Does anyone else look at this list of topics with dread?

[BlackBart]

Every day or so, I scan down the list of topics and maladies and disasters ....and I think Dear Gawd look at all the things that go wrong on this car!!

Or....am I looking at the stats wrong? The number of people who post on a car forum is a fraction of the people who read a car forum, and they are a fraction of the number of people who drive this car?

Maybe most of the maladies are just taken care of at a dealer for full retail....?

So these are freak things going wrong on these cars? Normal wear and tear that gets mentioned, and none of the ones that run perfectly are ever mentioned? Older cars where lack of maintenance has finally caught up with them?

I really need to trust this car.

[IslandV70]

I share the dread. I just bought a V70 against my better judgment. I have had enough Euro cars to know better than to play check engine light bingo again, but here I am.
OTOH - *Any* car forum is full of tales of horrendous woe. "My car started and drove fine" is rarely post-worthy, but "my car blew up and launched my mother-in-law across the yard" is post worthy. If it helps any, the worst car with the most problems I ever owned was a Toyota Camry and I had an MG that never had one electrical issue ever.

[BlackBart]

.... and I had an MG that never had one electrical issue ever.

I SO love to hear these stories! My Fiat 124 ran fine with my idiot 22-year old idea of maintenance. My Alfa spider started every single day in the pouring rain in Seattle for many many years.

[Rattnalle]

I bought mine at 280000 km. I've really only done stuff that I wanted to or preventative maintenance to it for 60000 km now. Nothing has really actually broken. It just runs on. The S80 before was the same for 50000 km before I realised I need a wagon.

Engine light bingo is a VW and Audi game

[IslandV70]

This is actually my third Volvo if you include family. My father had a 740 Turbo that I got and then passed on to my brother. It never died totally - it always would start - and was wicked fast for a big brick and towed all kinds of things. It was a dealer demo and they had somehow modified it for considerable extra power - and fuel consumption! At 130 MPH or over I swear you could watch the gas gauge go down. That said, it was constantly falling apart in annoying ways. The headliner fell down, interior parts fell off, the tail light lenses came apart every few months, and one day while wearing a nice suit some rubber part melted in the air conditioner and sprayed black molten rubber glue on my nice clothes. That said it had well over 200,000 miles on it when sold and would still drive pretty fast. Almost forgot, warped many a brake rotor for some reason.
My mother had a 2000 V70 XC that was a Volvo CPO and they swore the weird noises it made were totally normal at 99,000 miles and then at 101,000 mile the center differential gave out because it was bone dry inside. So sorry - warranty is up - pay $3500. Then it started blowing oil past the main seal on long drives. It got sold right after that. I met a Volvo USA employee at a Volvo Ocean Race event and he told me "Well yeah, that year had issues. Don't get another one of those".

[ashgoldS60]

The Volvos before the P2 series had a reputation of long life and reliability. That all goes out the window with the P2's. I have a 2001 S60 and have replaced more stuff than on any other car I have owned in my lifetime. Anyone who buys one better be a decent home mechanic or financially well off because these cars are not cheap to repair. Sure,some folks will say they have had little trouble and the car is great but as you can tell from this forum there are a LOT of failures. That's how I have fixed everything on mine, someone before me has had the same trouble and posted on here. It's a fun community if you have that warped sense where you like solving your own problems without shelling out cash to a mechanic.

[BlackBart]

It's tempting for me to think back to the simple cars that didn't have troubles and were so reliable.....but let's examine the facts -

My high school Ford Bronco project was rolled over in Alaska and the engine was completely shot. I put a Ford reman 302 in it, replaced fenders, and had it painted at Earl Scheib for $49.95! It ran great after that, although it had big chips in the ring gears in both diffs. Coil died on a dark road.

My Ford Capri V6 ran great except when the Parts Man sold me 6 Champion spark plugs with the same number on them, but different length electrodes! Lucky it didn't hit something inside. Ran on 4 or 5 cylinders all the way across Wyoming. I tuned and fussed trying to fix that. "Can't be the plugs, they're brand new!"

1970 Fiat 124 Spider - I rescued it from an empty lot. No back window, snow it in. It was a mess. The electrical system had been messed up with speaker wires to nowhere, duplicate dash switches hidden behind it. But it drove all winter in Montana, and made it to Seattle, although with only 1 out of 5 gears left. Sold it cheap, and someone was there in 10 minutes to buy it.

