The lower clamp holding the radiator hose to the radiator became so corroded that it broke (just before the hose came off and all the coolant drained itself on a rainy night when my wife was quite a ways from the house). The band on the top hose clamp is quite corroded as well, and the screw mechanism is so corroded that it will never turn again. This V70 is 6 years old. We live in an area where salt is used on roads in winter.

My questions:

1. Has anyone else had their original equipment clamps fail like this?

2. What is going to fail next because of rust?

3. Is it because of stuff like this or the every couple of years replacement of rear brake/parking brake mechanisms because of rust or is it because of other problems like AC evaporator failures that only 32% of Volvo owners replace them with other Volvos?

4. Is the Ford Freestyle likely to be any less troublesome than a Volvo?

5. Does the Ford Freestyle, with its Volvo platform, have swaybar links like the Volvo? They have for us been another regular failure problem, just like the regular failures of the radio and the regular electronic missed shifts with the transmission.

6. Has anyone else put a board under the seat to correct failure of the wimpy seat construction?