In 2012 my ’07 Tahoe was burning oil faster than GM knew what to do with it, so my dad decided to trade it in. I was given task to choose my own car; my dad had given me the title to the Tahoe, and told me to trade it in for something equal or lesser value. At the time the Tahoe still had a decent trade-in value, despite its ongoing oil consumption tests. Now, before we get too carried away here on what I choose, my family has always driven Volvos for as long as I can remember. I knew that I didn’t want a GM product, and my budget was still limited. I had always liked the styling of the XC90, and didn’t care if it was a mom car. As luck would have it, Crain Hyundai in Bentonville had two used XC90s on the lot right at budget. Since the nearest Volvo dealer is two hours from me, I decided to go look at them knowing that these probably didn’t come up for sale often.
I stopped by the dealer, and test drove the 2009 and then the 2008 XC90. The 2009 was red with AWD, navigation, and HID headlights, and I had decided that it was too much even with my trade in. So, the 2008 XC90 it was. It was a Willow Green FWD model, with heated seats and blind spot monitoring. Upon receiving the Carfax, I discovered it was a lease vehicle with roughly 25,000 miles. The dealer needed to sell the car, as it had been on the lot for some time. So with little work negotiating, the keys were mine on election night 2012.
As I had mentioned before, the car had heated leather seats, and BLIS (Volvo’s blind spot system). The leather was a tan color, which I hated since blue jeans would transfer onto it easily. The dash was a nice chocolate brown that I think complimented the interior nicely. One of my favorite things that this car had was the split tailgate. It came in handy on several occasions when loading things into it.
The Volvo was relatively trouble free for my two year ownership period. Not long after I bought the car, the check engine light came on, so I took it back to the selling dealer. They discovered I had not tightened the gas cap tight enough, and that was that. I also recall a small oil drip in the garage one time. When I took it to our local Volvo mechanic he discovered that during the previous oil change that the Hyundai dealer did, they didn’t tighten the oil filter tight enough, causing it to “weep”. Other than those issues, that were not at all the car’s fault, it was a pretty good car. It did have the 3.2 inline 6 cylinder, which was tremendously under powered, but hey, its a Volvo.
I drove this car a lot. It carried me to my freshman year in college, about 45 minutes south. Almost every weekend, I came home to do laundry, as the dorm laundry was always busy. Not to mention I am an only child, and my mom would give me the guilt trip over the phone as the weekend approached. I believe within the two years of ownership, I put about 50,000 miles on it. I took it to Canada to visit Niagara Falls, Dallas several times, and Memphis once. The biggest feat the car had was a trip up to Detroit to pick up my 1974 Volvo 164. As I mentioned, it had the 3.2 6 cylinder engine, but could still tow 5,000 pounds. When I struck up a deal on an old Volvo, it was time to hitch up the trailer and go get it. It performed well with a heavy car behind it, but it probably helped I had rented a U-Haul aluminum trailer. The self adjusting Nivomat shocks leveled the car out after a few miles, and I took the hills slow on the way home.
This car did have to hold true to its safety reputation. I had just gone through driver’s education classes, where they scared you into driving sensibly. They made you believe if you took your eyes off the road, you would die. I was leaving my job as a teller to go home for the day. I had just pulled up to a stop light when out of no where I was hit from behind pretty hard. I immediately jumped out of the car to check on the other driver, and we pulled off to the side of the road. Come to find out she was uninsured, and had a warrant out for her arrest. Needless to say it was a bad day for her, but it did nothing to the XC90.
Another time I was driving on our one and only interstate here in a torrential downpour. At the time I-49 was a four-lane interstate separated by a grass median. I had just moved to the passing lane to avoid a vehicle on the shoulder when out of nowhere the car in front of me slams into the car in front of it. Having very little time to react, I hit the brakes, but slid on the water, and clipped the corner of his rear bumper. The entire event caused $8,000 damage to the XC90, but after a bit in the body shop it came back good as new.
Looking back, it really wasn’t a bad car, just under powered. Not to mention, all the parts that were stamped on this car “FoMoCo” always seemed to be the parts that would fail. After about 2 years of ownership the car had 80,000 miles and I decided that since moving to Fayetteville I needed AWD. I had my sights on my next car, so I listed this one privately, and after a few weeks locked down a buyer. I did actually just see my car listed for sale recently, from the same people I sold it to. It has roughly 200,000 miles on it now and looks almost as good as it did when I sold it to them. After this car I had the Swedish itch that I couldn’t scratch.
Friend of mine in high school had a Volvo. V70 wagon, as I recall. Owned it for nearly a decade before it finally died, but it was a hard death. And just as you have said, it was the parts stamped FoMoCo that failed first.
One of my best friends owned an XC90 of this generation (a 2010 I believe) he loved. He drove all over the northeast in it, racking up close to 200,000 miles on it. He also did a lot of off-roading in it. I have fond memories of that car and those seats were just so superbly comfortable. He also successfully pulled a stuck Ford Raptor out of a snow bank off-roading with it!
Are Volvos really that expensive to repair? That doesn’t look like $8000 of damage to me.
About a grand in parts to paint a panel is $500 plus paint labour at $100+ per hour it adds up, Insurance companies here dont allow the use of used panels one reason wrecking yards are closing down all over and cars are just being scrapped not harvested for spares.
They had to replace the tire, rim, both headlights, hood, bumper, fog light, fender, side mirror, passenger door, radiator, washer bottle, and passenger door. It doesn’t look that bad, but since it was all new parts it adds up.
