Hi,

I got a 1998 Volvo S70 GLE that I've owned since brand new ( May 1997 ). I'm one of those crazy people in this world who loves his cars very much.

But for the last 5-6 years, my Volvo has given nothing but problems to me. At first, I got all of those crazy electrical problems ( Wait a minute, I still have those problems ). Recently, my front passenger door's latch broke. My front passenger door was literally falling apart inside as I was driving home.
And Volvo still have the guts to talk about their safety. The spring that holds my " Hazard Light " in the dash to gone now. I got to use a transparent tape to hold it down. My front door inside handle's spring is not working anymore.

The sedan is way underpowered. Hell, a BMW 318i ( 1.8L 4-cylinder ) beat me one day. No, it wasn't a manual transmission ... it was an automatic.

Despite taking care of the interior, my leather seats is starting to wear & the materials on my console is peeling off.

My SC-813 receiver is starting to give problems, and so is my 6-Discs CD chgr in the trunk.

Last weekend, I was at an exhibition that was sponsored by BMW and of course, BMW showcase a few of its cars. One of the cars was a 330Xi. When I sat in it, it was a world of different from sitting in my Volvo. Even my 16-yrs old sister who is driving my Volvo S70 GLE most of the time these days loves the BMW.

When I told the BMW salesman about the problems, he wasn't a bit surprised as he already have ten people trade in their 1998-2000 Volvo S70 for a BMW since he became a BMW salesman three months ago. I told him not to be surprised if I pay him a visit really soon ! ... I am really getting tired of all of the ongoing problems in my Volvo. I am seriously considering a BMW 325Xi, Jaguar X-Type 2.5, Audi A4 3.0 Quattro, or Mercedes-Benz C240 Elegance 4Matic. For the price, I sure am not to pay for a 5-cylinder piece of **** like the Volvo S60 AWD. The reliability and quality of Volvo these days SUCKS as compared to the days of the older Volvo such as the 940, 960, 740, 760, 240, etc ....

For the last 5-6 years, I regret not buying the BMW 318i instead. My friend who brought a BMW 318i one week after I brought my Volvo has 500% less problem with his BMW. He doesn't take care of his BMW as much as I do with my Volvo, but yet his interior trim is not falling parts and neither is the rest of the car.

My SUV is coming to 2 years old this June. It is my 1st Japanese car, and it is also the most reliable vehicle I owned. When I compared to when my Volvo was coming to 2 years old, I already have a thick file of all of the invoices of all of the problems associated with my Volvo.

Sometime, I don't blame people for buying high-end Japanese cars such as Lexus,
Infiniti, Subaru, and Nissan. Although I won't pay anything above $34k for a Japanese cars, I still got to say that their workmanship and reliable is definitely better than Volvo.

Good-Bye Volvo and Hello ( BMW, Audi, Jaguar, or Mercedes-Benz ) !!!!!

----
Kenny
2001 Nissan Pathfinder SE
1998 Volvo S70 GLE

i ve owned a 760 turbo and an S70 and been an enthusiast of these cares and really tried to keep up with others experiences with them.there has been EXTREMELY reliability concerning the volvos with me,and they have been the least to break down comparing to the USA cars ive owned BUT, i will say this about volvo:WHY IN THE **** WONT THEY BIULD THERE INTERIORS OUT OF GOOD MATERIALS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!WHY WONT THEY USE "REAL GLUE" ON SOME THINGS RATHER THAN A LIL SPIT WILL DO" WHY MUST THE INTERIOR PLASTICS AND ADHESIVES FAIL AS A TRADE OFF FOR SUCH A RELIABLE MACHINE UNDER THE HOOD? WHY WHY WHY!!!!!!!!!!
ONE WOULD THINK A FEW YEARS OF CHEAP PLASTIC WILL DO THEN THEY CHANGE VENDORS FOR THE INTERIOR MFG. BUT NO! THIS HAS BEEN THE SAME JUNK CRAPPY PLASTIC FOR 20 YEARS!WHY? ONE WOULD THINK THAT SINCE FORD CAME INTO PLAY THEY WOULD BE BUILT FROM THE SAME PLASTIC RECIPE BUT SADLY ENOUGH I THINK THEY WANT THE CARS INTERIOR THIS WAY.

Fat chance, Kenny. We know you all too well. Is this a rouse to make it a littl easier to believe when you add onto your list of cars? Like the time when you said you were 'tired of driving' so you decided to get yourself a Benz S600 and a driver? Get real, man. And as for getting smoked by a BMW 318i... how is it that you beat an Acura CL Type S a year or two ago? I seem to remember you talking about a plethora of modifications on your S70, too. What happened to those? Perhaps the lighting problems you had are due to your inability to properly hook things up.

A note to everybody is that they should take anything this clown says with a grain of salt. He's been around for years and he's added nothing but fluff to this bulletin board. Every time I read this section of the board, I see a new post from someone claiming to be Kenny either glorifying his Volvo dealer or claiming that he got a new vehicle in his stable. I'm not sure what caused him to make this kind of a post, but like I said, take it with a grain of salt. This kid lacks credibility in a major way.

