[SurströmmingSucks]

Volvo was historically known for safe and practical vehicles. However, now that they are focusing on luxury cars, I feel like there has been a serious decline in quality and reliability.

My 2013 S60 has had a lot of reliability problems, but luckily I was able to fix mahy of them myself.

At 20k miles, the fuel injectors failed. The spark plugs also had to be replaced due to fouling.

At 30-40k miles, the battery would drain and there would be constant "low battery" indicators.

At 50k miles, the transmission started having issues with slipping and hard shifting.

At 60k miles, it started burning engine oil excessively.

I fixed the low battery issue by removing the Siruis module and bypassing it with a MOST loop. The AM/FM radio doesn't work either after doing this, but I never used it anyways.

The oil consumption issue I repaired using additives, which isn't really the best solution. The dealership recommended an engine rebuild for $4000.

The transmission issue is also quite annoying to deal with. The dealership could not diagnose any problem. An independent shop could not figure it out either, and I will be taking it into the shop tomorrow.

 

[AM Reed]

I don't know. I've driven Volvos for over 30 years, and I've always found them to be durable but not necessarily the most reliable cars. Every Volvo I've ever owned has had its share of mechanical problems and quirks. They have all required constant work. If you want reliable, get a Honda.

I've owned my 2014 S60 for a year and a half, and most of the problems I've had to fix were probably more the result of exposure to abusive upstate NY winters and neglect from the previous owner, rather than representative of a decline in quality. The rest of the work I've done on it was just to get it to what I consider an acceptable stage zero state, where all the required maintenance has been done.

In many ways, I'd argue that fit and finish and overall "quality" of Volvo cars has increased.

 

[SurströmmingSucks]

I don't know. I've driven Volvos for over 30 years, and I've always found them to be durable but not necessarily the most reliable cars. Every Volvo I've ever owned has had its share of mechanical problems and quirks. They have all required constant work. If you want reliable, get a Honda.

I've owned my 2014 S60 for a year and a half, and most of the problems I've had to fix were probably more the result of exposure to abusive upstate NY winters and neglect from the previous owner, rather than representative of a decline in quality. The rest of the work I've done on it was just to get it to what I consider an acceptable stage zero state, where all the required maintenance has been done.

In many ways, I'd argue that fit and finish and overall "quality" of Volvo cars has increased.

I think the fit and finish of Volvos has definitely improved, but maybe they have always been mechanically quirky cars.

 

[VolvoFaRmeR]

My family has put hundreds of thousands on miles on over 10 Volvos, and we have never had a breakdown that left the car underivable or left us stranded. The most expensive repairs we have ever had to make were heater cores on cars with 150,000+ miles on them. Never have had a single engine repair or transmission repair...ever. My family has a lot of vehicles including Chevrolet, GMC, Chrysler, Fords and Audis, and by far and away the Volvos have been the least expensive to maintain out of all of them, despite the Volvos have 2x the mileage as many of the other cars. Currently we have 3 SPA Volvos, and they have proven to be the most reliable Volvos we have ever owned. With a cumulative mileage of over 100,000 the only repair (under warranty) was a sunroof alignment issue.

 

[Wayne T5]

If you want reliable, get a Honda.

I wish that were the case, lol. The dealer's estimate to replace the fried head unit on our 3 year-old just out of warranty CRV with 23k miles would have been around $2.5k - more than I've ever spent on a repair over my 30+ years and a dozen and a half Volvo's.

Sounds like OP has had his fair share of problems with his car but it's easy to fall into the trap of drawing conclusions based on the car that's in our garage at that moment and random internet chatter of folks looking to fix problems - it's not really representative of anything but those folks' personal experience with their one car.

When I think back to my first Volvo and fast forward to today, quality has improved immeasurably, durability about even or maybe a slight improvement.

 

[SurströmmingSucks]

I wish that were the case, lol. The dealer's estimate to replace the fried head unit on our 3 year-old just out of warranty CRV with 23k miles would have been around $2.5k - more than I've ever spent on a repair over my 30+ years and a dozen and a half Volvo's.

Sounds like OP has had his fair share of problems with his car but it's easy to fall into the trap of drawing conclusions based on the car that's in our garage at that moment and random internet chatter of folks looking to fix problems - it's not really representative of anything but those folks' personal experience with their one car.

When I think back to my first Volvo and fast forward to today, quality has improved immeasurably, durability about even or maybe a slight improvement.

My friend's Honda has been broken down for 6 months because the ECU broke and they can't get parts. It is only a couple of years old and Honda will not do anything about the issue.