Began to go wrong? The day it rolled out of the dealership. Seriously.

But I hope I didn't leave the impression that the car is awful, it's not. It's not really been much worse than either of my Saabs or Porsche. I've lived with it for 6+ years and giving it to my daughter. It's fast, fun to drive and practical. Great seats, too.

I should add that at 132,000 miles the car still uses absolutely NO oil between changes, the clutch is original and the transmission still shifts like brand new. Mechanically the car has been pretty good. The majority of the problems have been electrical things. (I add that it's always been "babied' as far as maintenance, by-the-book or better. And I have had zero failures that could have been avoided by routine maintenance.)

Many problems that have not been electrical have been things that are not unreasonable to fail over time but have been poorly placed for service. An example is the AC evaporator that requires removing the dashboard to replace. I'm not as annoyed by the evaporator failure as I am by the fact that it takes an experienced tech an entire day to fix it. Another annoyance that is part of the design is that there are an awful lot of vulnerable underbody components. I hit a piece of flying semi tractor tire and the resulting bill was close to $3000. None of that was for paintwork, all was for the fragile components placed under the front of the car. The other two cars - a 940 and a Cherokee - that the tire hit pulled over, inspected for damage and drove off. My car earned a flatbed ride home.

Although I think that much of the 850-70 design was inspired, there were a lot of things the Volvo engineers really didn't think through completely.

It's been a fun car and I still enjoy driving it, but....

-Samurai Jack



'98 V70T5M, 132k mi. (Yes, 132,000+, and there are 850-70s around with 200,000+), iPd stabilizer bars, Volvo strut tower brace and skidplate, Bilstein HD struts and shocks, Valentine-1, Mobil-1 always, E-code headlight lenses, Michelin Arctic Alpins

"If you don't change your beliefs, your life will be like this forever. Is that good news?" -Douglas Noel Adams (1952-2001)