I'm looking to pickup a Volvo C70 as a 2nd car to tool around in. While my wife and I will be the primary drivers, our 16 year old daughter will drive it from time to time too.

The car has 73,000 miles it and looks really clean. I'm hoping real owners can help me get some thoughts on the car. Would you recommend the C70? I know this is a forum and lot of folks bring their problems to the table, but I do think there's value from learning from folks who actually own this car. I had a saab back in the day and though I loved it, I would not have recommended it to someone. I'd love to get a straight shooter recommendation from everyone

 

I bought a 2008 for my son when he was 16, he is now 20 and in college. Had 93k when I bought it now is at 123k. It has been a pretty reliable car but I keep up on the maintenance, changing the oil every 3k and the transmission fluid every 30k. I think they are a great little car. The only problem we have that I can't seem to pinpoint is a passenger side low beam light that continually goes out. This seems to be a common problem.

 

not sure if you have Xenons or standard halogens, but common causes for low beam issues are the sockets to the bulbs, the wiring (corrosion etc) or the CEM (central electronics module has relays which can get sticky as well as they may develop cracked solder joints on the board. None of these are overly costly repairs. Worst case is the CEM, which can be rebuild by a service like XeModex or MidWest ABS for about $250. I'd be more concerned about overalll maintenance history and whether the roof actuates smoothly.

 

Thanks for responding! I saw one yesterday with 53k miles. Unfortunately there was an issue with the driver window not going down and the engine sounded like it needed new plugs. It also had a p0108 code stored in the ECM.

I asked the dealer to address the window and have the car go through their service dept. We'll see what they say...I really like the model and (more importantly) so does the mrs!

 

I hope it works out for you given the nature of the used car market. Unless you intend to never close it, I would start reading up on the roof mechanism. I have found this to be a point of contention on my '04 soft top.