Are Volvo cars any good?

[fireblade]

Had the privilege of owning a brand new Volvo S40 couple of months back. It was more of an experience of owning that I finally decided to purchase one. It was a demo unit with 2t on the meter and was never registered. Got a real bargain from Viking Cars and it was just simply irresistible. Now comes the problem, it is very hard to maintain. It stayed with me for only six months and it was a good thing I never lost a centavo from using it. What were my experiences:

Downside :

1. Bird droppings easily damaged the paint job. Brought the car straight to Ziebart to remove the bird dropping to no avail, nasunog yung top coat.

2. Clearance is too low, easily scrapes the pavement for even not so low path

3. Gas gauge malfunctions at times and need to be brought to Viking for reset.

4. Got to talk to Volvo owners about the high maintenance costs as in HIGH.

5. Very low resale value for those who sell it a year later. Sold mine the same year and purchased at a bargain.

6. Everytime it rains, it is easily subject to acid stain, napoagod na ako kakadetail.

7. Their service is not that reliable.


Upside:

1. I can go inside Forbes and San Lo without a sticker.

2. No parking sign removed by security at the Fort whenever I arrive.

3. Building security in our office thinks I am the president of the company.

4. I feel safe.

5. I was doing 10-12km/liter for a 2.0/ not bad.

6. Full attention whenever I load gas.

7. Prestige.

Your call really if you want to own one or not. As they say, Volvo is for Life because you would not want to sell it because of the resale.

[Walter]

Your call really if you want to own one or not. As they say, Volvo is for Life because you would not want to sell it because of the resale.

:bwahaha:

Guess I'll stick with getting a W124 then.

[AG4]

I never knew the first S40 was based on the Carisma. Does that mean we can source out parts from Mitsubishi?

Only the basic platform was shared, a certain percentage of the parts are unique to each car(4,000 out of 5,000 parts), sort of like the new S40, Mazda 3 and Ford Focus.
I guess this is also one of the reasons why the S40 had better NCAP crash raitings compared to the Carisma.

[badkuk]

pagkakaalam ko volvo is known for car safety. in fact, afaik they invented/pioneered a lot of safety features seen on cars today.

di ko talaga gusto ung badge/grill ng volvo...though the S40 is cool

[MadMax]

I was actually thinking of getting a Volvo a few years ago, for the safety aspect, after my daughter was born. But my friend had a really bad experience with his Volvo. He brought his S80 with about 50,000 km to the dealer for some minor repair, got billed P180k to have the transmission redone!!! For a while, Volve was claiming that it was normal for a transmission to be replaced after 50,000 km!!!

This was a few months ago, I'll try to find out what happened and will update.

[Walter]

He brought his S80 with about 50,000 km to the dealer for some minor repair, got billed P180k to have the transmission redone!!! For a while, Volve was claiming that it was normal for a transmission to be replaced after 50,000 km!!!

This was a few months ago, I'll try to find out what happened and will update.

180K? That's too much! Didn't the dealer ask first before proceeding with the repair?

[MadMax]

180K? That's too much! Didn't the dealer ask first before proceeding with the repair?

Sorry, to clarify what I stated earlier, Volvo was quoting (not billing) the P180k as the cost of replacing the transmission.

Got an update from my friend. From P180k, the quote went up to P250k, and Volvo was still claiming that the whole transmission had to be replaced. After much haggling and negotiation, Volvo agreed to do the job for under P100k. So, with no other choice, my friend's 4-year old S80, which had run about 50,000km, had its transmission replaced late last year, at a cost of about P100k.

He tried selling the car, but did not because it had a very low resale value.

[Walter]

Squala,

Thank you for the information regarding the maintenance headaches of the 850. No wonder they are very cheap.

I mentioned project car because of the unknown in maintenance problems, not really in terms of modifying it.

Actually, budget for a car is still for next year. Just thought we (me and my friend) would get an 850 this year since they are quite cheap and try to see if it's as easy and cheap as maintaining a Benz (he's a very good DIYer). If it doesn't work out, then we'll just resell it.

Anyone out there with any good thing to say about an 850?

[Walter]

Madmax,

Maybe it would've been cheaper if he had it done at HABREC / Grupo Talyer? Although, it's not certain if they also repair high end Volvos. I guess it's also hard to sell the S80 since it's a top of the line model just like the S-Class Benz or 7 series. Most who can afford these models have the capability to buy new ones already.

[OTEP]

Kamusta ang repair facilities ng HABREC? May diagnostic computer ba sila?

