05'ish XC90
 

Not really familiar with them.

Daughter is getting her license and I hung onto the Tahoe for her first DD.

It's a lot of truck for a new driver, not working out entirely as well as I had hoped.

Mom wants her in a smaller SUV, midsize.

NOTE: Please let's not debate why mom wants what she wants, lets just accept it and move on.

I'd prefer a cross over, something on a car chassis.

I'll toss ~$3k at something.

First car and I expect some undue wear and tear, basically looking for something I don't care about if she brings it home dinged up.

Was cruising Craigslist and came across a couple of the XC90 2.5L's in the 120-150k mileage range and at close to the right price point.

What do we know about these things?

We bought a brand new V8 XC90 in '06, was pretty trouble free other than needing brakes fairly often. My ex got rid of it a few years ago, i would buy another one.

Get a first gen Lexus RX w a few pre-installed scrapes and call it a day. :)

I drove a Tahoe in Texas once.
Even Texas wasn't big enough to contain it. I'm good with spacial relations. The Tahoe would fill a parking space like an aircraft carrier squeezing through the panama canal. If my daughter has even 1% of her mom's lack of spacial awareness, she has no business being at the helm. Even an xc90 seems big in that regard.


As for the Volvo- I have a xc70- not xc90, but some things are similar. The AWD system can give trouble from a number of places, so if she is going someplace that needs AWD, I would get something else. IF the AWD system gave trouble- I would just pull it off. It's not worth messing with if you don't need it. I ran mine without the AWD system for a summer and got about 2 miles more per gallon.

My 2005 has plastic headlamps- which I have to buff out once a year with rough cut cutting compound. Keeps them nice and shiny.

Make sure the transmission oil has been changed. If the xc90 has the same transmission, it can develop shifting problems. Make sure it isn't coming up for a timing belt change or something mileagewise. I would go for the lowest mileage one I could find for the sake of the tranny. It probably has never had the oil changed. Watch for hard shifts / or delayed shifts during test drives. During test drives- hit brakes hard (decelerating abruptly/ enought to cause a downshift)- then hit gas. That will trip a hard shift sometimes. Also decelerate through right hand corners, then hit gas. Basically, they can't downshift right and they engage the clutch too quick and it the tranny beats itself up.

The xc70 also has a cheesy plastic gas cap cover. I'm assuming the xc90 has the same. It's a joke.

I would hook up a code reader and see what it has to say. My car would have codes that wouldn't necessarily throw a CEL, yet, stuff would still register -particularly AWD codes.

Also- my xc70 has a broken sunroof computer, and alarm computer. So check the sunroof for operation. It wont show on the dashboard messages. The alarm system does.

For the money- you are probably fine, but yeah, I would look at a lexus too, especially from a manageable size standpoint for a new driver.

(on the bright side- it is a car (unlike some) that you can work on. They have been around long enough there are good resources for backyard mechanics. I just hit 190,000 on mine. )

wife has one. rolling module failures. tech told us that leaves get under the hood near the windshield and collect water. this affects the computers. if you believe this it means volvo engineers built a car that was defeated by leaves.

on the other hand we seem to have the only XC90 not suffering from the AWD problem.

the only reason to buy one is that no teenager in the history of the world has ever said "we're going on a beer run, let's take the volvo."

Oddly enough, there are more XC90's available in the area than the RX.

Newer with lower mileage at a comparable price point.

Seems the bulk of the RX's are at the "Cheap Charlies Bad Credit OK" corner used car lots that seem to come and go with the phases of the moon.

Open to other suggestions as I do value and trust your input.

Thanks for the detailed input.

Side note, just got back from a couple of weeks in S Florida.

Going out to lunch with my wife I noted "You know the one great thing about this area and all the old people? The generous size of parking spaces"

LOL

Personally I would lean towards a Honda CR-V. Volvo repairs can be expensive.

Is it Steve Carlton that's the expert on Volvo's?

We never had AWD issues with ours.

Did have the headlight plastic issue though, but that was solved fairly easily.

Take a pass.

I had a T6, which has 2.9 litre I6 and twin turbo, and it was one of if not the worst car/vehicle I've ever owned.

Transmissions were a known fault. So much so that there was a class action lawsuit. Mine was changed twice.

The turbos don't provide enough boost to move that large beast. Then you have to change them. Mine started getting noisy around 100k on the odometer.

They eat, and I mean eat, tires. Plan on a set every 18 months if you are lucky.

They eat brakes. This is a pretty heavy vehicle and it takes a lot to stop it.

The interior is pretty rugged but our master control switch on the diver's door broke. So no window operation or door locking from the driver's door until it was replaced.

Crap gas mileage.

The suspension is not built to take the weight of the vehicle. Prepare to replace bushings everywhere if this one is older.

Headlight fogging.

Other than all that, what's not to like?

I don't know about reliability, but I suspect it's not very good, considering the depreciation. There may be a reason why XCs are cheaper than Lexus RXs. But for their years, they are some of the safest vehicles on the road. That's not a bad reason to get one for a new driver.

I owned a 2009 xc90. My parting words were "I'll never buy a Volvo again".

Expensive to maintain. Consumables are consumed quite quickly. Fuel pumps go and we had all sorts of mystery noises. No real joy in driving. The only thing I liked was the rear tailgate was two pieces.

Subaru Forrester on the other hand…that was a great car twice!

My 2005 xc90 crapped the transmission at 23,000 mikes. I'd go rx or crv.

Thanks all.

Volvo is out.

RX, CRV, Subaru's, Mazda 7 (which i'd love) are ll in real short supply here.

Trailblazers are a dime a dozen. May look at that.

hmmm I like the trailblazer idea. seems it would be rugged. we had a Grand Cherokee some years back. '01 I think. I got nervous about the transmission but only ever had to replace some sensor on it (easy $20 DIY thing). won't have modern nannies but did have airbags. might be a good choice too. dirt cheap and the 4.0 motor has a good reputation. personally like the styling as well.

In case you missed this thread. I was in similar situation buying for a 1st time driver. Great input from the crowd:

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/off-topic-discussions/947711-first-car-16-year-old.html

Boring as can be the we have a Hyundai Sante Fe thats just keeps ticking. Control arm bushings wore out, a few sets of brakes, an axle.... in ~150k.