Greetings folks!

New to the forums here. I'm currently on the hunt for a new suv. I've owned an 03 Discovery for about three years now, but am looking for a change. It's been a great suv, but I'm tired of tinkering with it. I've done a lot of work on it myself.

Enter my search for an XC90. A close friend in Montreal owns one and loves it. I know the mid to early 2000s had a lot of transmission issues, so I'm looking at the 07-09 models. My price range is about 16k-20k. I've found a few here in Connecicut, but the mileage scares me a bit. I've seen a few 09s and 07s with 80k-90k miles for about $16k. And an 09 for $24k with 50k miles.

Am I looking at the wrong suv for reliability? I could always go honda or Toyota, but it's against everything I want in an suv lol.

Any suggestions on price? Any general advice?

Thanks for the help!

 

Not all the 1st gens had transmission trouble, and not all the more current ones are free of it. The 5speed AW transmission in the 2.5T proved very reliable and the 6speed has proven very reliable with the 3.2 engine, but somewhat less so with the V8 engine. The issue with the T6 (and the V8 to a much lesser extent) is that Volvo under-specced the transmissions for those engines' respective torque outputs. The GM 4speed in the T6 had a max torque rating right at the engine peak torque output level, much as the AW 6speed did with the V8.

Other than the commonplace transmission issues with the T6 and some occasional transmission issues with the V8, the only other major issue to avoid is the counterbalance shaft bearing issue on the 2005 V8. The bearings were sealed, but not watertight, so if the engine was pressure washed or water got in there in some other way, the bearings could rust and cause engine failure. By the 2006 model year, Volvo patched that bug by drilling drain holes into the bearing casing.

Minor issues (which pop up slightly more frequently with the earlier models) are mostly centered around complaints about excessive wear on the suspension components.

We bought our 2008 3.2 with 46k miles about 9 months ago CPO for $23k from a dealer in the NY metro area. The NY/NJ/CT area has a lot of good cars from which to choose and I'd bet that the top end of your budget would come very close to getting you an older CPO car (2007-2008) if you look hard enough and do some comparison shopping & haggling. The Volvo CPO warranty is quite good comparatively speaking. During our search, we found that the CT dealers were about $1k - $3k, more expensive on average than the NY/NJ dealers, and the Fairfield County dealers were as much as $5000 more expensive due to the Greenwich/Westport price indifference (with which I'm sure you're familiar). Gengras had a good selection and were priced somewhat competitively, but they didn't seem as hungry for my business as the guys on Long Island from whom we ended up buying ours.

Good Luck!

 

Thank you VERY much for the detailed reply. After much consideration we've revamped our auto hunt a bit. Rather than look for an SUV/Crossover, I'm focusing on a car instead. I realized very quickly that with my Discovery being such a hard sell, we needed to rethink finances. I'm loosing money, but need to unload it. It's served us well, but I just don't have the time to spend on it now.

So with all that being said, I've been test driving the Volvo S40. I just drove a 2010 with 52k miles. It's was the non turbo version. I like it but, the lack of AWD and turbo bothered me. I'll be test driving an 08' AWD/turbo later today that's got 42k miles. I'm excited to give it a shot. I'm really liking the style and I know the extra power will be nice.

We'll be revisiting SUVs in a couple of months. We owe nothing on my wife's VW, so we'll have more leverage looking for a higher priced car.

I'll post in the S40 forum too, as this thread has now taken a different turn.