Why do they pick on Volvo?

Because lots of them suck worse.  This is what Ford designed to replace the Volvo angle drive... And this is not the first one.  One dealer in town has three $2400 PTO's on the shelf.

Rav4's eat a bearing in the clutch unit on the front of the diff, and its a $1700 part.  

Mazda has an unlubricated spline that peels off the transmission output instead of the transfer case.

Chevrolet pickup trucks with the "awd" position on the switch eat transfer case clutches if you have rear tires half worn and engage the awd for a highway trip.  Or, the pump wears a hole in the case and mists all the oil out on the highway.

Volvo is not even close to the worst.

I don't know exactly why "less worse" is oddly reassuring to this new Volvo AWD owner, but it is.

I firmly believe cars are not as reliable as they were 10 years ago in general. The wife and I were very close to pulling the trigger on a year or two old XC90 (I really wanted the wool seats), they have plenty of their own problems. Oil consumption that seems to not always be solved with the upgraded pistons/rings, superchargers dying, an epidemic of warped rotors, o2s dying, dashes shrinking, timing belts not making it to their interval, and T8 failures. Everything pretty dang expensive, even stuff like an o2 sensor.

Who is picking on Volvo?

In reply to Opti :

Tell me more about the wool seats..

News flash: All vehicles suck.

Appleseed said:

News flash: All vehicles suck.

I suspect that's based on foolish choices more than actual facts.  
    My last truck (97 Chevy ) lasted  371,000+ miles and was hauled  off after 20 years of extreme overworking. Repairs during that time amounted to about $1000.  It went away because of Minnesota rust.  
      I've bought 22  brand new Vehicles.  21 Chevy's and a Ford. I doubt I've spent $1000 on repairs on any of them over their life. Typically I get 150,000 miles before they go away. 
   My first new Chevy  was a 1972 Vega GT   I sold it because I couldn't drive all 3 of my vehicles home from San Diego 
  My current truck 2016 Ford F-150 cost me $466 for a new actuator at 85,000 the only repair  so far. 
   
    

In reply to frenchyd :

I think he's right.  They all do suck.  But they suck in different ways, so some of them will only suck in ways you don't care about, or that don't show up in your usage.  And some do suck less than others.  I can't think of any vehicle I've ever looked at closely enough that I didn't have at least one thought of "why the heck did they do that when they built it!?"

Adrian_Thompson (Forum Supporter) said:

Who is picking on Volvo?

Go read any thread on this or any other website when somebody says they are buying an AWD Volvo.

In reply to frenchyd :

Oh, no doubt. But I'll bet somewhere there's a guy who's worst truck was a 97 Chevrolet pickup. He hated it. Like Subarus being terribly made. Unreliable. Then theres people with 300k with nothing but oil changes and brake jobs.

All.

Cars.

Suck.

How bad is base upon your tolerance for BS.

In reply to Appleseed :

Mostly people whine about how bad they have it.  This is true no matter what brand.

For instance.  "OMG teh angle gear !!!!1one"

Uh-huh.  Now tell me about how the interior isn't falling apart.  Talk about the air injection pump you don't have to buy because the air injection system it doesn't have didn't stick the checkvalve open to pump exhaust into the pump.  OMG timing belt!!! that can be changed in 45 minutes and does not require draining any fluids or having to reseal any covers.  

You have to remove the OTE pipe to do spark plugs!!  and not the intake manifold like a lot of engines

I bought a Volvo because they are the highest quality, most low maintenance vehicles I ever worked on.  Dey just work.

You wont see me buying one with Geely owning them. 

Appleseed said:

News flash: All vehicles suck.

There's something about knowing this is true, and still sinking time, effort and money into said vehicles and calling it a hobby.

I wouldn't have it any other way, though. 

DirtyBird222 said:

You wont see me buying one with Geely owning them. 

There is this, too.

My Volvo has Ford stamped all over it, which is fine by me...

The Wife's Suburban has rolled past 350k. Zero 4WD problems. 

Don't ask about window regulators though. I think the 3rd or 4th set was dropped off by UPS yesterday. 

In reply to Toyman! :

Caddy CTS4 seem to get about 150k before the transmission to transfer case interface strips out, for the same reason it happens on Volvos (and BMWs, and certain other cars)

You just don't hear about it much because people rarely get over 120k in those before the car gets scrapped.

I just rolled over 298k yesterday  In hexadecimal that is 12A!

I'm at ~250k in my Sequoia (true mileage unknown as the lift/big tires, almost a 10% loss per mile driven in odometer reading) but no issues with driveline components (knock on wood). 

15k in my 2022 Raptor - downshifts feel like the whole driveline is going to fall out of the car. If I go into any form of 4WD the transfer case makes awful noises. Dealer says thats normal along with the annoying exhaust system rattle on startups and the sunroof not wanting to close. 

This is why I bought a base, FWD Volvo in an attempt to minimize or eliminate these issues.

I still concede, modern Volvos are not as reliable as the 90's bricks

Pete. (l33t FS) said:

DirtyBird222 said:

You wont see me buying one with Geely owning them. 

There is this, too.

My Volvo has Ford stamped all over it, which is fine by me...

Seriously. Every time I've been under my V50, I've run into something new with a FoMoCo stamp on it.

In reply to 02Pilot :

And that is the Focus/3 chassis... even on this "all Volvo" car there are a lot of Ford labeled components.

The Ford Five Hundred looks like a cheaply made copy of a P2, too 

And for some reason a Chrysler ESIM or NVLD pump or something, with the exception that on Volvos they actually work and don't need to be replaced every six months, so I don't know which flavor it is, other than looking up and seeing a Chrysler connector on a European car

dannyp84 said:

In reply to Opti :

Tell me more about the wool seats..

In reply to Opti :

Oh my, those look cozy.

In reply to matthewmcl :

We were only able to find 2 in DFW with them. 1 was a xc90 and 1 was a xc60. The XC90 was at the top of the list and we almost bought it, and truthfully one of the main reasons it was at the top of the list was the seats. They are awesome. I wish there was more use of different textiles in modern cars.

The volvo salesman said he loves the wool seats and talks to buyers about them but in the US luxury is equal to leather in most peoples eyes. Itd be nice to have decent cloth or wool seats available.

I miss the velour from the 81-85 240's.  Tough, easy to clean, comfy.

Three Volvo's in my fleet, basically because they all make gravity and sunrise look a bit iffy in comparison on reliability.