Looking at a used Volvo XC90 to replace my wife's Subaru Outback that has 180k miles. The Volvo is a 2006 T5 with 116k miles, 1 owner, asking $9500 Does anyone own or know much about them? I know the timing belt will need to be changed at 120k. I'm considering the Volvo since I live in a heavy snow area that uses a lot of salt on the roads. The AWD is desired for winter driving although I know fuel mileage will suffer. The Volvo's never seem to rust unlike the Subaru. I know the T6 is known for transmission issues but the T5 seems to be ok. Thanks for any info.
We looked at the XC90 pretty hard and I really liked it except. . . at the 40K on the odometer it felt clapped out. It was slow, heavy and the interior was straight out of 1995 but I really liked it. Man, at 116K I'd be a bit nervous.
Thanks, I have shop and can do 90% of any maintenance, I'm not thrilled about the mileage either and may wait until something in the 80k range comes around for $3-4k more.
I've done some research on the XC90's. Stay away from the T5's, transmission issues. It's a GM? transmission. Crap.
I have worked at the volvo dealer for 5 years now. The T5 XC90's are fine, they have the AW transmission which is pretty bullet proof (was the T6 engines with the GM transmission, fyi volvo will warranty them well over 100k miles because of the issues). Do yourself a favor, spend the money and go to the dealer for a pre-purchase inspection. Make sure they hook it up to the computer and check for pending codes etc... and have them check the AWD function, ocassionally they will have an issue but theyre pretty solid and great in snow. The T5 is also a good motor, I have one with 191k on the clock and I just got done working on one with 150k on it. We see that motor/trans package last a long time with a lot of miles on them. Make sure to do the t-belt and water pump if you get it. Other than that they have normal issues that come up like any other car, its always a gamble buying used out of warranty.
After having a couple of them come through the body shop I used to work in, the steering radius and the cheap interior would be enough for me to look elsewhere.
Considered it before we bought our allroad, was warned to steer clear of the entire Volvo line due to a propensity to self-destruct around 150k. Of course, I was also warned about the allroad and the airbags (replaced with coilovers) and the aux water pump (replaced last week)...so hopefully we're good thru the winter. :up: And, of course, now that we've bought into the Audi, Sarah's dad and brother-in-law are now working at a Volvo dealership.
What motor do you have in the allroad? Our 2003 (I think that was the year) with the 2.7L twin-turbo blew up the tranny at about 90k miles. Lost reverse gear. Apparently its a known issue with an o-ring that fails....and you have to totally take the transmission apart to get to it. Traded it in on a 2009 Outback (new)...damn lucky they took it! Oh and we lost an air bag. I found an aftermarket one for like $250....easy to fix and it worked well...and we were able to keep the ride height adjustment.
We've got the 2.7. Know all about that reverse piston seal, dreading the day it goes out. According to my Kraut wrench, it was a 40 hr job to do the tranny R&R and get the tranny *completely* disassembled to get to it. Just saw an '03 with the 6-speed come across the CL with 94k miles for $7500. Where the hell was this one three months ago when we bought this slushbox-equipped one? :down:
We only had the transmission and one air bag go in 40k miles. (started at 55k). And damn they are fast. No turbo lag.
Well, we've had one airbag and the aux water pump go in 4k miles...but at least one of those problems won't happen again. No turbo lag? Ours is a dog from a standstill, if you punch it to get into traffic from a parking lot, you'd swear it stalls. Once it's rolling it picks up steam quite nicely, but there's definitely a lot of lag at low r's. :down:
I looked hard at the XC90 when I was buying my truck. I really liked it, but couldn't get past how gutless the T5 motor was for the weight of the vehicle. And the other engine engine options really up'd the price tag. I went with a Acura MDX and am so glad that I did.
Only off the line from a dead stop, and less so when I used "Sport" instead of "Drive". From my reading, there's some mods out there to reduce the lag, but the slushbox is notorious for having a shitty off-the-line response when not using "Sport" mode, and only marginally less-so then. Get it rolling, and it's got snot galore. Absolutely love it when I'm mashing it when the motor's already spooled up. :up:
I was pretty surprised by its apparent anemia too, but everything I'm reading says that's pretty much the nature of the beast. Don't tell Sarah, but I'm gonna go look at a 6-speed allroad tomorrow. :up:
