kbb gave me the quote of 5,500 which is 2 grand lower than his asking price.


and what exactly is this evaporater that I keep reading about, the owner said it sometimes acted up when th ac is on.


Thanks

The evaperator is part of the A/C system and does go bad on the 850's.
That is one of the main factors of the A/C system.
If you have to pay to have it replaced it will cost you like $1200.00 for the repair.