Hello...new to this board, and glad to have found it.

I have recently purchased my first Volvo, a 1998 S70 base model, after driving my father's 1990 740GL for a few years, and I'm very happy with my own example of "The Last Of The Bricks." Here's the story:

I purchased this car as a "Volvo Certified" used Volvo, which was explained to me as essentially an extension of the factory warranty. In my case, this gives me until about June to get anything except brakes and tires fixed at the dealership with the truly unbelievable deductable of $50/visit. Being a poor student, I'm compiling a list of everything I want fixed and plan on getting it all taken care of with one visit closer to June. So far, this is what I have:

1. The antenna goes up only half of the way. I've yet to grease it or even look it over particularly, and actually I prefer the look to the towering aerial that fully-functioning antennas have. However, a friend of mine advised me that dealerships, when doing antenna service, tend to just replace the whole works, including the motor, rather than waste their time trying to rethread a new component. I figure it's worth it to get them to fix the antenna on the hope that they'll put in a new motor and I won't have to worry about it ever again.

2. The trunk seems to not latch completely at its own descretion. If I unlock the car with the key fob, the open trunk light will be on approximately 1/3 of the times I start the car. It never flies open or anything...could this be a faulty latch, perhaps opening when I open all four doors with the Unlock button?

3. The replace bulb light comes on about half of the times I start the car, even though all bulbs are working from my own inspection.

4. The vinyl on one of the rear door panels is separating from the frame. I've read on this board that this is a common problem and usually expensive and time-consuming to fix. I *think* this is covered by the Certified warranty, and I guess I might as well get it taken care of if it is...if anyone knows otherwise, I'd appreciate the input.

5. There's some squeaking somewhere near the driver's side--must be a loose panel or something. Not a big deal, but it's somewhat irritating.

I'm also using the window motors judiciously enough to give them a reasonable shot of burning out now, if they're going to, rather than later.

So, if anyone has any experience with the Certified Warranty, I'd certainly appreciate hearing about their experience. If anyone knows of anything else that I might not be immediately seeing that I should check out before I go in for this service visit, I'd really appreciate it. I bought the car with just 65k on it, and I really do plan on having it up to the big 200k (knock on wood).

Thanks for getting through this lengthy post,
Nat