1998 XC, what did she get me into? Topic is solved

[berkshire]

Well she did it! After two years of talking about it my wife went out and bought a used 1998 XC wagon this past July.
We are of modest income and I've said all along Volvos=$$$$ in repair bills, she never listens to me I'm not "into" fixing cars nor do I pretend to know any thing about cars but it just seemed to me that if anything needed to be fixed on a Volvo we'd be eating Mac n Cheese from the month.
Now that I've found this site I'm really concern that we've made a big mistake. Did we? or is it because this is the place to talk about volvo problems and actually they are great cars?
The car has been running since July but now the mileage has dropped to around 13 in town.

[rainman]

If you are looking for a general judgement on V70s/850s, then comments made elsewhere on this site are probably accurate..i.e Honda are not going to lose sleep. The one thing that gets forgotton is that they are incredibly strong,versatile and tough cars. Mines is a 95 850 2.5 wagon which for 4 years was used as touring van for a band. In between doing that, it tows other peoples cars around (not Volvo's!). Just completed driving 1300 miles through France complete with full complement of passengers, roofbox, and 4 bikes on the towbar mounted carrier- no problems. Torquey motor (mine is normally aspirated 2.5) helps, and it has just gone in for it's first clutch change (143,000) miles. Apart from the battery, I have replaced nothng else. I reckon that's pretty reliable, considering the weatehr here is rain, rain and more rain. Parts are not the cheapest, and OEM are pretty widely available elsewhere (i.e Continental coolant hoses etc...)
I'd buy another one...