14 city, 20 highway, 16 combined – and it’s under powered? Yikes.
It really was an underwhelming experience. The AWD versions also dropped the MPG even more.
I saw a lot of these recently visiting a Euro wrecking yard that now does only Volvo, tidy looking Volvo SUVs were everywhere.
The original XC90 will go down in history as an accidental icon. While it came out at the same time that many other luxury marques were expanding into crossover territory (i.e. Touareg, SRX, RX, etc), its market longevity and rather unique persona have lent it a charisma that feels not too unlike the legacy of the 240. It saw a great bevy of engines from the original Modular blocks to the mighty Yamaha with your SI6 in between, it aced every crash test thrown at it over its fourteen year run, and it did so in that wonderfully aloof yet self-assured Volvo way. It was never the fastest, plushest, flashiest, or best driving option in its class, but that Swedish ingenuity is somehow innately endearing and the XC90 had it in spades.
I don’t think my 2012 XC70 will ever be regarded as quite so memorable, but it certainly got the longer end of the SI6 engine stick—in T6 form the SI6 totally wakes up, and with the Polestar flash it’s the polar opposite of slow. It’s crazy how essentially the same block (ok, sans 0.2L) can be so drastically reworked and I suppose goes to show the versatility of Volvo’s engine families. It always surprises me the XC90 never got the second generation T6 after the V8 was phased out since in Polestar form it makes +14hp and +29lbft on the Yamaha albeit with a less exciting soundtrack. I would imagine the 3.2 was smooth as heck, though; this probably sounds totally spoiled, but every now and then I feel like a total hoonigan in the turbo-wagon with its turbine whine and wastegate dump on a highway sprint and I wonder what the smooth and linear delivery of the 3.2 would feel like. My first car was a naturally aspirated V50 so I do understand the leisureliness of a non-turbo Volvo, though it somehow never really felt wanting even though 60 took its sweet time to arrive.
All said and done I quite enjoyed the write-up, and I can’t wait to see what comes next!
Great story of a now iconic Volvo.
Can’t wait for the COAL on the 164.
“Iconic”? Really?
One of them is coming soon. I have owned 6 164’s. I love them, and think they are just under appreciated.
You’re in NWA, Connor? I live south of you in Van Buren.
I do. We currently live in Springdale, but grew up in Bentonville. I went to college at the U of A in Fayetteville.
I kind of like the looks of these, but have never found Ford–era Volvos to be all that robust as they age.
Yes, that figure for your collision repair sounds quite normal. There is a lot of stuff packed under the first 2 feet of the front of a modern vehicle and most of it is expensive. Body repair and frame straightening is expensive from a labor perspective too.
Buy yourselves good insurance, kids – with high limits for underinsured motorists. In my state the minimum legal coverage for property damage caused to others is $10k, a figure that has not increased in over 30 years. As this tale illustrates, you can rack up a $10k repair bill after a collision at the snap of a finger.
I shouldn’t like these cars. I got my Volvo genes growing up with a 544 and a 122, and a 122 was my first car. Simple, robust, preferably with pushrods, twin SU’s and a long wobbly gearshift. When this came out, the idea of a large luxury CUV with the Volvo badge just seemed wrong. But as Alexander Moore noted above, they have become almost iconic. Lots on the roads, discreetly elegant, and practical. I’ve come to like them, as has been the case with many modern Volvo’s, despite the massive change in the brand over the last 50 years.
I’m curious what your future COALs will reveal.
If you have Volvo’s in your genes, then you will be interested in some more of my COAL’s.
A friend in Fayetteville bought a new Volvo wagon in 1993. Whenever it needed warranty work – which seemed distressing often considering he picked the Volvo for its reputation for reliability – he’d have to drive to Tulsa.
I could never figure out why anyone in NWA would buy a new Volvo before there was a local dealer.
You and me both. Come to find out it has to do with what dealer owns what rights in an area. NWA is fast approaching 1 million in population, and has a tremendous amount of wealth. We still don’t have Audi, Volvo, Porsche, Lexus, Jaguar, and Land Rover. To me we are loosing out on a lot!
You had better luck than my father in law. His 2002 XC90 with I-5 and AWD was rather troublesome, culminating in loss of rear drive one snowy day. After that he took my advice and bought a Lexus RX that was trouble free for 8 years, unlike the Audi Q3 that replaced the Lexus.
I recall the Volvo as nice enough to ride in but I think he should have gone for the 6 cylinder and 3rd row seats, or just bought an Acura MDX
Volvo’s do have a really bad reputation for faulty AWD. In an upcoming COAL you will have the chance to read about my AWD struggles.
I really enjoyed your write up! My wife and I really liked these and test drove one or two new ones over the years. They were just too small inside with three kids. But I have always really liked the styling.
I love the style of these. That color really works for it, too.
This is the only SUV from the modern era that I love the look of.
I’m surprised it’s underpowered; I thought those days were over.
Too bad Toyota/Lexus engineering can’t come wrapped up in skin like this as well.
Funny you mention the FoMoCo stamped parts. I had a 2005 Volvo S80 AWD that was relatively trouble free except for stupid stuff that Ford made, like the windshield washer pump and other stupid stuff. The Volvo parts were pretty reliable, save for a slow driver’s power window motor.
I also had a 05 S80. It was a great car, but my window motors failed too. I remember going to talk to my Volvo mechanic, and he said “see that part that says FoMoCo on it? It’ll fail like everything else on the car stamped with it”
I laughed because my dad is a die hard Ford guy.