I thought it might be useful for the forum to hear of my ownership experience with my V70 T5, with the Geartronic 'box. I've had the car for a little over four years (acquired in September 2001) and it's done about 140 000 kms (~80 000 miles). To date, the following parts have been replaced :
1. Gearbox.
2. Throttle electronics (not certain what, exactly - MAF ?).
3. Brake booster.
4. Radiator ( x 2 ), trying to chase persistent coolant leaks.

Judging from comments let slip by the service people (or maybe I'm just paranoid !) these are all well-known and frequent problems in the V70/S80 range, to the point that a layman like myself would suggest they are latent defects. Any observations ?

Now looking at another brake booster (hissing from the brake-pedal area) and having yet another go at the coolant leak.

Minor hassles :
1. The latches for the child-booster seats fail constantly.
2. Left brake-bulb fails constantly.

It's a great car to drive although it's hard to believe it's rated at 250 HP - perhaps the gearbox. The pleasure of ownership somewhat diluted here (Cape Town) by high depreciation and poor local service (from my dealer, anyway - there are only two dealers in town).

 

Alot of money is being spent on a brand new car and having the little things work is expected and shouldn't cause problems. I feel your pain. I've read that pre-98 are most reliable because of the electronic throttle and other things that changed to I don't know what!?!

 

ditto on most of your experience at 92k miles now. MAF problem you mentioned was probably the famous ETM problem.

http://howards01v70t5.blogspot.com/

I didn't have the radiator problem yet. I read somewhere tranny slips even if just a few drops of coolant ends up in the tranny fluid. Best of all is there is no easy way to diagnose. Anyone knows more about this?