Richard;

I have been a Volvo person for 35 years. My three sons and I presently own 8 Volvos from 1983 to 2001. Take this in context when you read what I write here.

My wife and I have two Volvos which we share; a '94 850 turbo with 205k kms and a '01 V70 T5 with 8000 kms. We live in Toronto.

The 850 is the best Volvo I have owned so far and it is much better than anything else I have driven, rental cars, test drives, etc. There have been some troubles, battery, AC evaporator.(More on this later; much of what has been written is not very accurate.) It has been driven across the country every year and never a let down or a break down. This week the MIL came on for the very first time ever. Front knock sensor. I reset it and will watch it for a while before I do anything else.

The V70 is only 2 months old so not very many kms to judge by and not much experience. We did do a fast trip to PEI over a five day weekend; a very fine touring car. However, it is the first car I have ever purchased, Volvo or other, which has not had to go back to the shop for anything in its first 8000 kms. It is my first auto tx car; the geartronic seems very nice but does not shift as well as I do(no auto tx does) but that is just a personal preference; it is much better than any other auto tx which I have driven.

Volvos need good maintenance on a regular basis; otherwise little things very quickly become big, expensive things. Many do not get it. Then people have a tendency to blame the car when perhaps they should spread the blame around.

I suggest that you believe your own feelings and experience after test drives etc.

Hope this helps.

Robert A. Froebel