2005 XC70 experience to date

[jonk]

Hey there--

Just wanted to share my experience with our 2005 XC70 since we picked it up this past April. Any feedback would be welcome.

Generally, we've been really pleased. This is our second Volvo--the first was a 2003 V40 that was near flawless. We just decided that AWD (after last winter here in the Northeast), more room for our dog and a nav system were things we wanted to have as soon as possible. So... we traded in the V40 and managed a good overall deal on a loaded black/graphite 2005 XC70 (nav, premium, climate, xenons, premium audio, wood steering wheel, Xenia alloys, etc.).

Thankfully, like our last Volvo, we have had no major problems (about 2300 miles to date). But two relatively minor problems have materialized; they're more annoying than anything else.

The first issue is a creaking noise around the shifter that's mostly audible when accelerating and braking in stop-and-go traffic. We put around 11K miles on our V40 and it remained relatively vault-like the entire time. But this is pretty loud and I find a bit embarrasing for a car that stickered at roughly $47K. Even my wife notices, and she normally tunes this type of thing out and leaves the nit-pick worrying to me. I will have the dealer address this during our first service.

My second issue is with the paint. We have had one small bug "stain" and one small bird dropping on the front of the hood that remained on the car for more than a day (the former for four or five days and the latter for one night). Both ate through the clear coat a bit so that you can see rough/uneven spots in direct sunlight. As our car remains parked in an indoor garage and nothing bakes into the paint in the sun (I also have Zymol-ed the whole thing at least twice already), I would think I should be able to go to bed and not have to deal with it until a day or two later.

I was only able to minimze the marks after quite a bit of polishing with scratch remover. The spots remain rough/uneven and are still noticeable in direct sunlight. As this is a pure black car, I did expect higher maintenance with the paint, but this seems a bit extreme. Our V40 was a metallic black and I never noticed extreme sensitivity like this. Again, I will have the dealer address this during our first service (they have they're own body shop)--I think they just need to polish that area a bit with an orbital polisher and compound. They might make me pay for it, but I'll make my displeasure with the paint's performance so far quite clear.

Anyhow, other than that, we continue to be truly pleased with past and present Volvo products (and dealers), and I see many more Volvo purchases down the road.

Thanks for reading (and posting). I will continue to share my experiences along the way... now that I've found this site.

Regards,
JonK

[John@CdnRockies]

Welcome to the site Jonk. You should find lots of help here when/if your Volvo does start to give problems. Our rig has 30,000 km on it and has perfofrmed pretty well throughout that period.

I bought ours for the comfort factor. The seats in the XC fit me like a glove, making the 1,000 km commute to the country place a pleasure.

Btw, I've experienced similar marks with the water-based paint - in our case from tree sap. Ah well, guess it now has that used look. Keep us posted and stay tuned in any case.

John

[SYS]

Originally Posted by jonk

The first issue is a creaking noise around the shifter that's mostly audible when accelerating and braking in stop-and-go traffic. We put around 11K miles on our V40 and it remained relatively vault-like the entire time. But this is pretty loud and I find a bit embarrasing for a car that stickered at roughly $47K. Even my wife notices, and she normally tunes this type of thing out and leaves the nit-pick worrying to me. I will have the dealer address this during our first service.

Yes, it's a shame that a car that costs this much should have such annoying (and chronic, I might add) issues. I reported about my experience with a rattling noise coming from the gear panel:

http://www.volvoxc.com/forums/showth...ghlight=rattle

The difference between your experience and mine (also MY 2005) is that mine happened only during a high speed and then it stopped by itself once the trip was over with. But the above thread has some useful solutions that you might want to try.

As for the paint issue, I haven't experienced anything similar to yours -- perhaps your issue with the paint is something that other owners with no "metallic" paint have found. It's my understanding that XC70's with black as well as white colors do not come with a "metallic" paint... But there are lots of discussions on this issue, so do some search on this board.

[adamc]

I've found that my Black '04 is ridiculously prone to etching in the clear coat. The water spots were so bad when I took delivery that the dealer ended up having to have a body shop wetsand and polish the car.

I got the car and 2 days later Zaino'd the heck out of 'er, but there were already areas where water spots had etched into the clear coat from morning dew.

The dealers I've dealt with aren't great in the customer service area, so none of them really care about my water spots. It was a battle to get them to fix the ones that were there when I took delivery.

I'm at the point were I've resolved myself to get the garage cleaned out ASAP and eventually by a dual action polisher and deal with these problems myself.

[jonk]

All--

Many thanks to everyone for the welcome and quick feedback--very much appreciated. I can already see this site is and will be an invaluable resource (if nothing else than to confirm to my wife [and dealer] that I am not insane nor imagining these types of isses).

adamc--

I am truly sorry to hear about your black paint saga. But it's nice to know I'm not alone in thinking I got the one black XC70 with paint by Crayola.

I've used only Zymol during the last few months, which is easy to use, seems to work pretty well for black paint in terms of minimizing light swirl marks, and appears to leave a nice layer of wax behind. However, it has done nothing to prevent the "etching."

Is there any recent product you have found to be more protective than others, whether it be a natural wax or synthetic-based compond (e.g., I think Dupont recently introduced a teflon "wax")? I'm hoping now--more than ever--to find the ultimate in paint protection.

Many thanks again,
Jon

[littlewaywelt]

Originally Posted by jonk

I'm hoping now--more than ever--to find the ultimate in paint protection.

autoglyme resin polish
it doesn't have any cleaners so you'll need a sep wax for that.

[KILOFINAL]

I've got an 05 XC in Titanium Grey. I've used Mother's Reflections car wax and I am pleased with it. I'm sure there are others that are comparable.

Good Luck.