After reading some earlier post here concerning remotes and costly replacements I decided to go to my local dealer about my 98 S70. He looked up the vin and said that he does not have to program the remote ... it is supposed to tell me how to do it in the manual. He said that 98 was a "split year" and I was (lucky enough) in one of the earlier models made that year.

Does this sound on target with anybody??

I don't know myself, but would like to. My son has a 96 850 that only came with one remote. I have hesitated getting one off ebay as I was afraid that it would be useless. If any member has definitive information on this it would be greatly appreciated.

that pretty much sounds right to me. from reading this and other forums, '98 was the cut-off year to programm the remotes yourself. anything after 98 is a volvo dealer job. my mechanic said that he could buy the software for like 7 or 8,000 bucks, but then has to pay like 800 bucks a year for a subscription, and then he ( and the customer ) would have to pay like 200-400 bucks evertime it gets used to program a remote. uncostly at best... like volvo isnt making enough dough.....

Well, I got more info from the service people. I was interested in a remote purchase while at the parts counter. I inquired about programming, again, and this time someone did say it was to be programmed by the service department. Economically, I did have the less encumbered program but it was still going to take 1/2 hour labor. Total job was going to be $200 for remote and programming. I am now wondering if a remote from a different car can be REPROGRAMMED? Manual had nothing for programming a remote. I did hear that some upper scale locksmiths can program remotes. I may ask my local AAA office about this.

I bought 98 V70 w/o remote... So.. I bought remote at E-Bay.. and went to
service center... and service guy just re-programed the remote and now it works just fine.....

What's the deal with the remotes anyway? Was the keyless entry a standard feature? I have a 98 v70, but I never recieved a reomte with it, perhaps I should go look for one...