[NA]Volvo cars

Sac Arrow said:
I drove a 145 wagon around in high school. That thing was built like a tank. Drove like one, too. It was real finicky on maintenance. The dual SU carburetors and the points needed constant adjustment.
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Mine was orange.

With a wasp nest under the rear bumper. Good times.
 
darrell said:
I had a 2001 Volvo S60 T5. It did have a problem with a fuel pump or something like that related to the fuel system. It ended up becoming a recall shortly after my issue so it must have been more than just me. No other problems and had that car for 8 years.
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I also had a 2001 S60 T5, and my experience was similar - Drove it until 2015, when the moonroof broke and fixing it was going to cost more than the car was worth. Maintenance can be very expensive, but it required very little of it.

I'd happily buy another Volvo.
 
My folks were Volvo people when I was growing up. Had several 240's and 740's, the last of which (a 1985 740) became my college car as a hand me down, which I later gave to a roommate of mine. I believe it had well over 300k miles by the time its life ended. Years later, my mom sold her old 850T to my wife (fiancee at the time) and we had it for a few years before she got T-boned and it was totaled. I think those years (the 850 was a 1997 if I recall correctly, and the rest were far far older) are probably apples to oranges comparison with the model years OP is looking at, but in the 197X-1997 range, they were pretty reliable and easy to work on. I also think that in the last 5-10 years, the brand has pretty well divorced itself from whatever stereotype it might have once held. The XC line is one of the most mainstream vehicles in upper-middle class suburban soccer mom culture nowadays.
 
I always liked the old Volvos having the flap in the rear armrest that went to the trunk, so you could put your skis and poles in a sedan. :)
 
I've had numerous Volvo's over the year being a Swede. I'm probably biased. I've had an Amazon, 142, 145, 242, 245 when I was young. I had two 965's in a row - "the executive wagons" - loved them. Then we got a 2007 XC90 and although I found it ugly as sin, it was a good car. Volvo's have never let me down. Bought a brand new XC90 T6 last summer and we love it. The new Volvos have world class styling, in my opinion. They've always tried to be a premium brand, but never quite made it there, but now I feel with this lineup, they've finally cracked it. Now I can comfortably say I'd put Volvo in the same bracket as BMW, Audi and Mercedes.

Swedish nationalists were terrified when he company got sold to the Chinese (think GM getting sold to China, and you'll have the equivalent), but the new Chinese owners have actually been great - very hands off and have let the development teams in Sweden do their job. They never made better cars than now. Much better owner than Ford ever was.
 
stratobee said:
I've had numerous Volvo's over the year being a Swede. I'm probably biased. I've had an Amazon, 142, 145, 242, 245 when I was young. I had two 965's in a row - "the executive wagons" - loved them. Then we got a 2007 XC90 and although I found it ugly as sin, it was a good car. Volvo's have never let me down. Bought a brand new XC90 T6 last summer and we love it. The new Volvos have world class styling, in my opinion. They've always tried to be a premium brand, but never quite made it there, but now I feel with this lineup, they've finally cracked it. Now I can comfortably say I'd put Volvo in the same bracket as BMW, Audi and Mercedes.

Swedish nationalists were terrified when he company got sold to the Chinese (think GM getting sold to China, and you'll have the equivalent), but the new Chinese owners have actually been great - very hands off and have let the development teams in Sweden do their job. They never made better cars than now. Much better owner than Ford ever was.
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When did the Chinese take over? Sounds like I need to either look at older ones (pre-Ford) or newer ones (post-Ford)
 
charheep said:
When did the Chinese take over? Sounds like I need to either look at older ones (pre-Ford) or newer ones (post-Ford)
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Just did a little research on that myself, and it looks like 2010.

My fiancee's parents have a year old V60 - one of those crossover wagon thingies. I drive it around a lot when we're back visiting her folks, and it still 'feels' like a Volvo. The thing is a tank, and it seems pretty premium on the inside. Tons of features, high quality materials for the interior, etc. Of course it remains to be seen how well it holds up as it ages...
 
My brother bought a new XC60 several months ago and love it. They bought it factory-direct, saving them quite a bit. And they threw in 2 round-trip tickets to pick it up, one nights hotel stay and shipped it to him. They picked it up and spent a month driving around Europe before turning it in to be shipped over here.

That was in October and they're still smiling.
 
I bought new a 1990 245 manual transmission. I drove it everywhere - I put 200,000 miles on it in three + years. Then my teenage daughter totaled it. Not her fault, I was in the car at the time and I don't think I could have avoided the crash. Another teenage girl, still with a learner's permit only, turned left at a stoplight right in front of us, no time to stop. As the other driver climbed out of the car, she said "I'm sure I had the green arrow". All heads swivel up to the light and the light had your basic three lights, no green arrow. Insurance totaled my car. I'd buy that car again if it were still being made. Other than a new clutch or two, it was a great and reliable car.

