2002 Volvo XC70 Std Engine - T5 from North America

Summary:

Shame - would never buy again - completely unreliable and horribly expensive

Faults:

Most recently, @ 98k miles, the transmission died. Thankfully, we bought it certified pre-owned and it is covered save a deductible. That would not be irritating save for three things: 1) it has been dealer serviced, per full recommended svce, every 3k miles; 2) it came back with three more problems not there before we sent it in; and 3) it has had various and sundry other problems in its career w/us - shocks and springs, several brake jobs, wheel alignments, various electrical malfunctions - pwr windows, headlights, etc.

In general, the a/c controls are confusing at best - have to run a/c to run front window defrost, etc, and the stereo (which sounds great) has very confusing - non-intuitive controls. The car does not track steadily on the highway. You constantly have to adjust by millimeter adjustments as you drive. The tires wear unevenly and very quickly and are very expensive to replace as it generally only accepts Pirellis in a non-standard size.

General Comments:

See above comments.

However, the car is beautiful. It is very enjoyable to drive with adequate acceleration and decent handling/steering.

It is very good in snow.

It is very comfortable, particularly on long trips.

The stereo is great.

We use the sunroof all the time, as well as the heated seats in the winter (the only reason to get leather IMHO).

But the above comments ruin it all.

The gas mileage is not bad.

It has a pleasing cabin and good rear room and good cargo space.

Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? No

Review Date: 7th September, 2007

10th Sep 2007, 03:00

The a/c comes in automatically on these on defrost as the a/c will defrost the screen quicker than normal air - another Volvo safety feature (they were one of the first with this feature as standard!!!)

10th Sep 2007, 15:51

Thank you for the A/C comment. I had not heard that before.

As a followup to my original note above, we just got the car back from the Volvo dealer with the new transmission, and also a burning engine smell, a noise from a wheel when turning right, and a gas filler lid that would not close. So the car went back in today.

The dealer said they did not cause the gas filler lid to break since they would have no reason to open it. That aside, it is $300 to replace the gas filler lid motor. That's a monthly car payment to a lot of people.

As I said above, "HORRIBLY EXPENSIVE." Oh, and we are just over our 100K warranty. I would never buy another Volvo.

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2002 Volvo XC70 2.4 turbo from Hong Kong

Summary:

Nice car shame about the reliability

Faults:

Auto transmission started to fail after 18 months. The local dealer was very good, but they couldn't rectify the problem. The car had the gearbox changed twice, it is now on number 3, and was then told it was was a software problem. Specially written software for us still didn't work.

Driver's side seat started to get a bit soft where the weight is most whilst getting in and out of the car.

General Comments:

Volvo went to a nice shape in 2002 but they didn't back it up with reliability which used to be their good point and the reason we bought it. They went and tried to be too clever with an "Adaptive" gearbox. We sold it on three months before the warranty ran out because we had no faith in its long term durability.

Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? No

Review Date: 8th May, 2005

2nd Feb 2009, 12:06

I bought my 2002 Volvo XC70 as a "Volvo Certified" used vehicle in 2004. The car had about 48,000 miles on it and it now has 96,000 miles on it. The warranty that came with the car as a "Volvo Certified" used vehicle ran out a few years ago.

Since the car has nearly 100,000 miles on it, I recently drained out of the transmission about one gallon of fluid and replaced it with about four liters of transmission fluid I purchased directly from the Volvo dealer. Once the new fluid was in, I rolled the car off the ramps and took it for a test drive only to realize that when the car shifts from 2nd gear into third, it's like shifting into neutral; then engine revs and there is no forward propulsion of the car. In other words, I changed the trans fluid and effectively ruined the transmission because it has no third gear anymore.

I've searched around the Internet a bit and found many woeful tales of XC70 owners and their extremely fragile transmissions. I'm not the first person to change the fluid and have third gear go away. Apparently the "fix" (a used transmission) costs no less than $4,000 and doesn't provide much confidence because they tend to fail for odd reasons as well. I don't know what to add other than it's frustrating to receive marketing material from Volvo when I am so deeply unhappy with their product.

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