I like both of those options as long as you're prepared for the occasional outrageous part cost here or there. I seem to remember quoting a $1000+ alternator for an XC90 once. The only surprisingly expensive part i ran into on my mom's 03 Volvo was a ~$400 seatbelt.
On the volvo I'd stick with the 5 cyl. On the Benz I'd worry about the ignition switch. Failure prone and stupid expensive
In reply to markwemple:
No go on the V8? From what I've seen most people say to stay away from the 6 but the 5 and 8 are OK.
How old and how many will be traveling on these 100 mile trips?
Generally 3 or 4. 2 still in car seats for now.
The v8 has trans issues and isn't as reliable as the 5 plus you can get the 5 in the 300 bhp range with mods. Think R.
DanielCut wrote: Generally 3 or 4. 2 still in car seats for now.
So, 4 equals 2 adults, 2 kids?
Who's gonna sit in the 3rd row?
The 3rd row was more for the added cargo room, we travel with a lot of camera equipment and long light stands. Also looking to the future when they might be necessary for people. I realize the 3rd row isn't a requirement due to always hauling 7 people.
We're talking about the previous gen XC90 right? I thought the 2.5 turbo 5 had some transmission issue? We bought ours for my wife so we opted for the 3.2 because the 2.5t had been too old by then, my wife didn't need the extra power from the Yamaha V8 engine and the 3.2 used regular gas. We bought our 2007 3.2 as a CPO in 2009 with all options (incl 3rd row seat, rear seat entertainment system with aux so you each screen can watch different movie, GPS, seat heater, xenon with swiveling headlight etc). One of my children is still in booster seat and the built in booster in middle of the second row is really awesome. I don't need to carry around booster seat with me lol.
It's been pretty reliable with the only issue requiring a flat bed being a worn out pulley that caused the serpentine belt to make really high pitch noise and intermittent lost of power steering at close to 100k. It turned out that the pulley and its tensioner was a wear item that needed to be replaced as part of 120kmiles service so I just had to replace it a bit earlier. The other issue was that the bottom of the middle muffler somehow came open at about 110k-ish miles and I have a leak somewhere in the flex joint at the bottom of the header after the cat so it didn't trigger CEL. Because it didn't trigger CEL I just let it be. Most recently I had to take it to a Volvo specialist to disconnect the GPS from the car's computer because the screen stuck in the up position with a message to insert CD and it drained the heck of the battery. The Volvo specialist was able to somehow disconnect the GPS for 1 hour of labor. I haven't used the 2007 GPS database for a long time anyway. From appearance standpoint I think getting one with Xenon headlight make a huge difference. The line inside the headlight is different so the one with Xenon looks slimmer and a lot more modern.
Other than that after close to 7 years it's been surprisingly okay considering all the bells and whistles that came with it. Oh the transmission once in a blue moon would downshift hard unncessarily if I accelerated hard and made the turn say at an intersection with traffic light. But it's really hard to replicate so I just let it be. I think being able to use regular gas makes a difference in running cost although I must admit it only has adequate power because of the 3.2. If we had bought it for me I'd have gotten the Yamaha V8 for sure. Hope this helps.
The 6 is the 5 plus one.
The 8 is the Taurus SHO V8 with a buncha more displacement.
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