Faults:

The rear brake pads wear away like crazy... and heavily deform the rear discs, making them unfit for a resurface.

The doors are tank heavy, very beefy... like safe heavy... get it?

At 50000 kilometers the driver's door central lock mechanism no longer works well, and that's within warranty... but every time I go for an oil change, I neglect it because it takes them forever to do anything really.

At 55000 (around 35000 miles) the window got stuck half way, then lowers itself on its own. I'm guessing the door mechanism is getting stuck by something which initiates a safety procedure (automatic lowering when something gets caught between the window and the frame... to prevent hands or limbs from getting broken or something).

At 60000km, the A/C clutch went out, and in a country like Kuwait where the temperature gets as high as 59 Celsius, it's not good, and the car is useless and you're basically cooking inside the car. Lowering the window doesn't help here. I got used to the intense heat, so a new one would go for around 1200 dollar with labor at the dealership, and this happened right after the warranty was out. Bought a used one from eBay for 260 dollars, and had the A/C system flushed, cleaned and charged up for far less... Still works today...

At 95000 kilometers (60000 miles) the mechanical vacuum pump (creates a vacuum for the brake booster) leaked out air and oil from the engine, and that's a common failure on the straight 6 cylinder engine, turbo or non turbo; 200 dollars for the new hose + labor fixed that at the dealership.

At 101200 kilometers the right/rear electric park brake motor jammed/or module went bad. Went to all the Volvo specialists... and they all failed to help me and mentioned that I should head for the dealership and bite the bullet... as they are not experienced enough to deal with this (calibrating and all that stuff), despite having the original scan tool. What's wrong with a manual cable operated parking brake?

So I'm afraid no local garage can fix this the right way... How much is it going to cost? No less than 1500 dollars.

You see these cars are great as long you're in the warranty zone...

General Comments:

This is the T6 R-design (a slightly tuned T6) which has the sporty steering wheel + lowered factory suspension and additional 10HP. Also larger brake calipers.

Good things about this car?

Well the seats are super comfy, the air conditioner is ice cold when set to 22 Celsius (even colder than Japanese cars, so it's a very capable air conditioner), and if you set it to 14 Celsius, you will freeze to death, no joke.

New rotors and brake pads are replaced every around 45000 kilometers... don't waste your time trying to recondition the rotors (400 dollars here + labor).

Super quiet engine and smooth transmission.

Oil changes are every 10000 kilometers (6500 miles), but I'm generous enough to change it every 5000 kilometers... and I keep my engine bay spotlessly clean (100 dollars for both oil and filter + labor).

The more the car is complex, the more likely something would go wrong. That's why my Dad's 1990 Volvo 740 is still running in perfect condition.