I have owned many volvos over the years (740, 850, v70, c70). I am now in the market for a newer car and came across a 2007 s80 with the naturally aspirated 3.2 6 cylinder motor at our local Volvo dealer. It has plenty of miles (170K) but looks great and has a full set of service records. My main concern is that the car is overly complicated (C4 suspension and other fun stuff). Are these generally OK? Are there any performance mods available? It seems a bit slow, even with the 6 cylinder motor, at least in comparison to our v70 2.5T.

 

I can only speak from personal experience, but I've had great luck with mine.

I have an '07 S80 that I purchased in February 2010. It had 42k miles at the time of purchase. It currently has 131k+ miles and I've only had three issues with it:
-AM radio doesn't work. Been ongoing for a couple of years, but I listen mostly to Sirius and decided not to spend any money/time on it. Until now. Starting a thread on it right after this.
-Steering lock sensor went out at 120k miles. $500
-Seal at top of original factory windshield went out. This issue popped up within the last month. My cousin (owns a glass shop) cleaned the rain gutters for me, mentioned that it was a known issue with that model Volvo. I had him check it out, he could lift the glass from the roofline enough to fit a couple of credit cards underneath.

There aren't many performance mods that'll do much for the 3.2. If I had it to do over again, I'd drop an extra few thousand for the V8, but other than that I'm happy with the car. You can get a cold air intake, exhaust, etc, but you're really throwing thousands of dollars at something that won't make it significantly quicker, though it might smooth out some of the acceleration hiccups (it jumps out from under you at about 10 mph). I've never been into the engine, but the maintenance hasn't been terrible. I'm happy with the car. The only troublesome issue was the windshield, which isn't the first one my cousin has come across. Knowing that issue and addressing it before it becomes a problem can save a lot of headaches.

Hope that helps. Good luck.

 

Hi - brick8...do you happen to be in Minneapolis area? I think I know the car you are talking about.

 

Yes, the car was at the volvo dealer that starts with the letter "B". I was going to stop by there last week to buy it but it was no longer on their website, so I assume it is gone.

Still looking for something in that price range, preferably with a turbo.

 

I purchased it for my daughter...you might be glad you didn't....

 

That doesn't sound good. Are there problems with the car? It seemed decent to me but it is hard to tell just by taking a car for a short test drive.

 

I'll send you a private message later...