I purchased 3 used Volvos for my family in the last 3 years.
94 960, 70k miles, 8 years old at time of purchase.
90 740, 110k miles, 13 years old at time of purchase.
89 240 113k miles, 15 years old at time of purchase.
I don't think any of the cars had ever seen a drop of synth oil. All three had black deposits under the valve cover at the time of purchase. The 960 in particular had only seen 7 oil changes with with 10w30 dino in its entire life. Thats 10k OCIs with the bargain of the month at jiffi lube oil The car came with a bag full of receipts and a enthusiastic seller eager top point out how she followed Volvo's service recommendations to the letter
I switched all three cars to M1 5w40 ASAP after purchase. After 2 5k OCIs all three engines were absolutely spotless. Now I have them on 7500 mile OCI with about 1/2 - 1 quart top off over the interval. The 740 seems to burn the most oil while the 240 burns the least. All three cars consistently get very close to or better than the EPA mileage estimates. All three passed smog check with flying colors. Today 960=117k miles, 240=128k miles, 740=140k.
Why would I waste my money on ARX when normal synthetic oil does the same thing? Do you still think I need a compression check? Granted that I probably need my head checked for convincing my whole family that driving a 17 year old european car is better than monthly car payments on a new Honda. And I haven't even told you about my beater!
[ November 14, 2005, 08:51 PM: Message edited by: jtantare ]