I am also new to the forum and hunting for a good XC90 I have just looked at 7 from a range of dealers. One 2004 for £13500 had Qseal in the coolant - brown stuff to temporary repair head gasket, the salesman tried to convince me it was ordinary coolant, i pointed out the bubbles and moved on. Another 2004 @ £12500 had a warning showing on the dash - 'Brake fault pull over safely', the guy told me it was prob a light bulb gone, I pressed the brake pedal it went to the floor with no resistance, the lights were fine the engine was rattly and had oils stains on underplates. A 54 plate @ £13500 up on a ramp was so rusty underneath it I doubt it would have passed an MOT, exhaust and discs were shot, tyres were mismatched and barely legal. Another 2005 @ 12500 68k miles was coated in mud underneath and all over the engine and had steamy water and oil and a booming sound coming from the bottom of the engine, again tyres were barely legal. Oil levels varied from not touching the dip stick to well up over the kinky bit...apparently "it all depends on how long since they were serviced"...ye ye nothing to do with lack of maintenance or the DPF then :-) I would not have paid over 1000 for any of them.
I am off for a drive around tomorrow having identified what look like a few dealers with good (RAC / AA) vehicle checks and warranties, Crawley, Slough, Swindon, N. London, up to Bedford, over to Colchester and the way things are going prob back home to Sussex with no new car. I am tempted to go visit some auctions but not confident yet that I can identify a good one, does anyone know of an audio of what a good engine should sound like?
If anyone knows of a good XC90 in the £9-12K range I would appreciate a pointer please.
3 of the 7 I have looked at have had a lot of fine mud coating the engine bay even the top of the engine - is that common? I have had 2.8 TD Mitsi Delicas for the last 8 years and mud never made it into the engine bay.
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