We heard later that the other driver had another crash the day before, totaling that car, too. I'm sure her Dad got a call from the insurance agent!

-Skip
 
For a while, the CHP was using S70's as cop cars. I would say those things looked ridiculous, but in retrospect, they look less ridiculous than the soccer mom Explorers they are currently using.

Well they are now switching to Chargers. Those are more like a manly cop car.
 
Sac Arrow said:
For a while, the CHP was using S70's as cop cars. I would say those things looked ridiculous, but in retrospect, they look less ridiculous than the soccer mom Explorers they are currently using.

Well they are now switching to Chargers. Those are more like a manly cop car.
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Curious as to how a 305HP V6 or 370HP V6 twin-turbo SUV with AWD is ridiculous compared to a 305HP V6 or 370HP V8 RWD Charger with low ground clearance? It's seems like a much better choice of vehicle for versatility than a Charger.
 
SoonerAviator said:
Curious as to how a 305HP V6 or 370HP V6 twin-turbo SUV with AWD is ridiculous compared to a 305HP V6 or 370HP V8 RWD Charger with low ground clearance? It's seems like a much better choice of vehicle for versatility than a Charger.
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Well, I said it looked ridiculous, not 'was' ridiculous. But, in the hands of a good driver, a low ground clearance RWD car corners better.
 
Sac Arrow said:
For a while, the CHP was using S70's as cop cars. I would say those things looked ridiculous, but in retrospect, they look less ridiculous than the soccer mom Explorers they are currently using.

Well they are now switching to Chargers. Those are more like a manly cop car.
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Seeing government agencies using suvs really bugs me. Our local fire chief rides around in a new Chevrolet Tahoe.... Never carrying anything, usually by him self. He should be in a 13k Chevrolet spark not a 45k suv.
 
OK. Here I am at the computer. In 2014 my wife and I started shopping to replace the Honda minivan. Eventually we settled on the new Volvo V60. We decided new because at that time the V60 was new here and it had the new Drive-E 2 liter engine. From an engineering perspective it's a great concept: 1 block, 3 engines. T5 ~206 HP turbocharged, T6 ~305 HP turbo and supercharged, and a diesel which they don't sell in the US. Direct injection gasoline (remember this: direct injection gasoline) engine is used to get very good mileage and performance. The new platform S60/V60 drives very well, handles nicely and the new drivetrain with it's 8 Speed auto does a good job.

I'm a little nervous about the brand new engine, but hey! it's a Volvo. We rack up miles faster than many at the time because of my daughters school and dance schedule so by year one we're over 20K miles and we're starting to notice an occasional stumble when accelerating after driving at a constant speed. Hard to reproduce but happens. Service folks can't find anything wrong and can't reproduce. Eventually I'm able to make it happen with one of them in the car (multiple visits were required) and they cheerfully replace the oxygen sensor. (Computer never throws any codes.) Still does it. And it's slowly getting worse.

I did online research and do not turn up anybody else having this problem with their Volvo. But we are way out in front of the milage parade which turns out to be very relevant later...

At 30K miles after consulting with the factory, they actually hang a data recorder on the engine and drive it around. It won't misbehave. So they keep poking at it. (Local dealer's service department its terrible. They never call to let us know what's going on. We drop the car off and after a few days to a week, or even more time, we'll call and they ALWAYS say "We were just going to call you." Right.) At 39K miles the factory pays to swap the engine and have the engine from our car shipped to Sweden. They pronounce it fixed. And it drives fine. But, being as they never could explain what's wrong, I request, then demand, them to extend the warranty from 50K miles. They do, to 75K miles.

At ~55K miles, it's starts the stumbling again. A couple (OK, actually a bunch) of more rounds with the service department and Volvo replaces the heads and pistons. Takes several weeks (new parts from Sweden). At this point, the technician shows my wife and I pictures of the intake ports in the head. Massive carbon buildup. I ask for copies of the pictures (they're digital so it's just bits) and the tech says "Sure!" But apparently management somewhere intervened, we never get them even after repeated requests.

At this point I resumed my research into the problems. Now I'm turning up lots of folks with similar problems with the new Drive-E engines. They've finally reached the 20K milage range... More research reveals that Toyota, Hyundai, Nissan and Ford have all tried direct injection gasoline engines in the early 2000s and all have had significant problems with carbon buildup in the intake ports and valves. Symptoms are progressive stumbling under acceleration. Sound familiar? In every case they have had to significantly rework the design to fix the issues. Most add some form of port injection to have gasoline wash the intake valves.

