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I guess this is where we start discussing Kat's new car?
The S70 shouldn't be unreliable at this point. Period. There's something wrong with it at the moment, and hopefully you won't sink too much money into it before finding it. It still looks good, drives well, and is fairly efficient, no? You don't NEED expensive gas - the ECU will take care of that for sure. Roberta's been putting 87 octane into her car for the past 4 years, and is only now putting in better stuff since the Mohawk across the street started selling 90 at the same price as everyone else's 87.
However, now that I've bought a newer vehicle for myself (more on that Saturday), the scab has been torn off on the subject, and I'm keeping an eye out for Roberta's next vehicle. It needs to be a wagon. It needs to be newer. It needs to be reliable. It would be nice if it's AWD, but it's not a deal breaker otherwise.
We're looking at three subjects: Volvo, Volkswagen, and Subaru. The Passat wagon in 4Motion is probably the rarest of the bunch, and since it's really an Audi A6 it's not without it's complications. The Volvo wagon is by far the most plentiful, and there are a TON of XC70s and Cross Countries out there. I know they've got issues with their AWD systems, and Roberta has gotten along this far with 2wd, so a V70 is not out of the realm of possibility. Then there's the Legacy or Legacy Outback. Bulletproof is one good way to describe them, though apparently the head gaskets can fail on the earlier 2.5 litre engines, and if they fail it's a pretty major job to redo them. All three subjects are similarly priced for similar vintages and similar miles, but I think the Subaru will get the nod when the time comes.
What's this got to do with Kat? Well, like us she needs something reliable, she needs something economical, and she needs something bigger than an S70 by the sound of it. $7-8000 will get you an '00-02 version of any of these cars with under 150,000 km, and $10,000 will get you a very nice example with all the bells & whistles & all wheel drive.
However, if you want to keep the cash outlay down, you'll be looking at something older and with more miles, and with unknown devils. You KNOW all the devils in the S70, so you'll have to ask yourself if you are able to put up with the space & the upcoming repairs.
If you want a simple wagon, a newer 240 is about as good as it's going to get. Look for a '90-'93, but you'll be paying a premium. It'll feel like a tank compared to your S70, and it's not going to be much better on gas (if any), and it'll be a TON slower & noisier, but it'll have the space you're looking for and it'll run forever. Simple to fix, too.
Athal's got a really nice 940 Turbo wagon that I think he's going to need to sell, too...
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