Tell your story

[Forkster]

So, why did you by an XC90?

[Pinstripe]

You might want to start with yours!

[dogfish]

That's a good question Forkster. My wife liked the looks so we got one. I for one am VERY unimpressed. This is my first and will be my last Volvo.

[srs]

That's a good question Forkster. My wife liked the looks so we got one. I for one am VERY unimpressed. This is my first and will be my last Volvo.

I purchased an XC90 because of "the looks" also but not of the car rather "the looks" of my wife and children and wanting to keep them looking the same. Volvo (and Mercedes) have spent decades studying more actual automobile accidents than all the other companies combined beginning years before automobile safety became vogue in the United States and Asia. I believe this gives them an edge on safety that cannot be measured by the controlled and limited laboratory tests performed by NHSTA and IIHS.
In addition to safety it's suitable size for our family and AWD for our climate were factors. Value including mileage and preowned cost and warranty were considered.
It is not perfect and perhaps the second generation will be better but the "glass is half full".

[dijoe7]

I must have been drunk when i bought mine, it is the biggest lemon I have ever owned. 06 V8, 36000 miles and 16 times at the dealer

[Excimer]

To provide some balance and perspective to the below complaints, I come to Volvo from Mercedes and Porsche. My 05 G55 ate its transmission on the West Side Highway after 33K miles and had been back to the dealer for a split header that took 6 weeks to repair under warranty. I then traded that in May of 2009 for a 2010 Porsche Cayenne Transsyberia which lasted until Christmas Eve when the check engine light came on on the Saw Mill Parkway in 9 degree weather and the car stopped with no shoulder on the road. The Cayenne had 11.5K miles and the dealer took it for 5 days put new induction coils in it ("a known issue") and gave it back to me on New Years Eve only to have the vehicle do the same thing to me on New Years Day. Last I heard the injectors were being flown in from Germany and there might be an ECU problem. I never saw the vehicle again nor did I want to. I took the proceeds from the forced "sale" of my Cayenne and bought a loaded XC90. I am very impressed with the build quality and some of the features which were troubling in the Porsche. For example, having the radio functions handled by a different screen than the nav means that one can have the radio functions changed without having to lose the map. Very helpful. The bluetooth works much better than in the MB or the Porsche. I have both Sirius and Ipod and can have my wife plug in her chick music (if she must). Have had the XC90 out in 6 inches of snow and it works great. Time will tell but so far a very happy customer. For comparison, both the Porsche and MB were back at the dealer before 1k (MB for reversed and squealing fan belt, Porsche for non working central display). I will also add that the Volvo purchasing experience was a lot more low key with much less cappucino. Very honest and pleasant dealers thus far. You could throw all the MB dealers into the dumper as far as I am concerned.

[nygx]

Im new to the forum and to Volvo. I just bought one. I havent even picked it up yet. There are a few reason I bought one. Reputaion for safety. My wife and kids will be in this car most of the time. Also I have two friends who have XC90's neither of them have had any issues with them. So reliabilty was another reason. Reading through the forum briefly though sounds like I might be a little premature on the reliability thing. Time will tell

[seicken]

Hello,
I am new to this too. We have an 07 XC 90 3.2 AWD which we really love. We have had alot of people comment on it. It has about 60000 miles on it which don't bother me at all. We do have a local mechanic who works on them as we our Volvo dealers are about two hours away. Since it was due for oil change I called three dealers to see what else should be done service wise. I got three different answers and three different prices, ranging from 300 to 900. I found that very interesting. Needless to say I went to our local mechanic who cost me 154.
Anyway, we plan to be Volvo owners for life.
Also, our daughter has a 96 850 turbo wagon which she loves dearly even tho have had some minor problems. Amazing, she got that when she was a junior in college and five years later still loves it.

[waz]

I was searching for new 4WD or AWD SUV that has functional third row.
Previously, I had a people mover which did not cut it when moving off-road in Oz.

Started with the Pajero and was very disappointed with the third row seat. Similarly, the Prado and Landcruiser was slightly better but still not practical for long distance. In all the cases, I used my 10 year old son to try out the seats.

Volvo was not on my shopping list but decide to drop by the showroom as I was in the area. Straight-away, the third row was what I was looking for. Test drive it and straight away I fell in love with it. But it is not exactly a real 4WD. Then again, I reckon 98% of the time it would be on the normal road.

I bought the 3.2L AWD. Been with it for a year now and has never regret having it. Love the pace and pickup on the normal road. I've clocked almost 15000 km in a year.

[sankeyj]

Hello,

I purchased my 2005 XC90 with the T6 transmission new from a Volvo dealership while living in Europe. I still own my suv, just went over 63,000 miles. Initially there were no problems, loved my XC90. There was a problem with vaccum in the gas tank and they had to do maintenance to fix it, but accidently damaged the gas tank while attempting to fix the original problem. So they had to replace the entire gas tank. That is a long story in itself, problems with the German Volvo dealership that was doing the maintenance...tech went on vacation, couldn't get the part....blah blah... anyway over a month later I got my truck back. Everything was great again, and no more problems. I did notice the clunking sound others have mentioned in the front end, but the technicians would never find it, nor could I replicate the problem when I had it at the shop. So it didn't seem to cause any problems, just an odd sound, it still does it occassionally. I had the after market dual exhaust installed....but found out later it's not supposed to be installed when you have the tow package...duh...it makes a clunking sound when the exhaust bumps into the towing assembly....living with that. Last year, at just around 52k miles, the transmission started failing and then finally crapped out. It wouldnt' shift out of 2nd gear. Went back and forth with the local Volvo dealership to try to get it fixed...out of warrenty of course since it was beyond the 5 year timeframe. Waited a couple weeks to get an answer as to whether Volvo would pay to replace it or whether I was going to get stuck with it. Finally the dealership agreed to "take care of it". I was told they get a certain number of transmissions that they can use to replace the T6 transmissions and it's up to their discretion as to when they use them. I had to pay for the labor of course, but the bulk of the cost was taken care of by the dealership. So the replaced transmission from the start was less than perfect. It hesitates when it shifts and often times it doesn't "get up and go" when you put your foot on the gas. I've already started looking for a new suv to replace my beloved XC90, but I don't like much of what's out there now. I am dissappointed that Volvo didn't just fix the issues and rebuild the XC90 with a new transmission because I really like everything about the model. We also own a Volvo C30 and haven't had any problems with it. I would buy another Volvo if they had something I liked, but now I'm looking at Acura or something else. I will be sumbitting my info for the class action settlement that was awarded to recoop some of the labor costs from the transmission failure and I am hoping when I go to trade my XC90 in for something new that I get a little back on the $$$ I put into her.