Suede wears fine, except where the previous owner got in and out...a small patch where his saggy butt has worn the suede smooth. I haven't added to the problem in the 2yrs I've owned the car.

The cd/cass/fm kicks @$$ for a stock radio - way better than the Bose unit in my friend's Infiniti and whatever's in his Lexus. The sound is balanced and fabulous in my 6-speaker setup. Get a Cincinnatti Pops recording of your movie themes (Batman, Star Wars, etc), put it in the changer and have a listen. You'll be totally impressed. Fun recordings, too.

What I don't like is that you can't just eject the old CD and slip in a new one , as in the typical, mail-slot type players...you've got to eject the cartridge and wait for it to go through it's machinations before it coughs up the cartridge, following which you have to fumble with it to make changes. This can be tres inconveniént. And once every couple weeks, it goes into vapor lock and has difficulty ejecting the cartridge, requiring me to make several passes at convincing it to get the job done.

Finally, I share the every reviewer's critique of most car stereos (not just Volvo) - too many frickin buttons, makes simple tasks difficult. The stereo is not the place to make the car look like an airplane cockpit, because unlike an airplane pilot, I have to keep my eyes on the road all the time. (Newer Volvos are much, much better in this regard...but now the cars are overdesigned.)