I currently own a VW Passat (POS Vehicle) and a thinking of buying a 2000-2003 S80 or S60 Volvo. Can someone tell me what kind of problems does this cars have and how difficult are they to maitained?

 

Too many to mention on my 2000 s80 T6

 

Biggest downer on the 2001 s80 T6 IMO is the alarm siren. Some numbnut at Volvo, decided it would be cute to install a siren with stackable button batteries, sealed up and hidden under the fender well to control operations such as the sunroof, liquid crystal mirror, overhead lights, door locks as well as sounding an alarm. When it goes south, and it will, nothing works in those areas until you buy a new one for $200. The batteries do what they do best.....corrode and leak on the printed circuit board and destroys it.
This guy wasn't the brightest bulb in the pack.
Otherwise, the turbo is strong, engine runs smoothly, tranny shifts smoothly, AC/heat works fine on automatic as long as you keep the temperatures set reasonable (don't set AC at 65 degrees....it will freeze up.....you don't need it that cold anyway)

 

It's a 10 year old European car!!! You want trouble free, get a new Japanese car. But the Volvo will outlast most other cars - if, and only if - it's properly maintained. First, don't buy one that doesn't have traceble paperwork on all maintanece and repair. Make sure that it was maintained by a dealer or garage specializing in Volvo. Don't buy a 3 or 4 owner car - it hasn't been taken care of. Ask questions - if the owner isn't "Volvo savey" you're taking a chance. You want one that was "part of the family", loving taken care of, watched over like a child.

I budget 1000 to 1500 /year for my '98. It's run that since it hit 100,000 miles. That's fairly typical. Runs great too! My 05 S80 has never needed repair (about 50,000).