Hello James and thank you so much for taking the time to respond to this annoying question. You are very kind! I guess I'm spoiled because we've had Volvos over the last 45 years, and have always had batteries last much longer than this one. We never had to replace the battery in our last XC (a 2007 wagon that we bought in 2010). And in fact, I just looked up our records on this 2015 wagon (that we bought used in 2018) and we replaced the battery in 2020 and again last November, 2022. Not a great track record, right?

I checked the battery today and it looks brand new. It shows NAPA 7548 on the label, but no date, no punch out card and no warranty info. I did look it up online and it seems there might be a 12-month warranty on it. I didn't buy the battery, but asked my mechanic to check the system last November and to replace the old battery if needed. He did that and told me the old one was a piece of junk which may have been the cause of the "low battery" warning. So this one isn't even a year old and causing the same warning. Could it really be two bad batteries in a row with something going on in the car's computer? I have yet to check on the glove box bulb, but watched when I turned off the car and shut the door, and it takes about 30 seconds for all the dash lights to go out.

I don't drive too many miles these days and there are only about 53,000 miles on it. I know that short trips (3 miles to the grocery store) aren't quite adequate for an alternator to charge a battery right?

As far as a dealer - I'm much more trusting of the mechanics I've known for years than I am of any dealer. I brought my 2007 wagon (the one where my brother ruined the transmission) to the dealer and I think they just parked it somewhere in the repair area for a couple of hours, maybe checked one or two easy things and then told me they took it out for a ride and it was fine. Thank you very much $200 later! It wasn't fine and I was lucky to be able to drive it to one of those CarMax dealers where I took what they offered and rushed home. Those guys didn't even drive it - just based their low price on the high mileage.
So I'll continue to stay away from dealers unless all else fails.... But I will push to get something back on such a new battery if there's no other cause we can find for that warning.

Thanks again!!