The FWD Volvos contain a lot of things that can only be serviced by the dealer. (Computer codes that cannot be extracted by a generic scan tool). If you do your own work, you will find this extremely frustrating. Volvo no longer publishes printed service manuals. For a while, the only option was to pay >$1,000 for an online subscription to the factory manuals, but now you can get a subscription to the same information from www.alldatadiy.com for $25 / year.

The 1999 S80s had a lot of first-year problems. You would be better off avoiding them. I have a 1999 V70T5 with 5 speed manual. It has been an OK car. (65,000 miles so far). The things that have gone wrong would have been very expensive if not under warranty (MAP sensor ~ $800, and electronic throttle body ~ $700).

All cars today are much more reliable than they were in the 1980s, but they are also more troublesome. How can this be? Mechanically, they tend to be just fine. But, the electronics are so complicated that any little thing can seem like a problem. Volvos are no better nor worse than most any other car.