At this point I contacted Volvo North America (at the suggestion of the dealer) and request they buy the car back from me. They 1) flatly refuse, 2) refuse any possibility to escalate above the initial customer service representative. The "supervisors" who make the decisions, will not, do not, ever talk to customers. (Must make it easy to say no!) After multiple rounds of this, I trade the car for a Honda. My $41K car, 2 1/2 years old, with admittedly high mileage of ~69K miles, is worth $13K.

There were many other frustrations of dealing with the local dealer but that's not specifically about the car nor Volvo's failure to stand behind the car, except that Volvo dealers are few and far between. There are 3+ Honda dealers within 20 miles of me. The next closest Volvo dealer is over 70 miles. The next closest is more than 100 miles. And only they can handle warranty repairs. I live in the Orlando Florida area and while it's not LA, it's not a small car market. I really have no viable choice but to use the local Volvo dealer.

So, I, personally, will never own another Volvo. And I will share my story with anyone who is interested in one.
John
 
Sac Arrow said:
Well, I said it looked ridiculous, not 'was' ridiculous. But, in the hands of a good driver, a low ground clearance RWD car corners better.
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Extra ground clearance is a plus, though, if the perp decides to jump the median or something and the cop wants to follow.
 
SoonerAviator said:
Curious as to how a 305HP V6 or 370HP V6 twin-turbo SUV with AWD is ridiculous compared to a 305HP V6 or 370HP V8 RWD Charger with low ground clearance? It's seems like a much better choice of vehicle for versatility than a Charger.
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A picture is worth a thousand words...

 
Skip Miller said:
A picture is worth a thousand words...

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Lol, yeah, but then you have to call the paddy wagon to pick up your perp. The Explorer isn't any different than Charger from a size standpoint, except that it has more cargo space which means it can be utilized for K-9 units as well.
 
weilke said:
Had a 1990 245 that I bought with 80k on it and drove it to 200k. Needed a head gasket once, other than that very little maintenance. Sadly, I didn't keep up on the antifreeze and cracked the block during a -30F night. If not for that stupidity, I would have kept the car much longer.

As for the post 2000 models. My brother in law bought a new 2004 XC90 with the Yamaha engine. Drove it to 160k or so and except for a bit of an oil drip during the later years it was a solid car. Those things are tanks and used lots of hot-formed steel for the cabin.
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Wonderful cars. That is a 242 in the pic. 242=2 door, 244=4 door, 245=add the trunk lid for #5 door. That 245 wagon was an industry standard for some time.
 
DanWilkins said:
Wonderful cars. That is a 242 in the pic. 242=2 door, 244=4 door, 245=add the trunk lid for #5 door. That 245 wagon was an industry standard for some time.
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Still miss that thing. The other day I met an older lady with a real gem of a 245 that obviously spent most of its life in a garage. It was a 91 model with the bigger glass window in the back. I told her to call me when she is ready to sell. Her answer was something about ''cold dead hands'....
 
weilke said:
Still miss that thing. The other day I met an older lady with a real gem of a 245 that obviously spent most of its life in a garage. It was a 91 model with the bigger glass window in the back. I told her to call me when she is ready to sell. Her answer was something about ''cold dead hands'....
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I am looking for a decent 245 with a manual shift.
 
SoonerAviator said:
Curious as to how a 305HP V6 or 370HP V6 twin-turbo SUV with AWD is ridiculous compared to a 305HP V6 or 370HP V8 RWD Charger with low ground clearance? It's seems like a much better choice of vehicle for versatility than a Charger.
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Well what's the weight difference.

But that not the real issue when it comes to somewhat powerful vehicles and cops
Frankly from what I've seen I'd rather the cops have those cars de rated to 180hp, and if they can't catch the "bad guy" they abort, also a computer that links their speed to them responding to a call and automatically issues them the approach ticket if they are speeding without to a call that doesn't warrant it or if there isn't even a call at all, and shuts the car off if they are entering the level of reckless driving.

The number of times they have made a good save by driving like a maniac vs the number of times they have caused more damage than apprehending the "bad guy" frankly on average police appear to lack the sense and judgement to be driving a vehicle with that much power while on duty.

I flew a woman who got royally messed up when some police SUV being driven WAY fast by some chick cop nailed her on a corner, the female cop was NOT responding to a call and ofcourse was more or less unharmed.


The amount of times cops drive those cars well in excess of a sensible speed far out shadows the amount of times said speed was called for due to the nature of the call they were responding to, and the times they are speeding just because they can get away with it, that's a far more disgusting number.
 
Explorer is 4,600 lbs
Charger is 4,200 lbs

Dodge usually has a bit of a weight problem against its competitors (Challenger is a chunker, too, compared to the Mustang/Camaro).






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66 and 67 P1800's were my 1st cars in ca. 1983. Solid. Pleasure to drive. Quirky. With the BS i've had with now 2 Mini Coopers, I'm starting to mutter that my next car will be aother '66 Volvo.
 
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