I own a 2004 XC90 (sheepishly adding T6 here) I was in love with this car from the time it first rolled off the assembly line. I was determined to get one and my determination paid off. Now here I will mention that my former vehicle was a 2001 Ford Windstar. This van was driven from Canada to Mexico and back 3 times, we did the regular maintenance on it and never ever had a problem with anything. We Bought the volvo and parked the van in the garage hoping to eventually sell it, not in any real hurry as it was paid for.
I would scoff at the van upon opening the garage door to park the xc90, ha! I definitely had moved up in the auto world, or so I had thought. Then the good old beautiful XC90 started to have problems, first the ball joints then the sway bars then the wheel bearings, we thought we were fine, then a few months later, the engine mounts had to be replaced because they were shot and due to this the drive shaft will have to be replaced. While all of this goes on, patiently sits the old faithful windstar in the garage. I have found many many threads on many volvo forums talking about Ford and how since it bought Volvo the quality has gone downhill. At first I may have agreed but then I look at the car parked in my garage that never caused me one night of worry, never heard a knocking or clunking sound from the front end, never worried that the transmission was going to go at any minute, then I buy this "luxury" vehicle and I haven't had one minute without worry, I have a new perspective now when I see these threads about "crappy Ford". My "Crappy Ford" is getting insured again and will be on the road in the very near future and in the garage will go the XC90... Ironic no??

 

There's probably a lot less distance today between the "best" car and the "average" car. Out of the factory, the hi-end cars should theoretically be better, last longer, and be more trouble-free. Unfortunately, what makes them better is also what makes them worse. Electronic everything. Computer controlled everything. Power everything. This technology provides more opportunities for things to go wrong and break. And everytime something gets finicky, you have a light on your dash warning you that you feel you "need" to get fixed/cleared. And you probably do. Its frustrating and expensive. And as soon as you exit the warranty period, its $400 every time you take the car in.

I've owned the BMWs, Volvos, Jaguars, among others over the years, and sure they are nice, but after a few years, they are just like any other car. I am starting to see guys (60+ yrs old), who can afford anything they want, buying nice Buicks. These cars perform fine, and most of these guys won't keep any car for more than 5 years or so anyway, and they've saved themselves a bunch of money in the meantime.

I think I know why they hve those smirks on their face now!

I really like my V70 GLT. Its a 98 with about 84k miles, the engine is strong and I have no major issues. Small things here and there, nothing ridiculous. Same things you'd have to repair with most any car. I hope that it lasts another 10 years, because I really enjoy driving it. But when it goes, I doubt I will buy another Volvo. All I hear about are the recurring electronics bugaboos and problems, etc., in the new models. I think I got one of the last models with good technology, but not with everything controlled by a chip. Too much technolgy in a car is not necessarily a good thing.

Is it even possible to buy a "nice" car with a manual transmission and roll-down windows anymore??? Thats like retro nowadays! Volvo offered the manual trans up until recently.

Does anyone have an opinion on what the least maintenance vehicle is out there?

 

Does anyone have an opinion on what the least maintenance vehicle is out there?

I would say it is most likely a base model Toyota, Honda, Kia, or Hyundai with a 4cyl engine and a manual tansmission. It seems like the cars that have the least amount of "stuff" always go the longest/need the least amount of maintenance. Plus the Kias and Hyundais come with the 10 yr 100k warranty. Not too bad in my opinion. I would consider adding VW too, but that's just based on my personal experience with my 82 quantum, which still starts up first try on the coldest days, and has never giveb me any crap no matter how hard I abuse it....however I have heard the new ones aren't too good

 

Someof theleast maintenance vehicles out there would be the older Volvo 242/244.....

 

I had an older Subaru once (1982) and I swear all I ever did was change the oil regularly and drove the heck out of it. I used it to commute about 50 miles one way to work.

 

Yes! Too much computer controlled sensor by wire saftey feature self parking stuff going on for me. Auto makers need to justify the increase in price every single year so they add all these saftey features, Lane Departure this and that to cars. Not for me at all. The car engine hasen't changed in how long now? It's still a combustion engine isn't it? Spark plugs, 4 rubber tires, no?

 

My impression for the XC90 is that Volvo hurried to manufacture & sell them, only to catch up with others. It was the auto market thatforced auto mfgs to make more SUVs. Volvo simply responded to the market but they might have hurried.

I am not privy to Windstar, but it could be one of the "assembled right" vehicles. Some cars come out with more problems than others when they roll out the assembly line. Or, if the majority of Windstars have good reliability record, they are well assembled vehicles.

I must agree that certain modern cars come up with way too many problems in the electronic control systems to the extent that they are often useless (ABS, TRAC, etc...). Such problems are not so common on Japanese makes, especially the domestic models because customers in Japanare the most @n@l in the world when it comes to quality & reliability.

Airplanes are another good examples. When a passenger plane arrives, they have warning messages on the instrument cluster way too often, about 70% or more of them time (radio, engine bleed, pressurisation, cabin environment controls, hydraulic systems, flight control computers, etc...). And there is no actual trouble and line technicians often reset the system and the trouble messages disappear. That is the beauty of electronics; once something goes wrong, no one can figure out the problem, including the guy/gal who designed it.


JPN