I own a 98 XC which I purchased new. I don't do any hard driving except that I am a ski coach and drive a lot in cold weather and snow. I have always serviced the car at Volvo dealers (I do feed it head light bulbs myself). My transmission failed at 94,000 late at night on the Maine Turnpike. Luckily I was near a dealer - he said the transmission failed due lack of maintenance (so much for the Volvo dealers) that the fluid had never been changed - After discussions with Volvo they stated that the 10,000 mile service does include an inspection of the transmission fluid - I did review my service records (I am about 7k miles behind so I was coming up on my 90k service) and I found that the 80k service had been an oil change and not a full 10k service (why I don't know - perhaps my fault) so the fluid had not been checked for 17,000 miles - according to this dealer, they have found that the fluid discolors after about 30k so mine should have been checked and replaced long ago but you can guess how far I have gotten with this - nowhere - do the newer models indicate transmission fluid changes as part of the regular service? I suspect since my car is pretty high mileage for this model and the first year they made them that they are still figuring these things out at my expense - other than this plus a $1700 drive shaft (all for a bearing) and many rear brake rotors I love the car (I am actually serious) with 4 snows it is unbelievable in snow - however I am getting my wife the Pssat with AWD - any similar experiences?