Hello everyone -

I've never owned a Volvo in the past. I've always opted for those cars with great reputation for longevity and reliability, such as Toyota, Honda and Nissan. But now that I have two young children, I'm about to purchase a Volvo 2005 XC70 mainly because of its safety reputation. But I'm somewhat concerned about so many Volvo owner complaints regarding mechanical/electronic and other problems encountered. Am I worrying unreasonably?

SYS

Welcome first of all.Second you should be fine most of the problems were will the older cars. Which were the new of body style.Most all of the bugs are fixed my now.Everything should be good for you.

It`s a wise choice to get new XC70, the only of modern volvos I bought plus to my 850 T5!

Well, my XC70 is two month old & it`s absolutely wonderful, the right thing for Russia`s climate!

Well, I've actually not posted here until now. I'm one that is happy with my 2001 XC70. I've had some initial problems, back hatch lock permanently locked, sunroof guides replaced , a noisy interior fan and the dealer (Deel Volvo) in Miami left marks on the center console while fixing them. And I've had an idiot light turn on about the emission system. Everything was fixed under warranty.

The car is now coming up to 50k miles and will loose warranty, I hope for the best, because I do love the car. Not sure if I'll keep the maintenance with the dealer ($200.00 oil changes are a bit steep, but they do give me a S40 to drive for the day).

Klaus P E
Miami, FL
Picture gallery at http://www.pbase.com/saltwfish
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http://www.volvo-forums.com/f9-volvo-xc70-forum.htm

Sys,

I purchased my 2005 XC70 this past March. I have owned many
vehicles in my lifetime. This is by far the one that I like the best.
Absolutely no problems. You will not regret your descision.

regards,
Mark

There are seveal problems which haven't been addressed by Volvo. One of them is electronic throttle module falures. I recently purchased a 2004 XC70 and now I'm afraid that I made a mistake. Most of the units fail after warranty expires and the owneris stuck with costly repairs

From what I gathered, Volvo has been very unresponsive, and so far refused to make this item a recall (although it clearly represents a safety issue, since one of the simptoms is sudden loss of power)

Here is a quote from one of the guys long ranting about his 01' XC70 on another XC forum: "The latest little rant lead VUK to tell me (officially I assume, as it came from their lips) that my car is 'too old' 'I should expect things to go wrong with a car of my age' 'They (the cars) do not last like new forever, things do start to fail, it is a common occurrence with all cars'
Aaahhh FOR F***'s SAKE, you are really trying to tell me that an ABS module failure is "common" in month 39 (that's just over 3 years old), tell me that a radiator splitting is "common" in month 47, an ETM failing in month 56 is "common". (my car is a MY, when purchased had 60000 miles, now has 96000 miles, I would think the car is still in it's prime)"

So far, I like my XC but judging by the problems other people have with slightly older XC's, I think it is just a matter of time before I'm starting experiencing the same problems.

You're voicing some of my concerns too... I purchased an XC 70 last year and have loved the first 11k miles, but I'm a bit concerned about the long run. I don't seem to hear too many comments in this forum that come close to the reliability stories of Toyota and Honda owners.
I guess we'll see... my first service was uneventful but a bit concerning since the rep told me that my brake pads were at 50%-- that was at 7.5K miles. I realize the car is very heavy and driving in San Francisco is quite hard on any car's brakes, but this was still quite surprising.

The ETM (electronic throttle module) problem was poorly handled by Volvo, but it also appears to be a thing of the past, confined to models 2002 and pre-.
As for longevity, I'm on my third Volvo. All of them have given me over 240,000 miles, all with original clutch and exhaust when I finally retired them.
And I say "given" advisedly--the only item that required anything other than normal maintenance in the current '95 850 wagon was the brake booster control. It wasn't cheap to repair (under $800) and it took awhile to get the parts, but that was four years ago and that was the only item.
Ten years old, not a speck of rust, mechanicals sound.
If that's not longevity, it'll do for me until something else comes along.
I'm just in the midst of finalizing purchase of the used '04 XC 70--which I expect willl live up to its predecessors.

First of all you shouldn't own a late model anything without some kind of extended warranty because of the cost's.

This will be the first time that l have owned a car that reached 50,000 miles. What l do is when the warranty is about to end l get rid of it period.

And as far as paying a lot of money for some repairs or maintenance l go to Volvo shops ( non-dealer) and save at least 35%.

Alan