My second 124 Spider ran well in the rain in Seattle. I burned a valve and learned how to replace a cylinder head in a gravel driveway. One time it would NOT start in the rain, in a mall parking lot, no matter what I did. It seems there were two different distributors for that motor, and they had sold me the wrong rotor, so it wouldn't reach the contact and only weak spark was getting through - not the cars fault. "It can't be the cap and rotor, they're brand new!"

My Alfa Spider always ran well. Starter failed. I rebuilt the generator once. Suspension eventually wore out. I pulled the head to put hardened steel seats in when regular gas went away. I still have it, over 30 years later. It's so simple - I don't understand the fear of Italian cars.

My Ford Ranger pickup was a POS! Last of the carbureted V6's, all kinds of vacuum lines everywhere and solenoids on the carburetor. Never ran right, mixture was never right, spent a lot of money for other people to make it worse. Good riddance.

The '79 Scirocco was OK. It melted its alternator harness in the middle of the night in the middle of Eastern Washington. No headlights, no spark, no drive home. It did this twice. It also quit cold on my wife inside a one-lane freeway tunnel in downtown Seattle. Something electrical.

The '84 245T wagon we'd still have if an old guy with dementia hadn't plowed into it sitting at our curb. Sad story. It imploded the turbo once, out in the sticks near Spokane. Tow trucks, rental cars. I upgraded to water-cooled. But other than normal maintenance, it was a great car.

The 850T wagon was a reliable car, and went really everywhere with us. I once had the rear main seal replaced, which was an expensive job. After that is when I started to do most maintenance. It had various sensors and doodads quit over the years, but nothing major.

Speaking of VW issues....my lovely ice car the Audi A4 wagon...blew up its engine (in Wyoming) at 130,000mi, because they designed an oil system with only 3.7 quarts, and packaging that held a ton of heat on key components, and previous owners let it sludge up. I put a new used engine in it and replaced all systems, and it's fine, but I never forgave it and I don't trust it. So complicated. For sale in the spring.

My son's BMW E30 coupe was a $1000 tow-home project. We've done a lot of work on it, but that 30 yr old car goes everywhere, loaded down with bikes and kids on 1000mi trips. My other son's $700 Range Rover Classic was a throw-up-your-hands frustration that we finally gave up on.

And now the XC70. When we got it it was maintained well but not loved, not a member of the family like Volvo wagons become.
So I'm starting to get it up to snuff so we can keep it - I hope.

[IslandV70]

.... and I had an MG that never had one electrical issue ever.

I SO love to hear these stories! My Fiat 124 ran fine with my idiot 22-year old idea of maintenance. My Alfa spider started every single day in the pouring rain in Seattle for many many years.

My MG never had one electrical issue and both my Mercedes were electrical nightmares and one of them I bought brand new

[abscate]

Many, many more lurkers than posters. We typically run15-30 guests via registered users.

Any car forum attracts people with problems. The classic " it was running great then stopped" is someone who has run the car like an appliance and now has to pay deferred maintenance.

Im running six cars between 1999-2006 , driving an aggregate total of 55,000 miles per year, and my total parts bill is about $2000 per year on average. The Volvos are in line with the BMW and VW makes , even though the T5 gets the heaviest use, at 22k, it got an extensive PM work through at 160k, it is one of the cheaper ones to own now. I use 95% Volvo parts from FCP because June says so.

I'm confess I'm in a quandary to sell because at 222k it runs so well I think it has another 50k in it easily, and that P80'seat is such a dream it makes wagging the five gears in the city worth it.

The P2 is a much more refined chassis than the P80 imho.

The horror stories here are the poor souls who buy a $1000 car and hear the deadly siren song of the beautiful fit and finish on these cars, then find they have a $3000 work bill needed for deferred stuff. You can't fix them with tape and scissors and 250k life parts aren't cheap.

[850 LPT]

I think what you are seeing when you go down the list of topics is only natural. People come here with problems and are seeking answers. That is the primary purpose of these forums I believe.

But don't let that discourage you. As was said above, these cars can be a real joy to drive and to own when properly maintained.
None of the Volvo's I own right now have had any serious problems so far. I try to stay on top of the maintenance which I believe pays off.
My 96' 850 for instance with 105k has not had any of the typical problems yet and I get a smile on my face every time I drive it, it literally drives like new. Sometimes I even get a whiff of new car smell in there. OK that's probably just my imagination.
But even my daughters 04' V70 with now 219k on it is still running fantastic. I just put some serious money into it for some maintenance stuff, but to me it's all worth it. The things drives incredibly well still.

Bottom line? If you buy a used Volvo that has been well maintained, and you keep up the maintenance, you will be a happy Volvo owner

Dirk