Bought my 99 C70 used. Never a problem, until April of this year. One small glitch while opening, was able to reclose. Now it has been to dealer 5 times, I have paid over $600.00 and was able to use three times. Now it is sitting in my garage, with toneau cover open (I cant get to work that I need to do that is in the trunk), back windo all the way up and front of top about 6" ubove windshield. Have it stuck in many positions of open and closed in the last month, have been stranded in parking lots more times that I care to count. I have looked everywhere, and it seems most convertible owners are not having this problem. Any suggestions from anybody on where I can get it looked at in Southern California, Riverisde area. My dealer has had my care more than me in the last 2 months. Please, I love my car, but am tired of being paranoid to open the top it is a convertible after all.

sorry to hear that BUT C70 convertables were THE worst car Volvo has built to date IMHO. You're not alone in that many '98/'99 convertables are equally troublesome.
The # reason is that it's electronics are way too sensitive, the body flexes which causes problems to that system AND to top it all off, Volvos diagnostics and troubleshooting info for TRYING to repair those is terrible, to say the least.

What would I do? I'd get it fixed to function (again) and sell it ASAP! I'm not kidding, they're THAT bad. Things will only get worse and then the material will rub through (VERY costly to replace) and the side windows will also eventually break as well (ALL C70s have that defect), yet another very costly ordeal.

Frank,

Thanks for the word of warning. You saved one person (ME!) from experiencing yet another Volvo Nightmare.

I had a S70 that was a total pile of junk but thought that I might be able to put up with the car being unreliable if it were not a "daily driver". A convertible top is a critical system (almost like landing gear on a plane). The c70's are starting to drop into the low 30's and a 5speed high pressure turbo would be a nice car.

Its really pathetic that Volvo could not get their top design right. When Mercedes released the r129 SL one could have perhaps seen design issues like Volvo 's C70 since it was the first fully automatic top of its kind. Considering that the C70 top is almost a carbon copy of the MB and BMW convertible top's design they could have perhaps "gotten it right" :).

Its a shame since its such a nice car.

Perhaps if someone was motivated enough they could "override" the sensors within the top mechanism and just "manually" deploy the motors with a series of rocker switches. I wonder if it would be possible to install such a system under a seat somewhere in the event that a sensor goes whacky and you can get it through a "cycle" manually and it might start working manually again. I might consider one if I could "re-engineer" the top with some manual overrides. Perhaps an idea for some fustrated C70 owners out there.

Robert Chase.

It's WAY too complicated to be simply over-ridden by anyone. It's best to just not buy one, period. The cars are nightmares and I don't want to work on them at all anymore BUT I'm not given that choice.....YET. If I had a week of more than one coming my way for repairs, I'd quit working on Volvos (and that's after almost 20 yrs now). They're THAT bad and practically irrepairable IMO. I have no patience to work on things that are not really repairable as it becomes a no win situation.

I would contact the sales person you bought the car from. Explain your situation and let them know that if the problem is not fixed, you will do everything in your power to keep people from buying cars from his dealership. If there is no responce try the sales manager. Then the owner. When you get the home phone number of the owner of the dealership, they begin to listen. I had a few issues with my used 1998 S70T5(had to change the spark plugs one week after buying the car because it did not run). Once I let the owner of West County Volvo here in St. Louis know about my problems, while he was at home, my problems were taken care of. Play hard ball. You've got a nice, and expensive used car. Would they lay down if you forgot to send a payment?
DO NOT LET THEM WIN!

THEY only sold the car, Volvo built it. The dealer can only TRY to fix a bad situation that they did not create, THEY didn't build the car.
IMO, C70 convertables can never be truely "fixed" for long.
If I had one and had to keep it, it'd be left with its top down (ONLY) and never driven, parked outside on rainy days or have anything of value kept inside.