Considering getting recent/new S-80. Presently have 2000 S-70 AWD with 5 cylinder engine, low mileage. (Please see earlier posts for reasons.)

S-80 AWD's appear to have 5 cylinder, front wheel drives have 6 cylinder.
Pros/cons?

Background: I had a bad experience with a previous Volvo 6 cylinder (can't remember model, sorry) that I bought from private party in mid- late 80's. Everything that could go wrong w/engine did when it was approaching 60,000 miles. Dealer repair shop told me that 6 cylinder engines were problem then because (and I'm trying to recall exactly what he said) oil port holes were extremely small, and unless the vehicle was babied all it's life, everything would start going wrong around 60,000 miles.

Does anyone know if this is still the case?

The 6 cylinder engine your mechanic refers to is the PRV engine jointly developped by Peugeot, Renault and Volvo. It is in fact a great engine if it is very well maintained and in particular if oil is changed according to schedule. I used to drive a Volvo 780 with its 2.8 l version and it was silky-smooth. The oil ports were enlarged on later models to alleviate the problem. I don't know the year of the change.

Volvo stopped using that engine and the 960 engine for example, is of a different type altogether, designed by Porsche.

To my knowledge the S80 has a different engine again.

In final analysis nothing is as sturdy as the 4 cylinder engine used in RWD Volvos...

HTH

R
'89 S70 2.0 NA 237Kkm
'89 745 378Kkm

We are driving our second S80 T6. The first was an 00 and the current is a 01. They are very fast and handle well. Both have had small tranny gremlins. We are in this one for the long haul and have the 100,000 mile warranty.

We also had a 97 S90. I really liked the it. A really well built car. It had the sharpest turning radius of any car I have ever driven. I have also driven the S80 T5 AWD. It was plenty peppy enough. A little more buzzy than the T6. I had no opportunity to experience the AWD.

Since my daughter works for VCNA, I get to drive many of the cars. The new S40 is nice and quite peppy. Of course, the manual transmission R5 was a blast!

I believe Volvo is replacing the normally-aspirated 2.9 6-cylinder engine in the S80 with the 2.5 Low-Pressure Turbo in both FWD and AWD versions. There are currently $5,000 incentives on the 2.9's--if you can find one left anywhere.

The 2.5T is the same engine in AWD V70's and XC70's.

Personally, I like in-line sixes. But both of these are good engines, IMO.

I can only provide you with limited info, but from your description you may have had a car that was equipped with V-6 engine that was actually designed and built by Peugot, and was an absolute piece of @#%%$#$#@!. The S80 engine in no way resembles or shares any design features with the 80's V6.

Hope this helps,

Mark

Mark, thanks for the information. Your description of that engine was absolutely on target.

I just traded in a '96 960 with IL6. It was a superb motor. On the other hand, I recently rented an '04 S80 2.9 IL n/a 6 cyl and was not impressed with the engine or the way it drove, it didn't drive or feel like the 960 which being a rwd was still a faster smoother than the later one in the S80. I think the 2.5T engine for the S80 is a big improvement, even if it is fwd.
Personally, I think the S60 2.5T would be a much better choice.
--
'89 245 Sportwagon, '04 V70 2.5T Sportwagon