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And a contrarian view.
We bought a 2000 S-80 Turbo new, and it now has 35K miles. The only problems have been: A noisy wheel bearing, which was replaced, and a bad AM radio antenna connection. Finding and fixing the AM antenna problem took several trips, but it was fixed, thanks to a persistent service manager. Otherwise it has functioned perfectly. I've owned a 1984 240, a 1988 740 and a 1996 960, and all had comparable problems when new and all were fixed.
It has tremendous pickup, is a wonderful road car and it gets almost 30mpg on the highway. The programmed transmission shift pattern is far more responsive than the one on the 960. And the transition between gears is smooth. I've got to wonder if personal driving habits with a powerful engine don't have something to do with transmission problems.
As with most new cars, the S80 uses onboard computers to control many functions. The long term viability of those computers is an issue for Volvo cars as much as it is an issue for any other maker. LCD displays are another potential problem area...they will begin to degrade and instrument displays will ultimately stop working. Thirty years from now, replacements may be nonexistent, and we may have a generation of cars (not just Volvo's) at the junkyard.
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