Gang -

OK, I'll apologize up front if this should be in "Opinions" but lots of what I saw there was not Volvo (or even car) related.

I was going to write Volvo (not that it would do any good) to tell them what I think of their "no paper service manual" policy. And then I started to think about what would happen 10 years or so down the road. I would guess that most of us use the dealer while under warranty but that after that expires we either do our own work or have an independent garage take over much of the work. Since there has been no printed service literature available since 1999 a lot more cars will have no other choice than going to the dealer for much more than routine oil changes, exhaust and suspension work.

I'm not sure if that was Volvo's master plan or not. But currently it takes about 3 weeks for me to get an appointment at the dealer. As time goes on it seems to me that older and older cars will be having to continue going to the dealer and the backlogs will get even greater.

And will the owner of a 10 year old car want to be paying dealer labor rates? And if they get stuck doing this (because there is no other option) when it comes time to buy another car will they buy one which their independent garage can't work on? I doubt it.

Hey, thanks for listening - time for my medications!

Bob