1989 Volvo 360 Reviews, Pricing & Specs

I bought this car 3 years ago from a dealer for £300.I was hoping to get a year out of it-just as a cheap runabout but its still on my drive and getting driven frequently! I was surprised when I first drove the car-bieng an old Volvo I assumed it would be slow and heavy.I was wrong-because it has a healthy 112 hp engine and weighs in at just over ton the perfomance is decent enough even at motorway speeds to keep up with most modern 1.8 and 2.0 litre- engined cars,Not bad for an old car it'll manage manage 110+ mph and 60 mph in under 10 seconds-not too bad.The brakes as well are quite good and stop the car safely in almost all conditions. The handling is precise,well weighted and predictable.This is due to the 50/50 RWD wih transaxle configuration.Although in the wet it can be tricky for those unacustomed to RWD.My car has Powers Steering-it makes life much easier as its no super mini either. The one good thing about this car (other than its safety at time of luanch -which is now obsolete) is that its reliable.With regular servicing the Volvo Redblock as found in this car will happily do 200,000 + miles. This car has never broken down on me,it satrts in all weather and is simple to work on with cheap second had part places t buy parts from cheaply. The not so good things are: its thirstyness in traffic-what do you expect though-even modern 2.0 lire plus engines tend to be thirsty in traffic-fact expect 20-25 mpg in traffic and 30ish on the motorway. The other downside is the fact that the paint and rust prevention techniques employed in the production of these cars was never as good asthat on the 200 and 700 series (big boxy volvos).As you can see mine has a few rust patches-these cars do rust.These were not made in Sweden unlike the 700/900 series so the quality of build isnt up to that standard but the panels are solidly built-in true Volvo style-so not a complete loss here-it quite a solid car. Fun factor-Volvo? Haha well belive it or not-it can be fun :-) These cars are used as drift cars because they have near perfect weight distrubution. Ok so theyre not particularly quick or never have ben but they'll keep up with most modern cars and are at least as quick as some of the warmer 80s hatches. For people who want more performance out of one of these it is possible to swap over the larger 2.3 litre engine from a 700/900 series volvo.This will give a noticeable increase in performance-especially in turbo form ;-) Overall- a good car.If you find one in good condition and you have space then buy one before theyre all scrapped-tese make a great alternative to Vw,Fords and Vauxhall which command a premium due to thier pop culture.Great modern classic/driter if you want something different :-) Sep 08, 2009