98 Volvo potential problems .

I have personally never owned or driven a Volvo but, I've had several friends that have owned the late 90's models and all of them say those trucks have mystery electrical issues. Could be the previous owners have fixed them if there were any problems but I'd be a little cautious and really check it out completely.

 

Volvos are a pain in the butt to work on, you can ask any mechanic ( watch for the eye rolling when you say volvo)and they all have electrical issues. I've been around a lot of them. On the plus side, you can run them into the ground- they are tough trucks.

 

Id stay away, but that's just me. Other people may feel differently.

 

Mileage was probably verified through the ECM, which in turn should match the odometer. ECM will give you hours and miles every time. Service history can also be a good indicator too.
OP, If it looks good, then why not?
The outlay will probably be minimal, and plenty of folks have had a chance to get into Volvo's now, vs when they were first over here, so mechanics are more clued up. There are also more of them in the bone yards that years gone by, so used parts are easy to come by too. And before anyone pipes in with a smart comment, there lots of Petes, KW's, etc in them too!
The biggest difference electrical wise, is that they are more like cars than domestic big rigs. Once you get your head around that, they are no harder than any other rig to work on in my experience. I tinkered with a few back home in England, and they had a different approach than other rigs there too as far as electrics go.
If the rig is clean, and it all checks out, then go for it. It should be a nice riding truck with those miles on it. Volvo's are one of the best riding rigs around, with lots on interior room in them. I have driven just about every make over here, and a few that are EU models only. The Volvo's always rode as good if not better than pretty much anything else.
The item I could see being a headache is that automatic tranny. They were still pretty new back then, and the electrics and solenoids on them were not known to be 100% sorted yet. It could have been sorted out in the years past, but check for everything working as it should in "manual" and automatic modes.
Just my .02 from experiences.
Martin

 

Mileage was not consistent? Doesnt match the ECM? You said verified in the first post...
Confused.
Anyone with the Detroit software can look at the miles and hours, so not an issue there.
Martin

 

A Detroit in a Volvo is a red headed step child situation. Some older Volvos had front axle issues too.