I've been interested in purchasing a used 2005 XC90 and started doing some research. After debating the merits of each engine type I thought the T6 was suited to my needs. Further research and some reading on this forum has shown a lot of people having transmission problems with the vehicle. Is it just that those affected are the ones posting in forums like this and the problem is not very common, or is this something I should be wary of prior to forking over some dough.
I've never owned a Volvo before and was drawn to this vehicle b/c of the safety and comfort associated with the brand.
Any help would be appreciated.

Cheers.

I have a 2004, 5 cylinder turbo and it performs very well. It is not a speed demon but does well with gas and comfort. With price of gas recommend looking at this version in CAN.

Thanx
Eon

for alikat, my brother and brother in law both have the xc90. one has the twin turbo 6 and the other just traded in for the v-8. they both love their 90's. as to transmission problems, only one of them had the faulty tranny and it was replaced under warranty. of course he made sure that everything was spelled out to him when he purchased it new, so my advice is to make sure that if you go and buy one, make sure that they explain everything to you about what is covered and what isn't. if it's from a dealer, make sure that you get the warranty, either the remainder of the original one, or negotiate a new one. just for ease of mind for you. good luck and keep us posted. oh and by the way, both of them drive like proverbial demons. they both beat those cars to crap. and it never left them stranded. the tranny problem happened in his driveway.

Thanks for the advice folks. I think that after talking to a few people and seeing that there have been very few (if any) complaints about the 2.5 5 cylinder I am starting to lean towards it now.
Just have to find one at the right price/mileage now.

Cheers and thanks again!

Hi there fellow Canadian,

I too have a 2005 XC90 T6. While I have had numerous small problems I have to say I still do love the vehicle... Then this week I went for my 48K KM service. I did not take it to the dealer as I have not been having much luck with them in my 3 years of ownership (that is another story) so I took it to another authorized Volvo service mechanical shop.

Well long story short when I went to pick up my beautiful car they informed me that I was heading straight to the dealer for possible warranty work. Apparantly I have glycol in my transmision fluid (milky colour to fluid indicates this) and at worse case scenario I may be looking at a complete replacement on the transmission and cooling system. At 48000 Kms this comes as a huge shock. Oh and to top it off I have an oil leak in the front of the engine...again exact problem to be determined.

Well I am booked for next week so I will let you know how it goes. The warranty is up in 01/09 and while the drive is pure heaven...I can say after 3-1/2 years of ownership I'm thinking a Ford Escort probably would have provided more reliability for a whole lot less MONEY!!

To follow up on my entry from 10/23/2008. Yes today I found out that indeed radiator fluid has corrupted my transmission.

Result = 1 transmission replacement, 1 cooling system replacement and 1 engine seal replacement as she is also leaking oil.

Yes I am covered by warranty, but my fears of keeping this car only get darker.

Hi, I think I am the right person to answer your question as I have just bought a 2005 XC90 T6 which has done just 36,000KM. I must say the 2.9L engine on the T6 is a much better power engine than the 2.5T, the response was quick and the trque is more than enough for an SUV.....

HOWEVER, my T6 which I have bought on the 1-Oct-2008 has spent more time in Volvo's workshop than in my car park... The reason has been the transmission (I think), I have to mention that my car has been regularly serviced at Volvo by the previous owner and before I purchased it, it has gone through a major service and check up but the week after I picked up the car, it started feeling unusual when the engine was cold. i.e. when you rev it up to say 2500-3000rpm, the car was doing like less than 10km/hr. I took the car to Volvo workshop but they could not locate any problem since there was no fault signal. I took the car back but problem still there for a few days before I brought the car back again.... of course as you can guess, they said...Everything seem okay. Then after spending a week at workshop, I took the car back and ONLY 2 days after my car ended up on a Tow Truck because the dash said.... "TRANSMISSION SERVICE URGENT".

This is not the worst, as I know a brand new gearbox was replaced FEB 2008, I thought it would still be under warantee but Volvo here today told me since the car's warantee (3 years) has just expired, they will not do anything to fix it and worst case is I have to pay USD9000 for replacing another gearbox.

One sad XC90 T6 owner
ERIC

Well I ended up buying the 2.5T and have no regrets at all. Still not sure if the tranny problems on the T6 were in all/most vehicles, but thought I'd play it safe. Got mine at the dealer and it came with another 2 years of warranty. All in all I'd say for me the 5 cylinder was the better bet.

Thanks again to all the respondents!

Nice to hear that, I have to mentioned again to all those who are thinking of buying T6 model, unless you can get gearbox replacement cheap, then buy one... the design of this gearbox really has technical issues which has never been looked at by Volvo.... so you will end up replacing and replacing gearbox non-stop. I ended up switching to a 3.2 Sport