Been a 240 brickhead for 6 cars and 18 years. Kinda of like the XC wagon but don't know much about them. Anybody care to offer their opinion or experience with one of the XC's. I get a queazy feeling when I think about working on one and the compent Volvo shops are hard to come by on the Kenai.

When they first came out, they were lined up for warranty fixes outside the dealers. Major reliability troubles. Check over on the FWD board for updated comments.

I am averse to the complexity in these cars which requires special diagnostics and tools. One can't even buy a service manual: they sell a subscription service for about $500 per year. So you can do an oil change and not much more.

I have an "old XC" built in 1996 - actually, the term XC hadn't even been dreamed up buy Volvo's image marketing folks yet. The awd components have been problem-free. I have however, had the typical 850 reliability issues to deal with.

850 awd
. 148,000 km
. original clutch
. changed front rotors at 130,000 km
. O2 sensor
. air pump for turbo
. ABS control unit
etc

I have not been "lined up for waranty fixes". There is a good deal of mis-information on this board about the reliability of the Volvo AWD.

Volvo's awd control system changed from viscous coupling to electronically-controlled (Haldex) with 2003 models. The viscous coupling solution and bevel gear add on to the transmission appear to be problematic and sensitive to tire size. As I have previously stated, in my own experience, the system is more forgiving than others on this board have stated.

Would I recommend one? Well, no. But that applies to recent model Volvos in general.

Neil
--
1997 850 awd, m56 5 speed manual, 1989 740 GL, m47 5 speed

Yes, when the first of the "old" XCs came out there were problems...those stopped being made in 2000. The 2001 and newer models are much more reliable...though, i'd wait until next year when they're using the Haldex AWD system