Any Volvo owners on here?

[Uberjager]

I need a "new" car, and for some reason the S40s and S60s have really caught my eye. I'd be looking at getting at ones from 2005 or newer. How's reliability? Is maintenance a pain? I'm not dead set on these, just curious mostly.

Thanks guys. I can always get a Geo Metro and spend the remaining money on guns. [Abused]

[spyder]

I have a 01' V70 XC. I'm the third owner of it, and they are built like tanks. Mine has just under 190k on it, and for the last 4 years has been great. Their internal parts are treated with a carbonitride metal treatment as a little fun fact. An owner of an R8 totaled his new car with the rear end of mine, and all it did was cdack my bumper (which I also had to zip screw back on because the impact broke most of the clips). Other than the breaking of the linkage on my passenger rear door because of the kids, the car has been great.

[Irving]

S40 is on Ford Focus chassis. I don't know if that matters one way or another to you or not. I always liked Volvos.

[tmleadr03]

They are pretty good. Computer diag can be a bit tricky and require special tools. My snapon can do a lot but not everything.

Mechanically pretty sound, but keep in mind it is a Euro car so it is more expensive to repair over said Geo metro if something does break.

Get a PPI before you buy it.

[jmg8550]

I rolled a '75 244 over twice. Drove the car home. Built like a tank. Expensive to keep maintained though.

[streetglideok]

I prefer to not work on the things, personally. Again, I don't care for euro cars as a rule though. Some Volvos have a reputation for cooked transmissions. Finding used ones is all but impossible. If you never owned a euro car, expect to have higher maintenance costs, and repair bills. This isn't your daddy's oldsmobile. Definitely nothing like the old 240GL's , etc.

[Badger]

I need a "new" car, and for some reason the S40s and S60s have really caught my eye. I'd be looking at getting at ones from 2005 or newer. How's reliability? Is maintenance a pain? I'm not dead set on these, just curious mostly.

Thanks guys. I can always get a Geo Metro and spend the remaining money on guns. [Abused]

My brother, (a master Volvo tech,) would suggest you run far, far away. Just saying, no personal experience other than my bro's word that I'd never doubt to guess otherwise.

ETA: I'm a general mechanic (gas/ethanol specialty), and every Volvo I've ever had the misfortune of looking at has been a headache of both logic and monetary being.

Badger

[Great-Kazoo]

Not since these.
http://ts1.mm.bing.net/th?id=H.4816987405092012&pid=15.1

[RonMexico]

My ex's father was an anesthesiologist in the ER and because of Volvo safety record that's all he would buy. She had a 2010 s40 and never had a single issue. Like someone said above it's based on a ford platform like my Mazda 3 but obviously the fit and finish was nicer. Overall I know they would take them in for expensive service but otherwise their 4 Volvo never had any problems.

[theGinsue]

Get a PPI before you buy it.

Pardon the ignorance, but what is a "PPI"?

[ChunkyMonkey]

Pardon the ignorance, but what is a "PPI"?

To me that's pre purchase inspection... to her its post purchase insanity

[tmleadr03]

Pardon the ignorance, but what is a "PPI"?

Pre purchase inspection. I have made grown men cry with a post purchase inspection.

ETA: "I just picked this car up way under book, take a look at it and tell me how great I did". I then write up repair estimates totalling twice what he paid for the vehicle.

[cofi]

http://img.gawkerassets.com/img/18detypoce8t0jpg/original.jpg

[Great-Kazoo]

http://img.gawkerassets.com/img/18detypoce8t0jpg/original.jpg

gian carlo espisito you're a board member?

[Stone83]

I've got a 2009 S60- 77k miles- 90% highway miles, and so far no complaints.
I DO suggest getting an extended warranty if you do buy; it's not cheap to fix!!
Will buy American next time......

[Mtn.man]

Expect to replace transmission at some point. Some go out at 4ok, others last a little longer.

