Volvo XC90

Instrument 41 · 04-21-2012, 02:04 PM

Looking to replace the Suburban. Don't need the space any longer and wife likes the XC90. Looking in the 2007 to 2009 years. Anyone here have first hand experience ?

Steve Carlton · 04-21-2012, 04:23 PM

It's a good car. Comes in a front-wheel drive 6 cyl, AWD 6 cyl, or AWD V8. The V8 is the one to get, IMO. Transforms the car. Officially 2mpg less, but in reality almost the same.

911boost · 911boost's Garage

We have an 06 V8, it's been a great SUV

HardDrive · 04-22-2012, 08:43 AM

Everyone I know that has one loves it.

kaisen · 04-22-2012, 09:06 AM

I'll be the voice of dissent

They're fancy Fords, built on the Taurus platform, using a Ford transmission. Google XC90 transmission and you'll see about a billion threads with transmission failures.

There's only about a dozen other, better, crossover SUVs out there. Buy the XC90 for its style and price, or the fallacy of Volvo's safety or European snobbery. But I'd pass and find something else.

YMMV, I know I'm in the minority.....

911boost · 911boost's Garage

The gm transmission is the one that fails and it was used in the T6 version early on.

Jeremy Clarkson's wife drives a V8 version as a side note, not that it matters

Steve Carlton · 04-22-2012, 10:18 AM

The XC90 shares the S80 platform, which I'm sure has Ford DNA in it. Don't see how that's an issue, Eric. It's well known the transmission issues come from the GM-sourced transmission that went into the 2003-2005 T6 model. That transmission was successful for GM, but not up to the task of the weight and AWD in the Volvo.

The XC90 has a gyroscopic rollover system that will not allow the car to tip over by steering input alone. All 7 seats have pre-tensioners, and the side curtain airbags extend to the third row. I've seen photos of an XC90 that had a head-on collision with a Camaro at a combined speed of 100mph. The Camaro was unrecognizable, like a wad of tinfoil. The Volvo was crunched about 2/3rds of the way to the windshield. Behind that, it looked normal and the doors operated normally. As you said, YMMV.

ertech · 04-22-2012, 02:57 PM

Great car as long as you dont get he t6 it is a piece of s...
The only real prolem are wheel bearings and awd sensor , leaky bevel gears

Instrument 41 · 04-22-2012, 03:27 PM

Tell me about the AWD sensors. I am looking at a 2007 AWD V8 with 42K on the clock.

fanaudical · fanaudical's Garage

Any other opinions on the XC90? We're looking at a 2005 with the V8.

Instrument 41 · 05-02-2012, 05:51 PM

I drove a 2007 V8 AWD. All I can say is that it looks much better than it drives and/or feels. Once you get going the V8 is nice but to get it going it really felt weak. I was expecting it to have a "heavier" feel. Still lookin.....

Scott R · Scott R's Garage

Quote:

Originally Posted by kaisen

I'll be the voice of dissent

They're fancy Fords, built on the Taurus platform, using a Ford transmission. Google XC90 transmission and you'll see about a billion threads with transmission failures.

There's only about a dozen other, better, crossover SUVs out there. Buy the XC90 for its style and price, or the fallacy of Volvo's safety or European snobbery. But I'd pass and find something else.

YMMV, I know I'm in the minority.....

I have to second this, major transmission issues in XC's, ungodly expensive to repair as well. Not just the GM transmission, it got worse with second generation transmissions through 2010 made my Aisin. The Aisin trans has issues with the bands, it costs about 5k to fix it.

Dealers have been trying to replace the dampers with no success, there is a class action on the 07's and up now as well.

Other XC90 Problem: - Xc 90 transmission noise . - Volvo Owners Club Forum

911-32 · 911-32's Garage

We had an 05 IIRC. Not many v8s in the UK and equally unlikely to find a T6 or T5. Over here they are virtually all turbo diesel I5s. The forums over here suggest the GM transamission is ok with the T6 (I thought it was only in the T6?) but I can't really speak to that. There is another transmission issue which basically makes the AWD into 2WD. These are really 2WD cars with drive transferred to the rear only when the front wheels slip. The transfer box has a bevel gear (presumably because they are all tranverse motors getting power to the rear wheels) and the teeth on the bevel gear can strip - resulting in only 2wd. Its really a problem on the diesels which have much more low down tq than either petrol engine, but was known to happen as far back as the 850T5 AWD. The forums suggest the bevel gear was redesigned at least 3 times in the history of the AWD drivetrain to try to fix the problem. I was quoted GBP1100 to fix/replace it but ended up trading the car.

What else goes wrong? They are known to be heavy on tyres and brakes. While that is common to heavy SUVs I think the XC90 is a little worse than other "sporty" SUVs like say an x5 as it runs on narrowish 235 section tyres and the brakes are a little smaller. They also go through wheel bearings as there is a faulty seal design that lets water into the bearing over time. Also handbrake cable stretches beyond adjustment range over time. Its a foot operated park brake thing like a Mercedes and our solution was never to use the horrid thing - not a hardship in an automatic.

What is good? Great seats and generally a very nice interior. Incredible utilisation of space and lots of nice touchs, clever stuff on the inside. Its a pretty relaxing place to be on a long trip (good ride, quiet, long wheel base, good stereo, DVD screens in the seat backs) and can be hussled along a twisty road faster than you might think. You can tell that a lot of the development budget went on the interior.

Myadvice is go for the latest you can afford as they did redesigns of the known issues over time to try to fix them.

speeder · 05-03-2012, 08:57 AM

Eric, Volvo safety is a "fallacy"?? Are you saying that they are not safe vehicles, or simply that other makes equal them? If the former, it's a real head-scratcher...

I would put Mercedes Benz alone ahead of them for full line crash-worthiness. There are of course many other individual models of other makes that crash well and industry-wide passive safety is way up.

My BIL drives an XC-90 in Mpls., I've frankly never even walked 10 feet to the curb to look at it. Someone was just telling me the other day that auto journalists really rave about those things as one of the best in class, I had no idea. I'll have to drive his sometime.