JL,

Knew this would happen, original post two or three weeks ago. My bad.

Anyway, the "spotting" refers to the leather giving way to "black spots" that were showing through the leather as the leather wore down. These spots were most predominent at "2 o'clock". I really can't explain it any better than that, but yes there was a "stickiness" to the end result.

My understanding, and this goes back at least six or seven months, is that the entire steering wheel has to be replaced as the leather wrap is hand-stitched onto the steering wheel. This is per somebody else on the board, don't recall who and I never verified the info.

Volvo did replace the entire steering wheel. As to whether Volvo would do the same for your vehicle given that it is a bit out of warrenty - don't know, but the worst that can happen is that they say "no".

If you search back to previous posts, there was a message about six or seven months ago where somebody successfully got Volvo to make the replacement, and then some more posts where people got turned down. In short - I mentioned it to my dealer at the 30K servicing and was advised that Volvo had determined that they will not take responsibility for the spotting. I then received a call about a month ago from the dealer stating to bring the car in for the replacement, as Volvo had a change of policy.

Probably worth looking into.