Btw, I was at Paintronixx this morning having some paint redone on the W123, may isang 850 sedan doon being worked on. Pinalitan daw lahat ng valves. Not sure what the problem was. But it was the only Volvo in the Benz specialist's shop.

Yung 850 Estate namin wala pa naman problem. The odometer is busted but the engine computer still knows when to light the Service indicator. The unit is basically stock except for the Autopage anti-theft system.

[Walter]

Kamusta ang repair facilities ng HABREC? May diagnostic computer ba sila?

Btw, I was at Paintronixx this morning having some paint redone on the W123, may isang 850 sedan doon being worked on. Pinalitan daw lahat ng valves. Not sure what the problem was. But it was the only Volvo in the Benz specialist's shop.

Yung 850 Estate namin wala pa naman problem. The odometer is busted but the engine computer still knows when to light the Service indicator. The unit is basically stock except for the Autopage anti-theft system.

Just saw HABREC in the classified ads. Going to ask them which model of Volvo has abundant parts available.

Is it costly to repair the odometer of 850? What is the mileage of your 850?
Benzes (W124) are quite straight forward to maintain, hopefully the 850 will also be as easy, still scouting for a late model 850 since the earlier models had some issues. How about the parts for Volvo, are they easy to find?

[laklak]

i just arrived from the us last month, i was asking my uncle for a review of the volvo, because i've often been a fan of volvos especially the newer and rounder offerings. He said na since it was aquired by ford parang nawalan na sila ng tiwala sa quality. They steer clear, from Fords. To prove his point about Ford's quality, we took a 12(6hrs to and 6 hrs from) hour road trip from Chicago to kentucky. Nadaanan namin around mga 15 cars/suv, at different portions of the highway na "left for dead" at side of the road. Out of the 15, 12 of them are Ford ( different models, pero walang bulok, the newest model is the current explorer), 2 are Jeep Cherokees and 1 Honda Civic na hatch (yung first generetion na hatchback, pero in fairness to Honda, bulok na bulok na ito nung nakita namin)

What Im trying to say is, its only a matter of time when Ford's culture of "quality" catches up to Volvo's

[orly_andico]

kaya nga, eh,

Found
On the
Road
Dead

Fix
Or
Repair
Daily

even mazda has a lower reputation than Toyota and Honda.. and one wonders why.. hmm..
on the other hand Jaguar actually benefited from being taken over by Ford.

[niky]

Depends naman. Jaguar had horrible quality before Ford, now it's just acceptable. It's a British car, remember? But at least it's not MG... those were quite entertaining... driving with the top down, wind in your hair, engine on fire... :lol:

[edl100]

I guess after reading this post.

I have learned that buying a used volvo is not a good idea.

Unless it will be bought brand new with a 2-3 year bumper to bumper warranty.

Buying a used Volvo means you will shoulder the expensive maintenance cost of that RICH guy who owned the car BRAND NEW.

Maganda nga ang porma pero can afford ba ang pagawa??

[Walter]

I guess after reading this post.

I have learned that buying a used volvo is not a good idea.

Unless it will be bought brand new with a 2-3 year bumper to bumper warranty.

Buying a used Volvo means you will shoulder the expensive maintenance cost of that RICH guy who owned the car BRAND NEW.

Maganda nga ang porma pero can afford ba ang pagawa??

It really depends if one can find parts from independent supplier. Dealers are usually more expensive even with Japanese brands.

[civic1990]

We are considering buying a Volvo V50 brand new.

How is the quality of Volvo recently?

Is it really that bad? Wala bang Volvo that gives 5 years of headache-free repairs except for the regular maintenance (change oil,etc.) ?

[hein]

We are considering buying a Volvo V50 brand new.

How is the quality of Volvo recently?

Is it really that bad? Wala bang Volvo that gives 5 years of headache-free repairs except for the regular maintenance (change oil,etc.) ?

The newer Volvos are well-built....and beautiful. You can expect 5+ years of trouble free service.

[frenchtower]

Decide

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBDyeWofcLY"]YouTube- Fifth Gear - Renault Modus v Volvo 940 Crash Test[/ame]

[softop]

We are considering buying a Volvo V50 brand new.

How is the quality of Volvo recently?

Is it really that bad? Wala bang Volvo that gives 5 years of headache-free repairs except for the regular maintenance (change oil,etc.) ?

I have one: 2004, 62k kms. I'm happy with it. My wife is very happy with it. People at volvo are very nice. They will always try their best to fix your problem. Parts sometimes take weeks to arrive though.