My T-5R Journey

[YELLOW95]

Hello all! I made an introduction post in the new member section but I was interested in putting together a blog where I can share some of the history and experience I have had with my personal CY 854 T-5R, as well as an estate shared by my father and I.

Going all the way back, my older brother's first car was a gold 1994 854 Turbo, with a black leather interior. It was very well spec'd and had some cool options, but it didn't last too long in our family. It was totaled by my dad in a car accident a few years later, but it luckily saved his life! Ever since then, our family has been all about Volvos. My parents soon moved into V70s, and my older sister and I moved into S70s as our first cars. However, in the back of my mind, I had always dreamed about an 850R, more specifically the CY T-5R from 1995.

Flash forward to 2015 and I had just gotten a sales position at my local Volvo dealership. With some extra cash in hand, and no other real obligations, I decided it could be fun to get a second "fun" car. This came in the way of a 2000 V70R in Laser Blue Metallic that I purchased for about 3800 USD. It had 178k miles on it, and was a bit rough around the edges. After getting an inspection done at my work, we soon realized that it had a cracked rear subframe, a leaking fuel tank, and a hiccup in the transmission. I decided to cut bait and sell it on. I only lost a couple hundred dollars.

Now it is early 2016 and I see an ad in the Volvo Club of America for a gently preowned, 1-owner 854 T-5R in CY. This was my holy grail car! It looked to be in phenomenal shape, and although the odometer was broken (like they all do), the owner estimated it had about 105k miles on it. The car was located in Westchester, NY which is a pretty affluent area. We went back and forth through emails and he was able to answer a lot of my questions for me. I traveled down with a friend and was stunned when I saw the car in person. The interior looked brand new, the outside had only a couple minor blemishes, and lots of the T-5R goodies were included. From a few listings I had seen elsewhere, the owner started out asking around 10,000 USD. It was on eBay and didn't meet the reserve at around 7100 USD. The owner really wanted to be at 7500 USD.

I pointed out on the test drive that the seats didn't recline, the heated seats weren't functioning correctly, the mileage was an unknown, and that the gear level had to be manually pressed to come out of park. We eventually settled on a price of 6750 USD and the car was mine! I drove it straight home and my family was stunned in the condition of it.

For now, here is a picture of what it looked like when I got it home to Maine. It had some crappy 15" steel wheels with hubcaps, and you can clearly see the aerial isn't going up all the way. I'll be adding more pictures and entries soon!

[TBoss3]

Cool story and nice to see that this old-fashioned (but I love it though) forum is also getting used by international 850-lovers.
I am interested to see the improvements you are gonna do!

[Duell]

Welcome  Yellow95,  you really got a nice car for a pretty decent price I think. Love to follow your story.

[V70R^2]

850forum going international! Whoot whoot, offcourse it is

Nice car, love to read more!

[KIM]

Welcome at our forum! Nice to see some overseas interest; nice car too!
The forum will surely contain a lot of answers on current and future questions you may have when repairing you car or just doing maintenance. The forum used to be quite active one so a lot of answers have already been asked. If you have learned how to use the search functionI'm sure you will find a lot.
Although it is less active at the moment you will still get answers quickly from a lot of members.

Keep us posted on your car don't forget to use lots of pictures because that is what everyone loves here.

[volvobug]

Hi, welcome here and thanks for sharing your story and (lots of future  ) pictures!

I was wondering, how do you manage to read this forum? Using Google Translate or so?

[de Boeing]

Cool intro!

And nice picture! even with ugly (but roadtrip comfi?) wheels 

[YELLOW95]

Hi, welcome here and thanks for sharing your story and (lots of future  ) pictures!

I was wondering, how do you manage to read this forum? Using Google Translate or so?

Correct, Google Translate. Works pretty well! The forum is laid out pretty similar to others I go to so that helps as well