Depends.. what year you looking at?
I'm a fan of old redblock volvos.. i've had 240/740/940's and they're damn reliable, could fix it with a hammer (except the fancy regina)
same with whiteblocks volvo (my 850/S70 experiences were really good).
If you do basic maintenace yourself, it doesn't really come up as "expensive" in my book.
Volvos are über reliable and fun cars.
Parts being expensive are a myth, same as Mercedes (for sure, aesthetics are expensive *like any brand*). Brakes, timings belt etc etc normal ware and tear parts are pretty damn cheap.
There are two things to always keep in mind with a brick (no matter it's age):
You always get your spark plugs at the dealer
You always get your ignition wires at the dealer (if you're going for a ignition wire generation and not coil on plug).
For anything else in the parts departement:
AutoLectra
Toni Frisco
AutoCamping
Have a garage friend who has access to WorldPac
Become a member of Club Volvo Quebec, pay 36$ to have a lifetime VIP membership and even certain Volvo Dealers offer up to 25% off on parts/labor, plus you get two kickass stickers. (and there are a bunch of affiliated privately owned garages, carparts, tuners that offer the same deals)
Turbo or Not, you always put supreme, it will love you back: trust me.
As mentionned above, anything Volvo with 3 numbers you can do the majority of work yourself with basic tools (only specialty is having a Torx bit set), redblock powered bricks are made the simplest way and there is nothing that can take you more than 4-5h to do on it (4-5h is pulling the engine out and slapping in the new one).
If you're going old school, I suggest staying away from anything that has the PRV motor, that bastard son of a 2.8L V6 that the Delorean had sex with is just odd, you'll never remove the oil filter the same way, you need to cover your knucles and elbow with vaseline to even access the f*cker and it's a pita every time.
If you want ultimate smoothness and solid power, check out any generation of volvo 960/S90 with the i6 whiteblock, 200hp, 200+tq Twin Cam engine.
You want something a bit more ''alive'' any Volvo 740Turbo, 940Turbo will be plenty of fun, you can easily attain 300hp without hurting your wallet or killing someone.
Any Volvo thats powered by a redblock can be turboed for about 5-800$ and they love boost (NA engine has a higher compression). 240's are simply awesome to turbo or to actually do a turbo swap from above mentionned series.
Most of the RWD came with factory lockers which is always pleasant, mostly came with automatic transmissions, AW70's AW71's AW72's (Aisin) which are shared amongst many manufacturers, support good power and you can easily mod them to be more ''spirited'' (stiffer springs in the valvebody).
If you find a Manual one it'll either be an m46 (4spd plus 5th OD electronic) or an m47 (full 5spd) m46 will resist until 300hp, m47 will slip in 3rd at 275hp.
You can get an adapter plate for the bell housing and put a World Class T5 if you're a bit crazy you can put a T66 after spending some time in the tunnel with a sledge hammer.
FWD: I am not the biggest fan of these, but: they are fast out of the box, hella comfortable and easy to work on in comparison to other FWD platforms. Labor times for most major things are fairly low and parts are fairly cheap as well. I will always say that they are more expensive to maintain than RWD because: there are more parts, it's logical.
Whiteblock motor (which is the most common engine in these) varying from 2.3 to 2.5L turbo to NA over the years, were developed in in 1992... So it is the same motor even in a 2014 C30 2.4i, basically a killer motor. Only flaw on it, is owner neglect, it is an aluminum motor so you need to be religious about the oil changes.
Certain models sport newer versions of the i6, which comes either NA or Turbo (lot's of fools say it's bi turbo, it's not it's a sequential turbo setup, you're balls are probably bigger than the two little turbines). Great engine, mixed reviews, bad ones are mostly because of people who do not respect preventive maintenance and bitch about a ''shitty motor yada yada bla bla bla''. Speaking of that motor, stay away from the 1999 2001 s80, it has a GM tranmission which is knows to be... GM.
The 8 is great, only two models rock it, the XC90 and the newer gen S80, load's of fun, very butt clenching power band and funnily it's actually very fuel efficient.
Anyway, I could keep on writing babbling about this all day but in the end, it's a car, treat it well it'll treat you well, be more specific about which model has caught your eye and I'm sure even more people will chime in with their experiences.
easy as hell to work on
thats the i6
don't know many brands that look this good 20 years into their life when they are driven daily
they barely have stretched their legs at 220 000km
tightly knitted community, spread out all over the world
And just to give an idea, I overboosted an engine which had around 395 000km, at 23.5 creeping to 24psi the head gasket blew, you can see where it's messed up.
All in all, it took less than 2h hours to replace the head gasket and it was good as new.
anyway, fun as shit, cheap as f*ck, cost nothing to insure. load's of pleasure to drive and safe as hell. driving from Montreal to Virginia or beating the shit out of it like an old prostitute that owes you money: you can't go wrong with Volvo.
please be more specific about the models you guys are looking at, feel free to join our Facebook Group for questions
https://www.facebook.com/groups/clubvolvoquebec/
visit our forum,
www.clubvolvoquebec.com