EEK!

Glad to get this info.

So I will be looking for a non-awd, 99 or 00 (can't afford the 01).

Hopefully I can find a vehicle with under 50K miles still on warranty.

Thanks,

Steve

1999 V70 USA model, 5-spd, non-turbocharged engine, front wheel drive. This car has been almost trouble free, but we specifically bought it with minimal options and the 2-wheel drive. I'd recommend the 5-speed, but it may be hard to find. If you buy an automatic, check the maintenance records to see if the previous owner changed the transmission fluid. No maintenance records? Don't even think of buying it. Do pay for an independent mechanic to inspect the car. Good luck and enjoy.

I own a 2000 V70 AWD. It's my wife's car and she loves it. We live in the Puget Sound area and use the AWD for ski trips and the occasional snow that messes up the area. The AWD works just fine. There are some tire circumference issues that can be exacerbated by tire pressure. For $13 I bought tire pressure gauge valve caps that show me when the tire pressure falls below a certain range. Quick, easy and cheap. For $100 I bought an air compressor from Home Depot to make it easier to keep the tires up to snuff. There is some kind of software fix that began in 1999. In other words some upgrades can be done by a software upgrade. 1998's cannot. As with any used car it seems the first 6 months can be difficult acclimating to the new car and getting things fixed. We bought the 2000 from a local Volvo dlr and it carried the Volvo certified warranty. Get an extended warranty. The engine performance of the AWD is somewhat muted but I can live with that and besides that the wife does not complain about things like that.

MY 98 AWD HAS BEEN FINE OTHER THAN A DIF GASKET AND A DOOR ACTUATOR (123 KILO)LOVE IT IN THE SNOW AND ICE !
dEN IN sASKATCHEWAN

See the surveys at Kino's Volvo site http://kinovolvo.velez.ws/ and Bay 13's http://www.volvospeed.com/volvo_performance.php repair procedures for the common problems/failues.

Over the past 1 1/2 years or about 40,000 miles I've replaced the ABS controller, SC816, AC evaporator, thermostat, heat exchanger, rotors, then a brake caliper and ANOTHER rotor (seized), struts & shocks, ignition switch and an ipd stabilizer bar that "snapped"... and various other minor (under $50) bits and pieces.

No worse than my Saabs were but it's no Toyota! Unusual for a car with over 100k on the clock? Probably not.

Consumer Reports says to avoid the AWD vesions. I would, too.

It's still GREAT in the snow with snow tires.

I like it enough that I just bid on one sight-unseen on e-bay for my daughter. A sense of sheer panic came over me when, with 3 minutes to go, I thought I had bought it! Then a sense of relief when I found out I had NOT! :)

-Punx

Hi Steve,
Welcome to the group. You should also access Volvospeed.com, particularly their message boards, and their Bay 13 write-ups on lots of common volvo maintenance items. We have an MB, a BMW, and four current Volvo's (two are rear wheel drive traditional Bricks, and two are FWD / AWD. We have a '98 V70 Cropss Country (XC) with AWD, and love it. At 78k, it's only non-maintenance item has been the air pump getting water logged and burning out, which is one of the common complaints you will see. There are a number of other fairly common complaints as well, particularly relating to electrical items like the PNP switch (safety interlock), and a number of instances where the A/C evaporator leaks, which is a big deal for those it happens to. On teh other hand, virtually no-one has all of teh common failures on any given car, and many of us seem to avoid mowt of them ;-) As with MB, I fully believe that many of the common issues relate to poor dealer service and can be avoided by finding a really good indipendant shop that is both trustworthy and knowledgeable (tough in some markets), and then keep9ng scheduled and preventatibve service right up to snuff. For your target range '98 to '00, consensus seems to be that later is better. However, there also seem to be various issues related to the '99 on transmissions which are different than the prior versions. Also, AWD has had some issues particularly related to teh bevel gears on the earlier cars. My impression is that these have a lot to do with running mismatched tires, since that AWD technology seems to be very sensitive to tire matching. Our '98 is trouble including AWD so far, but I think I am most suspicious of teh longevity of that system over the rest of the car based on feedback. 2001 and on uses a different AWD system, so perhaps Volvo had similar concerns. Note however, that the '98 is my wife's car, who is a totally non-car person. It is the only car we have ever owned that she praises voluntarily with no prodding. She just loves the sense of absolute security she feels with it. Given that we run four snow tires on all of the cars including the AWD, the '98 really is incredibly sure footed in any kind of inclement weather (we're in the Boston area, with a ski house in northern Maine).
Best of luck with your decisions,
Mike
--
Mike Sullivan ('91 745 (171k), '93 965 (147k), '95 855T (60k), '98 V70XC (78k). Past Volvo's: '85 744 (256k), '86 245 (165k), '86 245 (195k), '88 745 (208k).