Electrics are a PITA on the newer ones.
Not built like they used to be.

[tmleadr03]

Expect to replace transmission at some point. Some go out at 4ok, others last a little longer.

Electrics are a PITA on the newer ones.
Not built like they used to be.

There is a company that sells a rebuild.kit for those transmissions that makes hem bullet proof.

Electronics suck on ALL new cars. This is because everything is electronic these days.

[spyder]

Ok, so here's the deal with repairs with Volvo's... they will be a little more expensive than your American counter part. I had the timing belt replaced under scheduled maintenance, and it only ran $110 more than what a GM product would have. The draw back is that a dealership with trained people behind the counter are the only one's that can work on your car. Unless you have the special tool for removing your oil filter, not many people can change your oil either. These cars are a lot like the early 2000 land rovers, if the have been in a shop for anything electrical, stay away from it.

[tmleadr03]

Ok, so here's the deal with repairs with Volvo's... they will be a little more expensive than your American counter part. I had the timing belt replaced under scheduled maintenance, and it only ran $110 more than what a GM product would have. The draw back is that a dealership with trained people behind the counter are the only one's that can work on your car. Unless you have the special tool for removing your oil filter, not many people can change your oil either. These cars are a lot like the early 2000 land rovers, if the have been in a shop for anything electrical, stay away from it.

I live to buy special tools. Dealer is not the only place to go. Find an indipendant shop instead.

[streetglideok]

Lots of independent shops have the tools to do the services on the cars. In some cases, they are better at it than the stealership is.

[earplug]

Google cam belt tension-er failure on Volvo. Check the cost of tail light lenses and such things.

[Jeffrey Lebowski]

Just another experience:

My wife had a 2005 S60, which she bought in 2006 and we just finally sold this summer. I thought it was a terrific car. At 6'5", it was pretty comfortable for me to drive. Very nice, very well laid out interior, although I would not have personally ridden in the back seat behind someone of my size. The trunk had plenty of room.

I personally thought the styling of those era S40 / S60 was best in class (especially the rear), although I think they definitely dated fast. I like the styling of the new ones, though.

The turning radius of that volvo is what I would call worst in class. Seriously on this. It was my wife's consistent complaint about that car.

The thing about the oil filter wrench wasn't a big deal. I bought one and got one for my parents as they had a 2007 S60 at the time. Changing the oil filter itself was really easy.
The serious PITA about the job was removing that big plastic "skid plate" under there to access everything. ALSO - these cars have minimal ground clearance. I'm super skinny despite my height, but even I was really tight under there up on ramps. $0.02.
After I got sick with cancer in 2010, I decided I did not wish to do this job anymore and ultimately just started paying Rickenbaugh since it is near where I work. They are great, and they'll "discount" but every single maintenance job was expensive. You may want to take tmleader03's advice and find an indy shop. I think there are two swedish ones somewhere here in Golden, I just never went there.

The other complaint about the ground clearance was low curbs / curb-to-driveway sort of deals - and we scratched the underside of the front fascia pretty badly even being super careful. The car was AWD and rocked in rain and ice, but any amount of big snow was a PITA due to clearance, and my wife would just take her jeep instead.


I thought it was a pretty cool car, not exactly commonplace, but not exotic either. In other words, a cool alternative to the subaru thing.
We just got rid of it this summer since it was starting to have a lot of miles and we had a big maint job coming up and we figured that was $2-3k more to spend on a new car. Honestly, my wife just wanted something new as well. The current S60 was in our "final 4" when she did buy from that class this summer, but it wasn't in either of our top 2. I don't know if I like the new interiors as much as ours. Also, while it seemed like Volvo was ahead in terms of engine / response / handling in 2005, it didn't feel as though it had kept up on this go around.

[Jeffrey Lebowski]

Another thought - not exactly what you are looking at but I always thought those Polestar C30s would be a lot of fun.
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