I have a 1998 V70 T5 with 33K and am wondering if it's worth buying a third party extended warranty. Warrantybynet.com offers a 6 yr to 100K warranty with zero deductible for $1,200 or $1,300 that looks pretty complete. I've had Volvos before, but never new enuf to qualify for an ext. warranty, which I've read one should be leery about. What are peoples' experience with these? Know of good extended warranties? Does the '98 V70 have enough problems in 100K to justify buying one? Thanks!

Find out before you buy WHICH "extended warranty" company is behind the contract your ocal Volvo dealer is flogging this week. There is a VERY high dealer markup on the sale of these, and your dealer may switch from one to the other for the sole reason that the newer one pays him a bigger commission. Then check with the service people ( who will always tell you that it isn't their fault that the repair contract the used car sales folks sold you doesn't cover anything) to see what they'll tell you about the pissed off ex-customers they have had who had to pay for engine teardowns in order to be told that the problem found was not covered (or that it may be a couple of weeks before they hear back from the "warranty" folks), and then had to pay to put the engine back together or for a whole "new" engine because the dealer did not do "rebuilds".

Do not assume that just because you bought the "extended warranty" at the Volvo shop that Volvo or the dealer will help you when things go sour, even if what you bought was a used Volvo that had previously been maintained by that dealer's service department. The service department will take no responsibility for any misrepresentations made by the sales department. Unfortunately, in most states this is not considered to be "insurance" regulated by the state insurance commission/department or there would be a lot cheaper and better (or at least less misleading) contracts.

I'm too pissed to go into coherent detail right now, but just came back from a whole day in the highly-respected Volvo dealer's waiting room where all of these issues and more came into play, including a suggestion that I just top up the oil and take the car Somewhere Else and trade it without mentioning the problem.

For the cost of the bogus "warranty " I could have bought a complete set of the green books and all the tools and parts!

Good luck Caveat emptor

Hi Jeff,

I would highly recommend that you purchase an extended warranty if your plans are to keep the 98 V70 for the long haul.

My owner ship experience with my 99XC has been the worse. Too many items have broken while under warranty and the replacement parts are no better then the failed parts.

There is a good possibility that some components could or will fail after the warranty expires.

I have been visiting this bulletin board for 10 months now and have compiled a small list of failed components that are most discussed. I have listed them below;

Automatic Transmission
Engine Wiring Harness
Fan Motor
ABS Computer Module
Window Switches
Steering Wheel Leather

And if you have (which you do not) an XC then add the following;

Bevel Gear in the transfer-case
Viscous Coupling
Excessive tire wear

I would recommend that you seriously consider looking into what Volvo offers. I had a very bad experience with an after market Extended Warranty Package. It seems that every time I need to make a claim I was given the run around which made every repair a major hassle. If you purchase an Extended Warranty from Volvo it would be more difficult for Volvo to give you the run around. Just my 2cents worth.

Good Luck,

Steven ---

I bought Volvo's "VIP" warranty for my 98 S70T5 at around 32K mi. It cost about 30% more than the figures you quote and has a deductible of $25 or $50 (can't recall which). Also I think it's only for 3 years/36K miles. But I'm glad I did it, because in the 8 months I've had it, I've had to replace the A/C evaporator/condenser, the blower motor, and the ABS CPU. Over $1,600 in warranty repairs already.

One thing that kind of irks me is that it doesn't cover all of the procedures used to diagnose a problem that turns out to be a warranty repair, as for example when the A/C died, the system was recharged with a dyed refridgerant for diagnostic purposes, and then looked at again a few weeks later. The faulty evaporator turned out to be a warranty repair, but the warranty didn't cover the recharge, so I had to pay over a hundred for that.

I also need a new charcoal canister and related filters & hoses for the emissions system (I think this is the $400 repair you usually need if you overfill the gas tank, even once--thanks, Volvo), but I haven't done it yet because--surprise!--emissions systems aren't covered.

Don't get me wrong, I love this car. But at least some of the things I expected to go wrong from reading this board before I bought the warranty (A/C failures, driver's seat rocking) are going wrong, and I'm glad for the VIP warranty even with its flaws. The VIP is technically a 3rd party warranty, but I think it gets the best results at the dealer--i.e., the warranty insurer/backer gives the dealer the least amount of trouble about approving warranty repairs. I'd be very careful with a warranty from any other provider if you don't have some reliable info about their track record on covering repairs. For example, with intermittent problems, even VIP will tell a dealer, "If it's not making the buzzing/rattling/popping sound when it's in your repair bay, we're not covering the repair." I.e., if the service dept. can't recreate the problem you encountered on the highway, it doesn't exist, and your blower motor/whatever doesn't get replaced. A little advice from my friendly service manager clued me in to this and an intermittent blower motor failure quickly became a chronic one.

Anyway, yes the failures will probably happen. I'd get an extended warranty, and make sure it's a good one. Looked at another way, it's like buying insurance.

It's been a while, but I had an emissions device (catalytic converter) fail once on a non-Volvo, and while the extended warranty did not cover the repair, I discovered by reading my owners manuals in the glovebox that emissions devices were covered by a separate warranty required by state or federal law for 5 (and in some cases) 7 years. When I was presented with a $500 bill by the service department, I calmly inquired, "Isn't this covered by my emissions warranty?" When they said, "No," I opened the manual and pointed.... they said, "Oh," and the bill was no more.
Dave Barton
Lake Elsinore, CA

Dan, Thanks for your helpful message, letting me know to anticipate expensive repairs with the V70 in the not too distant future. A little different than my 122, which ran pretty much trouble free till over 150K. I didn't qualify for the Volvo VIP warranty b/c I didn't buy the V70 from a dealer. Any advice out there on who sells the best non-Volvo arranged extended warranty?

I'm surprised you couldn't get the VIP, because I bought my S70 from the first owner, not the dealer, and I was still able to get it. I'll have to look into the info about emissions warranties that are required by law--maybe I'll get that canister repair paid for yet.

I bought the diamond level coverage from www.warrantygold.com for my '98 AWD V70. I haven't used the coverage yet, but may in the near future for a climate control problem and door lock problem. I did my research and considered my options carefully before buying this policy. I found good reviews about warrantygold and most importantly, it was the only policy I found that was offered as an all inclusive policy, that is, if a part isn't listed as excluded, then it is covered. No surprises.

Doug, thanks for the info. I obsessed over this for awhile and came across several companies offering similar inclusive policies: warrantygold.com, directwarranty.com, 1sourceautowarranty.com, warrantybynet.com, to name a few. I happen to be a lawyer and so I downloaded the actual coverage contracts and, duhhh, found lots of tricky exclusions in the fine print in most contracts. I checked the customer complaint history for each company at www.bbb.com, then checked the ratings for the insurance company and re-insurance company that you'd have to turn to if the Administrator of the warranty goes belly up. Those ratings are at www.ambest.com. Based on the above review and a relatively low price, I ultimately went with warrantybynet.com. We'll see if I choose wisely.