I took delivery of my long awaited XC90 December 2002. While I am crazy about most aspects of the vehicle I am curious to know if anyone else is having the same issues as I am.</P>


I have a wind noise/vibration that is temperature sensitive. On hot summer days it never happens. Now that the temp has cooled a bit I get a harmonic vibration coming from between the windshield and the sun roof. If I stick my hand out the window and touch the roof it does not effect it and I can't feel the vibration. Of course it never does it when I take it to the dealer. This is not a low level noise, I can't take long trips in the car as it would drive you insane.</P>


I also have premature tire wear. At 9000 miles the outer 2 inches of the rear tires were bald. The dealer replaced the tires and reset the camber adjustment. The right rear tire however still wears excessively.</P>


I also have had a noise that sounds like a bad bearing on a pulley. The dealer said it was a vacuum leak. They repaired it and 2 days later the same sound has come back.</P>


The transmission is a little odd also. If you accelerate at the same time the transmission is shifting up, the engine goes numb. I thought that the spark control was being retarded to smooth out the shifts but the dealer says that is not a feature.</P>


Occasionally the floor board lights will stay on and you can't turn them off while driving.</P>


<FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">If anyone else is experiencing the same please let me know.</FONT></P>


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Sorry to hear about all of your problems. We've put 2500 miles on our XC90 and haven't had any of the problems that you mention. The only issues we've had are the oil leak (read my other post) and we havea squeak coming from the rear cargo area somewhere. Other than that, we're pretty happy with the vehicle. I even had an opportunity to take it offroading this weekend in the snow and mud and was pretty happy with it. The wife was a little unhappy with how dirty it was when I brought it home, but oh well.</P>


I guess all you can do is keep taking your vehicle back to the dealer and hopefully all of your problems will go away. Volvo dealers generally want to keep their customers happy and want to help you any way they can, so just tell them how unhappy you are with all the problems and they should help you out. Good luck!</P>

David,
Sorry to hear of your troubles. I took delivery of an '03 XC 90 in December of 2002 as well, from Goodwins Volvo in Topsham, Maine. We had repeated difficulty with ride quality and comfort, and could never seem to keep the car aligned or in balance. </P>


Our dealership was phenomenal in every aspect, including replacing the tires at about 11,000 miles at their cost, due to severe tire wear, even after rotating and re-aligning the car. A few weeks after getting the new tires on, a whining noise from the drivetrain was noticed....and back we went to the dealer. They replaced the passenger rear bearing and one of the front ball joints, but I informed them I had lost confidence in the vehicle. Just this past Friday, with the help of my dealer (Goodwin's) which included my salesperson Charlie, the owner Rob, and the service manager, Mark, Volvo North America replaced our car with an '04 T6 (similar in every way to the previous, but with the premium package, wood steering wheel, Xenons, parktronic, etc...) with no money from us! Our salesperson really went to bat for us, and we received a very favorable deal to get into the new car. </P>


I honestly think the car was faulty (it was a launch car)....but with customer service like that, I'll always own a Volvo, especially from Goodwin's!!! The new XC only has 80 miles on it, but it feels a million times different in ride quality and comfort compared to the '03. </P>


If you keep having problems, talk to your salesperson, and ask them to get Volvo NA involoved...you may be very pleasantly surprised!
Good luck with your vehicle.</P>


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Mark</P>