Purchasing 2001 S80

Chuck A · Post by **Chuck A** » 16 Mar 2011, 12:53

Have a 96 850, 235,000 mi and am very pleased with it. It's the best car I have ever owned. I am looking at a 2001 s80 for my wife to drive and have heard of transmission failures being more common in these cars. Was told the trans was made by GM and is not totaly reliable like my 850. (I am also a chevy truck nut). This is a non-turbo 2.9l and is in good to excelent shape. I realize nothing is unbreakable but do not want a problematic car evenif it is a Volvo. Any thoughts??

Mbnorris · Post by **Mbnorris** » 16 Mar 2011, 14:21

I have a 2001 S80 T6 Executive and did a lot research before I made the purchase. It seems that most of the tranny problems were on the 99-00 models. It seems that every time someone put one in the shop to have the tranny fixed the dealership replaced the upper motor mount and front lower right. Due to these not lasting it cause the motor to torque or rotate more than it should causing tranny problems. Yes the S80 can be expensive to maintain but normal maintenance goes a long way.

Post by **boosted5cyl** » 16 Mar 2011, 16:42

Its not so much that the trannys are weak perse, but moreso that the 2.8 T6 puts out 286Ftlbs from 1800-5600RPM (or thereabouts). The max limit for the tranny GM is the same figure. Furthermore, they are expensive to rebuild and use a slightly different valve body than the vanilla GM 4T65 that its based on that can be found in the impala. Failure is less of a problem with the 2.9 N/A as it doesnt put out anywhere near as much power or torque.

The other issue with the S80 vs the older gen volvos its its reliance on complex and very expensive to repair/replace electronics. The ETM is just the beginning, lights, turns signals, interior lights, radio, climate control etc all rely on computers to function. The ECM and CEM if they go bad will cost you four figures each at the minimum. A lot of parts cant just be swapped out at will with the S80, often they have to be configured to the CAN bus and this must be done at the dealer.

If you can stomach this, then the S80 might be the car for you. The T6 offers very good peformance and the S80 has some of the best seats in the business.