V70 Before & After Ford?
 

Today talking to a long time Volvo wagon owner that said his parents always had a Volvo wagon as well as his current two wagons, That seems after Ford took over the Volvo quality went down hill?

Do any of you agree with this?

Being I consider myself a loyal Ford guy I hope its not true but can see when a big company like Ford takes over they may go cheap to produce on their mass scale & quality might suffer?

Your input on this is very helpful in helping me pick what year to buy..?

Seems '97 to '99 might be best for the people that believe the Pre-Ford stories?

From what I understand from Volvo folk, the best thing that happened with the Ford association is that it helped Volvo from the standpoint of organization, and Volvo was both strong enough on its on and the dalliance with Ford short enough that Volvo wasn't harmed by it.

Mazda, on the other hand, was a much better company before Ford than after. Too much Ford rubbed off on them.

I'm a big Volvo fan. Ford? Not so much...

Again, just my opinion.


Lynn B.

Well at this point I'm thinking about a '97 to 99 V70...?

Did they make the "R" during those years?

In a perfect world I'd get a '97 diesel, but they don't seem available in the USA? :(

Being new I dont know, but does this site pretty not get much traffic?
Or is my question not worth replies?

To me these are things I really wanna know before I buy.

Here's my take on it as a noob myself. First, there's not nearly as much activity on the Volvo lists as there is on most others. Why? Because not nearly as much stuff goes wrong with Volvos as with other brands. Do what I did and just cruise through the old posts. Most problems mentioned are with cars that are TEN YEARS OLD OR OLDER!! Who else (besides me) even OWNS cars that long? My wife and I have driven Hondas for years and liked them. We just traded in her ten-year-old Accord on a new 2011 XC70 AWD. Yep, it's a year old and it's still brand new.

Why was it still on the lot after a year? Dunno, except we got a $41,000 new Volvo for the same money as a nicely equipped (and seriously negotiated) 2012 Honda Odyssey EX-L. That's reason enough for me. :)

This is our first Volvo. Why this instead of another (would have been our second) Odyssey? Simple. We bought a 1999 new and put almost 200k on it over the next eleven years. Typical first-year teething problems, but the dealer took excellent care of us. But after all these years and all these generations of Odysseys, they're still NOISY on the road! I'm not paying that much money for something that makes that much noise. And the forums are still full of stories of problems and recalls and TSBs. Volvos? Not so much. And I like that the maintenance schedule goes out for twelve years. And the high mileage club. I spent enough time digging around on the net that I'm confident that we made the right move.

I think this is the beginning of a long friendship, to paraphrase a Bogey line.

Buy with confidence. I did.

Lynn B.

I've never had any interest ( & still don't ) in ever buying a new car.

If you're interested in a V70, you might get more hits/input on the V70 sub-forum instead of in the General one..?

FYI: V70 started in 1998 MY, in '97 it was the 850 Wagon (aka 855). In MY 1999 they changed a lot of sub-systems on these cars and (IMO) reliability suffered. Also not many diesel folks round these parts

Well, can a mod or Admin move this thread then?

& as far as what year they started either you or Wikipedia is wrong?

Volvo V70 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

You can PM (personal message) the admin and request the thread moved, or you can just make a new post in V70 section.

That wiki site is interesting; the text doesn't agree with the table they have at the bottom of the page; ck it out. Hey, don't believe me, go to volvo's site and see for yourself. Or you can go to CL and search for a "1997 Volvo V70"; see how many hits you get. :)

Bottom line: take everything you read/see on the web (including my posts!) with a grain of salt!

Can you give me the screen name of one?
I have no idea who they are?