Faults:

One piece of interior trim replaced under warranty.

Numerous cleanings, etc. of throttle body, resolved with throttle control unit recall.

Recall for light harness. No symptoms.

Leaf in mass-air sensor. Cleaned myself.

Stitching opened up on driver's seat. Repaired myself.

Some interior trim wearing and fading.

Some intermittent, non-critical, lighting failures (left half of clock backlight, shifter indicator backlight).

Interior rear view mirror failed at hinge at 105,000 miles. Replaced myself with 850 mirror from u-pick-it for $5.

General Comments:

I wouldn't believe all the negatives. Must be some self-selection error going on here. I know lots of Volvo owners, and none have issues. Mine has been on 5,000 mile road trips without a fault. Mileage is better than when we got it, and it rides as well as ever.

Past around 80,000 miles the noise started picking up, and it's no longer as silent as you'd expect a European touring car to be.

I have paid for some serious repairs, but they are all from customer abuse. They do not behave well after being high centered, and mudflaps, air dams and the whole rear end have been repaired or replaced as a result of some unfortunate alignment with the driveway. Even these have been reasonable to repair.

Dealers are poor, and expensive when you get out of warranty. Any big-city owner should be able to find a 3rd party expert, however. Even Kansas City has 3-4 Volvo specific repair shops.

Faults:

Driveshaft went out almost immediately after purchasing used from dealer.

Control arm went bad on one side/front.

Thermostat went out, had replaced.

Had throttle body cleaned.

Had turbo cleaned.

Spring went bad, had replaced.

Engine mounts wore down to nothing, had them all replaced.

Idle control valve went out, had replaced.

Check engine light has come on probably 40 times since we bought it last year. Kid you not. Thank God we bought a car odbII reader that resets the engine light, or the dealer would be several thousand dollars richer yet.

Tons of issues with alignment initially, and after hitting tons of potholes in snow in Ohio, will need to get it all looked at again.

General Comments:

The interior is still in great shape for a car this age. I have spent over 4K USD in repair money and only paid 3500 USD for the car in the first place. This is our 8th Volvo, and I'm just honestly on the fence about buying another one. My husband owns an XC70 and it had the same issues with the "check engine" light coming on. But he hasn't had one issue with driveshaft/suspension like I have. His car was maintained through the dealer, and mine was driven to Denver and apparently run into the ground.

When I first saw this car, I knew it was the nicest Volvo in terms of interior that I'd ever driven. But the engine on our 940's and 740's blew this sucker away in terms of reliability. Bring back the B230FT engine! Sorry... got side tracked there...

Ahem...having had my car repaired at the dealer, I've driven all the new Volvos. My kids think it's all in great fun, and it's fun having a new car for weeks at a time. The newer V70's have this generation of V70 blown away in luxury, that's for sure. It's like a whole new level of sensory addiction. But at what cost? Each of the new XC70's/V70's that I've driven have had suspension/alignment issues. Each one. And the v50's bounce around like you're driving a light weight Yugo on the highway.

Due to this lovely recession we're in as a nation, we're going to keep driving our 7 series wagons until we just cannot take that stupid check engine light coming on one more time.

Honestly, I think if we would buy again, we'd look seriously at putting out more money and getting a BMW. I would love to be able to get my hands on a decent priced used (we never buy new) 5 series wagon. We need the wagon room and car handling. And for right now, my V70 and his XC70 are the best that we can get for the luxury and the price.