Well, actually I have spent a lot of years in dealerships but I have been running my own independent Volvo repair for the past 6 years.

Nope, not spring seats causing the buzz. With the vehicle at idle, in gear, foot on the brake going 0 MPH the entire left front fender would buzz like a hornet. If you reached up inside the wheel well a put your hand on the spring it was the obvious culprit. The spring seats were not what you would call blown out, but they had started to tear out on both sides. In talking to fellow Volvos techs I found a few that said they had run across it and one of them said that the one he'd seen in fact had a brand new set of Monroes on it. Coincidence? I think not. I even tried insulating the springs with a coil and a halfs worth of rubber hose as this was mentioned in a Volvo master tech note and it fixed the car for almost 10 whole days. I stuffed in the Boges probably 8-10 months ago and all is well.

Tire stores I find to be a necessary evil. I do not have nor do I want the area to stock tires and the prerequisite equipment to handle it.

I hear you about the expense of a dealership, but dammit somebody has to pay for that over head, right? Just kidding. Look at the second post in this thread, that guys indy wanted $350.00 in labor for two struts and align! Ouch, I would've charged 2 hours for the struts (140.00) and another 1.5 for the 4 wheel align (105.00), that is $100.00 less. Looks like his indy is charging somewhere in the area of $100.00 an hour. Good for them if they can get it. I know there is one that is maybe 5 miles from my front door that charges 99.00 per hour and is the biggest indy around.

Mark