Cheerio.

GRocky

Well you are entitled to your opinion. I have driven Volvo's since 1979 (240) & currently have in the stable the following cars. 01 V-70, 91 940 GLE, 94 Mazda Van, & 87 300Z, & my personal toy, a 1948 MG-TC, which I restored. Lets take them in order. The Mazda is ok, but when it hits 100K you're road kill. Most of the rice rockets I have owned or driven, seem to fade rapidly at about 100-125K. While the warranty works, try to have something fixed that is out of the ordinary. Wife drives the 01 and loves it. It is still too new to find out what idocincrasy it will have. I drive the 940, cause I'm used to it. With 183K on the clock, it will have to be replaced in the next 50K but what the heck. If you think a modern car is problem prone, I would recommend working on, and trying to drive a Brit car from the 50's thru 70's. I own one and have driven many. The Jag is a gourgous car, have a friend who bought one for his wife for the looks. It spend the first year, shared with the dealership, about 60/40%, and they feared to drive it out of the city. It's gone. Modern cars are filled with electronics and items that make them more like your living room, and less like a piece of equipment to take you from A to B and to stop and start while doing it. Trust me on this. When I want to listen to music, and have a cold brew, it ain't behind the wheel of a car. The more complexity the more items prone to failure. It's that simple. One of the ladies in our group had an Audi, and you should see the color she turns when you mention it. Beemers go fast, & break fast. You want dependibility, get a Model T Ford. They ain't comfortable, but they will go in any weather, and get you there. You want fancy gear, get a modern car. You don't like all the crap on them, blame our dear friends in DC who have burdened them with massive, prone to failure gadgets to keep them running in a very narrow band in the name of clean air. Soon as the snow & ice melts, I'm gonna take my Z and burn the road for a bit so I can remember what it was once like. You don't want a Volvo, don't buy one. At least you can work on them. There are very few aftermarket parts for BMW or Audi/VW for that matter. None for Mercedes. Check it out and see for yourself. Bye now. Sam a satisfied Volvo owner.

> There are very few aftermarket parts for BMW or Audi/VW for that matter.

Open any issue of an enthusiast's magazine that deals with Euro cars. European Car is a good place to start. Aftermarket is 90% BMW, Audi & VW. Wheels, turbos, chips, superchargers, filters, pipes, electronics, suspension parts - there's a whole world of stuff that a Volvo owner can only dream about. All we get is IPD.
--
David
98 S70 T5SE // Black, misc mods (mostly lighting), red calipers
92 940GLE // Hella Micro DE foglights

Good uck, Kenny.

If you think BMW's are trouble-free just check out the BMW's boards. Don't get me wrong as I like BMW's but they are just a machine. You can't weld the hood shut and drive. Maintenance is very expensive on BMW, Audi and M-B cars. More so than Volvo. Factor in the safety aspect and you can't beat a Volvo. Several of my friends have Hondas and Toyotas and when we compare costs of routine maintenance items between their cars and my various Volvos (including my '98 S70 GLT) they seem to be comparable. There are NO cheap cars today when going in for service so you may as well get a car with a great safety record. My '98 S70 was trouble free for 50,000 miles when I traded for an S80. I now have a S60 2.4T that I absolutely love. I also have owned Maximas and Camrys that I have never had a maintenance problem with but I found that 'owner satisfaction' was higher with Volvos.
Just my humble opinion,
Eddie

my 1998s70glt is my first volvo...i have owned just about every german and japanese car...a friend of mine who was an ex-m/b factory mechanic drove nothing but german until about 5yrs.ago he switched to japanese...beware of the 60,000mile service on the Lexus 400 series...heard it was $3000...

i bought my volvo with 75,000miles off a friends lease and so far (knock on wood) no major problems...i have had my share of electrical gremlin which leads me to believe volvo is using the italians(another ford div) to do this system...the safety thing is for real...i say the volvo is built ever good as a m/b...my two m/b were not without problems...

i have always wanted a BMW but the closest i came was back when the Audi came ashore and i need a vehicle in snow country and FWD of the Audi sold me over the RWD of the BMW...quality-wise the japanese rice burners have a leg up still even though the gap is closing there still is a gap...

back to safety...what good is great crash ability if your car is always in a garage being fixed or you get paranoid from poor reliability and your afraid to take the car out on trips.Volvo needs to spend as much money on their electrical systems as they have lately on their new sheet metal designs and new models.Is Ford really in control of this division? i remember when F.O.R.D. stood for "fix or repair daily" or "found on the road dead".Volvo best get their act together soon....venting over...

RLK,

It seems like much of the electronics and switch gear are made in Japan or by a Japanese company such as Denso or Mitsu. Even the tranny hails from the Land of the Rising Sun.

Of course parts may be assembled elsewhere--Thailand, Canada, France, USA, etc. Haven't noticed a lot from Italy though.

Parts seem no more expensive than those for an Accord. I do most of the work myself, so my take on owning a 70 series may be atypical.

