Find out before you buy WHICH "extended warranty" company is behind the contract your ocal Volvo dealer is flogging this week. There is a VERY high dealer markup on the sale of these, and your dealer may switch from one to the other for the sole reason that the newer one pays him a bigger commission. Then check with the service people ( who will always tell you that it isn't their fault that the repair contract the used car sales folks sold you doesn't cover anything) to see what they'll tell you about the pissed off ex-customers they have had who had to pay for engine teardowns in order to be told that the problem found was not covered (or that it may be a couple of weeks before they hear back from the "warranty" folks), and then had to pay to put the engine back together or for a whole "new" engine because the dealer did not do "rebuilds".

Do not assume that just because you bought the "extended warranty" at the Volvo shop that Volvo or the dealer will help you when things go sour, even if what you bought was a used Volvo that had previously been maintained by that dealer's service department. The service department will take no responsibility for any misrepresentations made by the sales department. Unfortunately, in most states this is not considered to be "insurance" regulated by the state insurance commission/department or there would be a lot cheaper and better (or at least less misleading) contracts.

I'm too pissed to go into coherent detail right now, but just came back from a whole day in the highly-respected Volvo dealer's waiting room where all of these issues and more came into play, including a suggestion that I just top up the oil and take the car Somewhere Else and trade it without mentioning the problem.

For the cost of the bogus "warranty " I could have bought a complete set of the green books and all the tools and parts!

Good luck Caveat emptor