I have a 2018 XC90 T5 AWD with 40,000 miles. I change oil every 5,000 miles and filters annually. It is a nice car, but it seems unnecessarily complex.
Is is a good keeper or should I sell it while values are high?
80% of all Volvos ever made are still out on the road. The other 20% managed to get home somehow.
Both the bumper to bumper and powertrain warranty are 4 year/50,000 miles. I would only keep modern Volvos under the manufacturer warranty. That being said, either extend the warranty (original manufacturer only) or get rid of the vehicle once the warranty runs out; YouTuber Savagegeese got 10 year/999,999 mile warranty (!!) and paid $10,000 for it when he bought his CPO 2019 XC90. However, he’s needed repairs and the plan has already paid for itself, so you definitely want a warranty for that vehicle if you plan to keep it beyond the 4 year/50,000 mile timeframe.
Volvo longevity is overrated. While they are the best European cars they are no Japanese car.
A cheap simple Japanese method of transport maybe more reliable. But as far as sporty luxury car goes Volvo is about the same longevity as Lexus.
I mean I haven’t seen many Lexus CT or IS go to 180,000 miles after being moded to make over 300 horses 🤣 but on the other hand in the C30 club we have half a dozen high mileage moded C30s.
And I’ve been in a 300,000 mile S40 2.0D that was used for 10 years as a cab - all of its repairs in all those miles total are under 3 grand.
My Volvo C30 has only needed a clutch damper after an small accident in 80k miles and 11 years…
A Lexus will well outlast a Volvo.
@dan do you perhaps know anything XC70? Reliabilty, engines ...
@billybob I’ve worked on them, the new ones are built very medicare. I owned both Volvo’s and Lexuses and Volvo’s just don’t wear out as fast.
I’m not talking about the 2.0 205Hp Volvo’sc but either “modular”, “B4204S3” and “VEA” engines that make up about 80% of their cars.
@g-t
The XC70 came with quite a lot of engines in quite a lot of different generations 👀
The one to get is the non turbo 3.2L B6324S5 it isn’t the most powerful engine but they tend to last consistently wayyy over 200,000 miles.
(If you want more power, there’s a turbocharged smaller version the 300 horsepower 3.0L that’s slightly less reliable)
The issue with the last generation of XC70 was probably the Aisin 8 speed unit being quite mediocre, it’s the same one used on the new Camry, Siena, Highlander and Lexus RX (Toyota AA80 is just another name Aisin TG-81SC) and both the BMW X1 and 2 series.
The Aisin trannies are good enough for everyday use but I’d get that with a good old manual, or an older one with an Aisin 5 speed.
@dan I see they sell 6 years diesel old ones with over 200k km for about 20k € in my area. Do you perhaps know which AWD Volvos are reliable?
@Dan Even Scotty says that Lexus lasts longer than Volvo. Also, the Aisin 8 speed, while not as good as the Aisin 6 speed and Aisin 4 speed are excellent transmissions. Yes, they are no manual transmission but what automatic transmission is.
@g-t I’m not sure on the AWD system and personally I’d try to get one bellow 150k km.
@billyBob , on Aisin transmissions from a guy who would repair them.
Aisin makes a lot of products, and I’m talking about the TG-8X series. These are transmissions that are built to be hard to repair.
An oil filter is a 3 hour + repair that requires you to drop the transmission.
By 150,000 miles they’re full of metal dust, have worn value bodies, one of the most overly complicated computer systems (makes Germans engineers look conservative) And for the most part we have been getting them for the last 20 years.
They have been called the Volvo weak stop since the early 2000s and they usually were installed on the worst cars like the Alpha 159 and Chevy Malibu.
The recent one’s, that they put on the brand new Camry I just refuse to fix - they gone even down on the metal quality and there’s no reason to put in a junkyard one.
@billyBob on Lexus, the new ones don’t hold up. It all stated with the CT and then turbo charged engines, and now complex electronics… yeah… like I’ve been seeing Lexus with worn trannies bellow 120,000 miles and that’s pretty scary…
Volvo in the other hand did start having complex electoronjcs but the engines are the good old VEA engines and transmissions are alright… the 8 speed TG-81 is what you get on Lexus and BMW, but imo the BMW 7 speed if maintained regularly lasts slightly less but is hella more fun to drive. Try it on the 2019 XC40, it will put a smile on your face.
'Even Scotty says that Lexus lasts longer than Volvo.' Maybe in U.S. Europe is another story.
@dan I notice mostly diesel AWD Volvos are being sold in my area. Prices for a few years old ones with under 50k km are between 30k and 50k €. Really sky high. How long diesels hold? Do you know if XC60s and V90 are any good?
@g-t I don’t have a lot of experience with diesel Volvo… I never herd people complain about them but as far as longevity the older ones have definitely followed their policy that: “with the proper care the average lifespan of a Volvo is typically 20 years with over 200,000 miles.”
The newer ones have quite a bit of technology that will break so I wouldn’t get anything newer then 2014… the new ones are better but the electronics are scary although there’s no evidence that they’re anything less long-lasting…
@dan not as hard to repair as the ZF transmissions.
@bilybob the thing is that on an ZF 8 speed if you drive like a normal human being they just tend to last.
The 9 speed ZF is a closer analogy to the new Aisin automatics - there’s nothing left to repair. It’s not like the valve bodies corrode or the friction wear out, the engine internal part just gets turned into fine dust.
All newer cars are unnecessarily complex lol. With all the new refreshes and how many computers are shoved into cars nowadays. Lol. For Volvo the concerns I would have is the amount of plastic they use. And the shoody electronics. I mean it's all china made nowadays and the time period hasn't spanned long enough to see if the quality has improved though I would like to believe so. Volvo's in general reputation sense has gone down and they have been known to have bad too advance computers. Up to you really. I think you got some life left so it wouldn't be an immediate sell, but for value it probably is a good idea to.
To get real longevity from a Volvo you need one of their "bricks" like the 240 or 740 series.
For sure - back in the day (after they fixed the rusting problem with the Amazon model), they were stone-tool simple and unbreakable. IIRC a guy went 1,000,000 miles in a P1800.