I've had a Volvo 544, several 240s, and finally a 940. These all had rear wheel drive and those great 4 cylinder engines. But these are now hard to find in good condition at a reasonable price - plus Volvo slowly reduced headroom like a lot of cars. I'm very tall - the XC90 and the S60 have the kind of headroom I need. But some mechanics seem to think they ironed out the manufacturing problems by the 2006 models - others think that didn't happen 'til 2008. Of course I'll have a Volvo mechanic check over anything I might by but it sure would save me a lot of time if I could find out when these cars settled down. I believe the XC90 transmission is its biggest problem and it probably never got the mileage most Volvos get from a transmission - but I can live with that if the car is generally reliable as I don't drive a lot of miles. For me, a 2006 Volvo is barely affordable - so a 2008 might not be for me!
My car has an automatic transmission.
Hello. Anything after 2006 is much better. You will be getting a more reliable vehicle with less issues. Transmission problems are fairly normal, but if you are easy on the car and do not accelerate too hard consistently, and maintain it well then it should be fine.
The electrical issues are the only common thing that I do not like about these vehicles. They are plagued with electrical issues from no start issues to instrument cluster failures. These are considered common and typically an experienced Volvo mechanic can fix them fairly fast.
I would definitely advise having one of our mobile technicians perform a pre-purchase inspection to assess the vehicle’s overall condition prior to purchasing the vehicle, especially if it is purchased private party.
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