I do most of my repairs myself. However, I broke down (literally) and took my Volvo to an indepent shop when I screwed up my CIS system. They have a fetish for brake master cylinder replacements. They also said that my fuel injectors were leaking and needed cleaning for $250. I found no leaks and cleaned the injectors by hand in one hour flat.

My qustion is: when should I take the car to an independent Volvo shop vs a general auto repair place? I presume that the latter is cheaper, though may have trouble with exotic/Volvo peculiar problems, such as funky electrical problems. For instance, thanks to this bulletin board, when my temperature and fuel gauges stopped working, I immediately knew that the voltage stabilizer was faulty. I replaced it in ten minutes. I doubt that a general shop would have known that trick.