1999 Volvo XC70

Summary:

It's great, I absolutely love it

Faults:

I bought this car from my mechanic 3 years ago and in that time I've only had to replace a brake light bulb, front brake pads, one headlight, and a sensor, all very inexpensive items. Besides regular oil changes and services this car has been incredibly inexpensive to maintain.

Besides those repairs, a couple of minor things with the interior: the center console storage compartment has cracked at the hinge, the passenger side window button is going, the change compartment lid comes off, the plastic panel where the seat controls are pops off occassionally, and the button on the shifter is cracked-all minor.

General Comments:

This car is great. Lots of cargo room, I've moved an entire 1950's dining set with a table and 6 chairs all in the back. The seat folds all the way flat and makes getting large cargo in a breeze. It handles okay with the all wheel drive. Good acceleration for it's size. Quiet, unless you add a roof rack. The seats are comfortable (unless you compare them to the newer models which are amazing). We have a 1-year-old baby and have no problem getting the car seat in and out and our large stroller fits in the back with plenty of room for luggage.

One complaint is the glare from the dash. The vinyl is very shiny making it hard to see sometimes.

Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Don't Know

Review Date: 4th May, 2008

30th Sep 2010, 14:34

Now end of 2010 - my 1999 XC70 was repaired properly and nothing is broken.

I took care in a normal way (at Volvo dealer) and it is still like new - 12 years after its birth!

Alain RENAUD

CANADA.

1999 Volvo XC70 XC turbo AWD

Summary:

The Money Pit

Faults:

We bought this car used from a dealer. We just spent 3500USD on an oil leak, transmission leaks, and doing regular maintenance on the car. Now, we're told by the dealer that it will take another 5000USD to fix further oil leaks and valve stems. There's an open recall on the throttle body of the car, but the dealer is refusing to fix it under the recall. Amazingly terrible service from the dealer, and a completely unreliable car. We used to be "Volvo For Life" until we bought into the v series of these cars. Now we'll never buy another Volvo again, and that's a sad statement to type here. We're looking at BMW now, after owning only Volvo's for the last 15 years. Sad, sad day.

General Comments:

Overall, the interior of the car is much improved from the older 240, 740, and 940 vehicles that we've owned. However, we regret having parted with our older Volvo's for our pieces of v70 junk. The engines will not stand the test of time, the transmissions are terrible, and dealing with an AWD with Volvo is like driving on egg shells.

Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? No

Review Date: 23rd April, 2008

27th Sep 2008, 19:51

The funny thing is before I purchased my 1999 Volvo, I looked at various reviews, and try to weigh up the goods with the bads. Well to make a long story short, I screwed up, LOL. I have had nothing but trouble with it.

We purchased it with 199,000 km on it, and when started cold, it had a bit of a knock or rattle to it. It almost seemed that the oil pump just wasn't getting oil up to the valve train quick enough. But it seemed to continually get worse. We also had problems with oil slicks on my brand new $5000.00 paved lane way. I just don't get it, why did Volvo put out this crap, and not have a compensation plan for all the poor saps that had a nervous breakdown, listening to his wife bicker and complain about every little or big problem this car would develop everyday.

As far as I am concerned, we are done with this Volvo crap. We owned it for less than a year, and got rid of it for another vehicle. I have been a Chevy man all my life, and thought I might venture off and become a Volvo person. My friends thought I oughta become a school teacher, driving in it. I had to tint the windows the second week we had it, because I felt like a guppie in a big fish bowl, with everyone staring at me.

Oh well, I lived and learned, bye bye Volvo, and for all you folks out there, the best advice I can give you about buying a Volvo, is buy something else.

Peace Shipwreck.

29th Sep 2008, 03:55

You bought a high mileage car, which probably has not had an oil service.

My current 3 Volvos are all over 100,000 miles (2001 V40, 1998 S70, 1995 960) and none would even think about giving me any problems. I would drive them all everywhere and they are just superb vehicles! Chevy are unheard of over here, and are only related to poor quality cars in the UK, and for good reason! Go Volvo, you can't better them.

One very happy Volvo driver.

26th Sep 2009, 20:44

Volvo is Volvo, it's how you maintain it, like any other cars, but if you know nothing about preventive maintenance, and have never done it so far, it would be a disaster, especially if you don't know who owned it before. As long as you stick to the plan of what the manufacturer stated, Volvo is an excellent car.