It has been ten years since we went to Sweden to pick up our V70XC. Who woulda guessed that we would still be driving the same car almost 200,000 miles later?

The hardest part was making all those specific decisions about the car, e.g. sunroof or no sunroof. At first, we chose no sunroof since we live in the southwest and worried about the failure of rubber gaskets/seals. Never having owned a new Volvo, we read that the average age of Volvos on the road in the US was 18.5 years. We didn't think the sunroof would last that long, so the initial order was no sunroof. Then, looking at the price we were paying (2002 remember), the car would be worth more than we paid for it when we finally got it home, even though it would be used and have a few miles on it. We were able to add the sunroof at the last minute before production, thinking we would go back to Goteborg every three years or so and the sunroof would enhance resale/trade-in. Wrong on every count. We still have the car, and the sunroof hasn't been an issue.

Every once in a while we face a maintenance issue. Current issue is ac on driver side but not on passenger side. Every time one comes up, we hit the forums, decide on the best strategy and resolve the issue. Every time we do, we are convinced that keeping the car is well worth the effort and expense. In the meantime, we continue to think about our next visit to the Factory Delivery Center, maybe next year?

So, thanks to all of you here on the site, thanks to those special folks at the FDC, and thanks to Volvo.