Perhaps I am just unlucky. Last year my 1993 940 had to have the turbo replaced. The car looked like it was on fire from all the smoke it was blowing. Other than that it was running fairly well with a busted turbo. If you've ever had to replace one of these, you know that it isn't cheap. The car only had 116,000 miles on it though.

I eventually retired this car to "extra car" status and bought a 2001 S40 turbo last JUne (pre-owned). It was what I could afford to pay cash for and I wanted a more compact car. Woe is me, with 55,000 miles on it, the turbo needs replacing. To me, that is unacceptable in the reliability category.

I know my cars very well and the mechanics were spot on in diagnosing both cases. The oil is changed religiously and I always let the car idle before shutting it off to allow the bearings in the compressor to slow down so it is not racked by lack of oil pressure to keep them lubricated which isn't good for the turbo. I don't drive them "hard" and they are well maintained overall.

The '93 makes sense, the '01 S40 doesn't. Volvo's enjoy a reputation of being reliable cars, so I am very surprised that this happened. The 940 I can understand, but the S40 truly shocks me. Are Volvo turbos just bad? Weak? What's the deal? Any feedback would be much appreciated.

I have contacted Volvo to get their take on this and they responded promptly, but were not terribly concerned. And of course, the warranty expired at 48,000 miles-urghhhhh.