Bryan

THE REASON I SAID "ITALIAN" WAS THAT "ITALIAN" CARS EVEN "FERRARI" HAD A REPUTATION OF POOR ELECTRONICS NOT TOO MANY YEARS AGO.

EVEN THOUGH THEY MAY BE USING JAPANESE COMPONENTS,IT SOUNDS TO ME MORE OF A COMPUTER MANAGEMENT PROBLEM AND HOW THEY HAVE THEIR THRESHOLDS SET.
I WOULD BE CURIOUS AS TO WHERE THEIR ONBOARD COMPUTERS ARE MADE.

I've heard, was subcontracted to build the Volvo computer circuit boards etc. Anyone else heard this? I've seen electrical parts imprinted everywhere from Japan to the Balkans. Also, in the R&T special on the 850, I read the Volvo wiring harnesses are assembled by the disabled, including I'm sure including the developmentally disabled.

After 2 Saabs and a Porsche I went into this with open eyes, I love the Volvo's combination of handling and performance and practicality but honestly I'm just getting too old to screw around with all this electrical stuff. MB, Audi, VW Saab, Jaguar and BMW are just as bad if not worse, so I'm not singling out Volvo for particular blame.

If Honda-Acura offered a station wagon version of the Accord-TL with the V6 and six speed manual, I'd buy it tomorrow. But they don't.

About 1/2 of OP's complaints seemed to revolve around being smoked by his friend's BMW 318i. I can assure him that a T5M will suck the doors off a 318i.

Order the "Soccer Mom" package with the 168hp engine, couple it with the slushbox and then blame Volvo because it's slow! Geesh! If you don't want a slow car, don't order the low hp motor!

-Punxsutawney Phil

"Duct tape is like The Force, it has a dark side, a light side and it holds the Universe together."

I don't know about Fiat (havent seen those words on ANY Volvo part) BUT Volvo is like all other car manufacturers and most of their parts are made by other companies from various parts of the world. Most car companies also end up going with the cheapest bidder when subcontracting parts so sometimes that budget cut cheapness ends up biting a car manufacturer in the butt. The '98 X70s were a good example of too many low budget bidders winning in Volvos eyes and I think that cheapness cost Volvo alot in lost reputation.

Many car manufacturers aren't always better, some are just better than others.

I always like hearing some guy trying to tell me about his US made car that he thinks is all "made in America". OK, Canada and Mexico are technically in "America" (American continent, not USA) but many other parts are imported from other places not even close.

Hey Phil

Hows about a Nissan Mirano? Cross breed car/st.wagon/SUV all made by the Japanese!

http://www.nissanusa.com/vehicles/ModelHomePage/0,,24109,00.html

You'd be in your "zone" (maybe)

I want a manual tranny - which limits my choices.

I've grown to appreciate the wagon configuration but if my choices were a coupe with a 6-speed or a wagon with an automatic, I'd pick the coupe....

In fact, the primary reason I bought the V70T5 in the first place was that it was the 855T finally available with a stick.

Wagons available with manuals include the A4, Allroad, Passat, Jetta, Saab 9-5, 325iT, 525iT, X5 3.0, C240 and C320. Did I miss any?

And, of course the V70.

But I already have a V70. Better the devil I already know.

Subaru will be importing a 210hp intercooled turbo Forester for 2004. With a manual tranny. THAT might be a hoot!

-Punxsutawney Phil

"Duct tape is like The Force, it has a dark side, a light side and it holds the Universe together."

'98 V70T5M, 111k mi. iPd stabilizer bar, Volvo strut tower brace and skidplate, Mobil-1 always, V-1, Vredestein Snowstars on this week

Scary stuff. I fondly remember Subby's "1-speed electronic CVT transmission" that they tryed in their old POS Justy, it was TERRIBLE! The things self-destructed. Not many live today, a good thing.
Maybe OK in a snowmobile but that's where those should stay, not in cars.

Here in Europe Audi has a CVT transmission with the name Multitronic. It's available atleast on A4 and A6 models with 2,4 V6 engine. I must say that it's fantastic, no hesitation or lag, just pure acceleration.

From one gentleman who posts on the BMW board. This is his SECOND new 745i.

http://www.h2go.org/745proof/Running%20History-Events.htm

BMW is running about 6-7% "lemon law" buybacks on the new 745i, I've heard!

Out of the frying pan, and into ... well, yet another frying pan!

Good luck to anyone who sticks with any European marque from "A to Z" (Audi to Volvo)!

- Punxsutawney Phil

Well, ofcourse ...

Just wait untill the day you find yourself in an accident..

Then you realize why this car is the best...

But hey , You like style better than safety go ahead buy the BMW , the 3 series is smaller than the S70...

We all make our choices in life , the hard part is living with the wrong ones.

// ermik 1998 S70 2,5 SE 90K <> 1992 850 GLT 130K **Both Auto tranny** All equip.

The other point is when you have your first scheduled tueup on that bimmer. Their parts are so outrageuously overpriced. My buddies 329is went in for scheduled 60000 miles maintenance and went out of the dealer with a $1500 price tag on plugs, rotor, cap and oil change. Good luck on that bimmer.