Depressing confirmation of what I assumed would happen when Volvo went to FWD. Strip away all the marketing fluff, and FWD is about building cars more cheaply, with costs deferred until repairs are needed.

It does not take many days of reading BB to hear about lots of people doing self-repair on RWD models. FWD discussions trend more toward "I just paid $xxxx to have yyyy procedure done, was I ripped off?", often as a repeat performance, with these issues revolving around weak peripheral engine parts buried deeply in the cheap-to-manufacture monolithic drive package.

Anyway, if you're a Volvo enthusiast there's a Ford in your future once the supply of authentic Volvo automobiles dries up. Look to Saab for the final depressing outcome.