Hey everybody.

I was shopping around for a 2007 or later XC90 and I thought I'd drop by an owners forum to see what was up.

It looks like the VAST majority of the threads in this sextion of the forum are pretty negative. Should I reconsider, go with an Audi or play it safe with the Highlander, or is this site kind of a "problems catch-all"

Oh, and My name is Bob, 33, married 1 daughter, another kid on the way, from NYC, looking to move up from a 4 door sedan to a nice sized utility vehicle.

 

Bob, unfortunately since the pool of XC90 owners is pretty small, add in the fact that many of them just troll the forums, add in also that many of them never post, and on top of that-they have the dealer turn their wrenches....you end up with 5 people that know what they are doing/talking about, 50 that think they know, and 500 that argue and show their hatred for the Volvo brand because they got ripped off by the dealer/indy.

I dont think people post much about "Hey my xc90 is running great, it makes no noises, gets decent gas mileage, and starts everytime i put the key in."

People post to find answers to similar issues they have. Then it manifests itself into, i had that problem too, cost me $xxxx.xx to fix it...you get the point.

On the other hand there will be new guys like you that want to get into the Volvo brand for the sake of...safety/reliability/comfort. Well i can tell you this, being a father of two 4 and 6yo. I went to a xc90, Volvo for Life. I take the good and the bad, its a fact of life. I love my XC90 almost to a point where i might choose to drive it over my C70 convertible(hard to choose the xc90 on a 75 degree warm sunny day with no rain in sight).

My XC90 experience is pretty short, about 10k. My car is at 152k, and i can put it against a 80k car and you will never know the difference

Dont let the negative threads scare you off. There are a few fine examples of xc90's you should check out. By 2007 and newer xc90's most of these issues have gone away. the 3.2 is a pretty solid car, the v8 has alot of getty up. Audi's are not any better, and highlanders are what they are, tin cans. Drive them all, you will see the toyota will be noisy, the audi will be very sporty/techie and the volvo will be a quite, slower, more solid car

You should check crash test ratings, youtube video's on crash tests, and look up some crash images on each of these cars. I did and my precious cargo is worth the issues, plus i have been in Volvo's for the past 10 years.

Good luck in your search

 

I concur. I have a 2004 XC90 T6 with 102k. Bought it new. And it has been light years ahead of my other non-Volvo cars in terms of reliability. In fact, I have never had a bad experience with any of my Volvos, even my 255k mile 960 wagon. Key thing to remember, though - they have to be maintained according to the maintenance schedule. They aren't a Toyota Corolla. On the other hand, I have had a lot of problems with Chevrolet, Ford, Mercedes, Audi, and Porsche cars (all bought new). That's why, except for my Audi RS6, we are a Volvo family. I am considering another new Volvo in 2012- either an XC60 or (if it out by then) a new-design XC90.

 

I agree with gshadow325. My family followed the launch of the XC90 back in '03 and ordered one of the first MY'04 with the 2.5 Turbo. Now, like most new models there were lots of dealer and owner growing pains and I followed this Forum and another as we shared knowledge across the country and the world. We made the XC90 better via our crowd sourcing. I'd say our '04 2.5T XC90 has been an impressive machine and worthy of calling our family tractor. I've only recently reactivated my forum status due to the notoriously poor factory radio lifespan of the earlier models. Enjoy shopping for one, make sure it has all the routine maintenance well documented and feel safe!

BTW, my other car is a '97 Audi S6 and soon to arrive Nissan Leaf. I am grateful the XC90 has been easy to manage over our 7+ years of ownership.

 

I love my XC90. I researched for months and finally choose the Volvo over the Toyota, Honda and Acura full size SUVS. I am soooo glad I did. I have a little story to share, to explain why...

I was driving across an intersection (on green) and an elderly (89) year old man ran a solid red light (going about 40mph). He was in a tank of a car and didn't brake at all. He t-boned me on the passenger side and I only stopped when I crashed into a light pole (cemented 4 way stoplight pole). The side was crushed, the front crumpled and I was pretty beat up. However, wherever they was no impact my car it remained solid. The airbags that should have deployed did and I was able to open my driver side door and get out. The officers that arrived on the scene said my car prob. saved me from major injuries. Witnesses couldn't believed that I was only a little battered, nothing broken. No neck injuries. They couldn't believe I could walk away from my car.

My beautiful new XC90 was totaled but now I have another beautiful new XC90.

 

Your concerns are understandable. It is the nature of many forums to see a lot of the negative since we are often here looking for solutions to problems. I chose my 07 after seriously lusting for an Audi A4 or A6 Avant. I just couldn't get past all the reliability issues from both personal experience and friends I have. Anyway, I've had my 07 with 75k miles for six months now and am thoroughly enjoying it. I went to not only forums but also Consumer Reports and Consumers Guide. After about 2005 the Volvo ratings for reliability have been very good and so far this one has been trouble free.

 

Hello,
I bought a 2004 XC90 T6 with all the bells and whistles for my wife new in 2004. I never bothered learning the car because I spend all of my time tinkering with BMW's and Diamante's. Last week, she started getting water in the car and I decided it was time to "dive" in. I started with this forum learning about problem sources and fixes. The last week was spent in stripping the interior and fixing drain problems. After 5 days of work, I have gained a lot of knowledge on the problems, but I also have learned a lot about the car that I did not know before. Tonight, after getting the car back together, I went for a ride. "Phantom of the Opera", was playing over the premium sound system, and I was manually shifting the twin turbo engine, ripping through the gears. I love it! I told my wife not to even think about trading it. Sure, the car has had some maintenance issues, but the positive far outweigh the negative. When we decided to purchase the XC90, we test drove Mercedes, Lexus, and BMW equivalents. Not even close. Even today, I venture my "old" XC90 would come out on top when compared with the new models from the competition. This my view of the "Big" picture. Your's may differ...

 

Greets to the forum.

We've had ours for almost a year now, and have put almost 20k miles on it in that timeframe. We've made a few roadtrips on it and we love it! I think we're in for the long haul. Ours is a 2006 Ocean Race V8. The problems we've had with the car:

Rear main seal replaced
pigtail connector on the drivers headlamp.

Ours is a CPO car until July of next year so both repairs have been covered under warranty. We bought the car and didn't realize it was a CPO until I checked the VIN number with our local dealership. Bonus! Also excellent since the rear main is a long job... about a $40 part, but 12 hours of labor. I've done rear main seal replacements on a couple cars myself but was glad to be able to hand it over to someone else to do. We do have one other issue with a noise from the right front suspension that I need to get checked out.

All in all, I'd say our experience has been very positive. We use it to tow a camper... first a 12' pop up camper, and now we've upgraded campers to a new 2011 Jayco Jayfeather Sport X18D (dry weight 3600lbs, GVWR 4400). The V8 pulls nicely, it's stable, and it's quiet and comfy!

Only ones that typically you should stay away from per common knowledge is early 2005 V8s (serial number less than 6833 I believe) unless they can document a repair for counter balance shaft, and the T6's are notorious for tranny issues (I know two people personally that have had trans replaced in T6s with low mileage).