9th Mar 2016, 14:12
Original poster here...
It has been 18 months since I last posted. We have had nothing go wrong over that time, and now have about 35,000 miles on the car. We also have twins in addition to a 4 year old. The 4 year old sits in the very back and the twins are in the middle seat. The ability to reconfigure the seats was well thought out and much appreciated. You can tell this car was designed with kids in mind. The amount of room when the seats are all the way is down is amazing. There is plenty of room for everyone, which makes us question our original plan of replacing this car in a few years with a Tahoe/Expedition. We will probably drive this car until the wheels fall off, and I think with proper maintenance we can do that.
The car is still rattle free. The upgraded leather is holding up well.
We did replace the Continental tires with Bridgestone Alenza Dueler 422s. We have about 6 months on those tires and they make the ride a lot better. They wear much better than the Continentals that came with the car from the factory. The traction on the snow, ice and heavy rain is quite good on these tires. I think I paid $1,000 US for those tires installed. I would buy them again.
28th Jun 2016, 14:16
Just an update from the original poster:
We blew another climate control blower motor last week - the second in 4 years. They also replaced the relay. If it were not under warranty, the repair would have been over $1,300 US. Hopefully this is not a recurring theme on this car.
14th Jan 2018, 18:18
Hello. Concerning the cabin fan blower, unfortunately I don't have good news for you: this is a widespread (read most will go bad) problem on all P3 Volvo models; basically all new models build after 2007, plus the latest XC90. On all S60 (2011+), S80 (2007+), XC70 (2008+), XC60 (2010+), V60 (2014+) and XC90 (2015+), the cabin blower recurrently goes bad at low miles - think about at each 40-60000 miles. In these cars Volvo has placed the cabin blower deep inside the center of the dash, making it hard to access, requiring about a 3h job (the dealer will charge more), plus you absolutely need a special tool (sold by Volvo for $160 or $100 on Amazon) to undo the blower from its location. Out of the warranty as you mention it's a $1200 job because parts of the left and right dashboard must be removed.
Here is a video showing this job on a XC70 (same as on all other models)
15th Aug 2019, 07:46
Hi there,
Thanks for sharing your experience so far. I am about to buy a 2013 3.2 with 100k (km) ~ 60k miles on it. Anything else I should know about?
Regards from Berlin, Germany
12th Dec 2020, 00:23
Original poster here.
Still have the car after about 9 years. About 2 years ago the computer and starter went out which was like 2 grand.
Since then it has been fine. We only have 74,000
miles on it.
It continues to eat tires. We only get 20,000 miles out of quality tires. Talked to the dealer and he said that it is normal. The car just weighs a lot and we load it full of stuff.
We will drive for another 2 years then trade it in. Probably not returning to Volvo. They have gotten too expensive and I don’t see the value there anymore. I don’t think a well optioned new XC90 is worth 70 grand. Sorry Volvo.
4th Sep 2022, 22:59
Original poster here.
We have had this car exactly 10 years as of the date of this post.
Still going strong. The blower motor situation has not happened in a few years. It seems to work better when the battery is fully charged. When the battery is low the blower motor won’t start, but then when the alternator charges up the battery enough, the blower motor starts out of nowhere and you have no issues. Now that I have it on a battery tender l have no issues.
88,000 miles on the car. It continues to eat tires, this is our 5th set that I put on this weekend with uniform wear. I spoke to the tire dealer and he flat out said… These cars just eat through tires. They’re heavy. I’ve done a lot of research and it looks like other similar cars like this report the same thing. I would recommend budgeting $1000 every other year for tires.
The center armrest has aged badly. It’s all cracked up. I can replace it for 200 bucks but don’t really care, I will be giving this to my son soon as I’m getting my wife something bigger. We have three kids and we are a family of giants.
I trust a friend with everything mechanical being pretty strong. The electrical is OK.
It does seem to eat a quart of oil every 5000 miles, but frankly that’s well within spec.
27th Oct 2014, 19:35
The design of the XC is a classic - the new one is out, but the one you have has more character, detail, and charm. The new one is a bit too austere. Please do keep us informed of your experience, or anything that goes amiss.