Hi all,

I was able to get a 2013 Volvo S60 2.5L 5 cylinder turbo AWD with 100k km or 60k miles. I bought it from Volvo of Unionville in the Toronto area. 1 owner, full service history with the dealership, previous owner had a baby and traded it in for a Volvo SUV.

Is this a good model year? What about the 5 cylinder engine? I heard they stopped making those. Any reason why?

My second question is, the dealership has given me the option to buy an extended warranty for the vehicle but the prices for the extended warranty, for 1 to 4 years are quite high? Is it worth it? What are the main things to look out for in this particular year make model and engine etc etc?

Thank you kindly for all your responses. I'm a previous Saab owner.

 

When you say "good model year" - do you mean reliability wise, features or performance? The fact that its been dealer maintained is a strong positive and if you like the styling, features and driveability then its a good car. From a reliability standpoint, Volvos are middle of the pack (ie not as good as a Toyota, better than a VW or a Saab) but 2013s are pretty modern from a build perspective where they are designed for synthetic oils, have full computer diagnostics and widely available parts. The 5 cylinder was introduced in 1993 and has proven to be very reliable with a minor production issue in 2012 which let some models to require rebuilds to address high oil consumption (you can google for the service bulletins as to which version). Perhaps the biggest complaint is that the engine uses a timing belt, which if it happens to fail will damage the exhaust valves and possibly the pistons. Key thing is to make sure the timing belt and tensioner is serviced at the recommended interval (ie 10 years/120K miles whichever comes first - so your car will be due in about a year or so). Volvo started moving away from the 5s as they also had 4s and 6s - and started for focus on their electric car evolution so they started adding turbos and superchargers to pump of the 4s to get to similar HP goals and simplify / reduce costs in the product line.

As to extended warranties, its really an insurance policy. The cost is based on the anticipated average cost to repair that model/year over the warranty term plus a mark up. When you buy the extended warranty you are placing a bet that your maintenance costs will be higher than the warranty premium and gaining the peace of mind knowing if you wind up needing a major repair, you won't be out of pocket for some huge sum.

There's not a lot of things that typically go wrong before 100K miles but things to watch for are 1) timing belt maintenance 2) PCV system maintenance (oil separators can clog or fail), 3) fluid maintenance (brakes, transmission, coolant, power steering etc) 4) suspension components will start to show wear around 100K so you want those components inspected as part of your scheduled servicing.

 

They still use timing belt? Even my 2006 Saab used a timing chain. Thanks for the head's up!!!