I've been a few years without a Volvo (my last one was an 89 740 wagon) and am looking at buying a well used '99 XC70 - 220K km.

I loved the 740 I had, so was excited with the prospect of this vehicle, but looking around at customer reviews, it seems to be panned pretty badly, in comparison so V70's of the same vintage.

Was there some issues with this vehicle compared to the V70? Considering the vehicle is in good shape, is it something I should consider, or am I better off staying away from the 1st gen XCs?

 

The awd on xc's from that era are an expensive fix, it failure happens. That could be part of it. ECM's on 99's to 02? are another expensive fix it they fail, while 98's were still drive by wire. IMO it is all a matter of records, records, records on a given car followed by visual apparent condition. If well taken care of, less chance of failure. As example, my 98 xc awd has almost 200k. Only issues to date beyond normal maintenance (and yes timing belt is $700-$800 job) are failed blower/heater, replace radiator (very common they are plastic and crack), and rear seals (about $150 when had timing belt replaced). My local service department laughs about the awd drivetrain and engine and says they go 400k to 500k no problem. My indie mechanic has echoed the same thing. We will see! Good luck.

 

Thanks bulldog

unfortunately, records are not readily available, and I guess I'm a bit spooked by some of the expensive stories I've heard. It has over 200k km on it, so someone did at least a decent job of keeping it running, but a big problem is that the vehicle is in another city. If I could bring it to my mechanic and pay him to look it over, I'd feel better, but it's not an option.

I think I'm going to keep looking, and lean towards a V70.

 

If you want/need awd, I wouldn't let that scare me. And if it did fail, a lot of people have just decoupled and gone fwd instead of $$ repair.

Assuming you are going to see and drive whatever car you're interested in, you can always get someone there to look over the car for you. I'd personally walk away from any seller who wouldn't let me do that.

Also, I found records on mine by carfax and checking with local volvo dealer where the owner(s) lived at the time.