anyone have a Volvo XC90?

[mckenzie]

We are looking at changing our car and would like one with the option of 7 seats. I drove the Volvo today and it ticks all the boxes re seating options etc.
A friend of ours had one though a year or so ago and eventually it had to be bought back by Volvo because there were so many faults. This obviously makes us rather nervous. Obviously he could have just been very unlucky and had a dodgy one-off but who knows.
Any experiences to tell here please?

TIA.

I would HIGHLY reccommend the Hyundi santa fe 7 seater - fab, and MUCH cheaper than the volvo (use left over money for several pairs of jimmy choo shoes!!!!! )

thanks both of you. I shalll add the Santa Fe to my list to investigate further.

I wish!

Yes I've got one - had it for around 14 / 15 months. No faults to report yet. Easy to drive, roomy, looks pretty foxy. Costs a bit but you get what you pay for in life (generally)

Don't get the windows blacked out though unless you are a ponce . I hate to see that - I think; you're not that farking interesting that I want to eyeball you!

However next time I buy a car I'll probably get the Lexus SUV - hybrid vehicle with a better carbon footprint and all that jazz

We have had ours for two years with no problems at all. Felt like royalty climbing up into it for the first time! We've got five children so needed the seven seats. It does feel very solid and safe. It took us months of hard thinking to decide what to buy...

the hybrid cars use more energy in production than they'll ever save. i heard.

and darkened windows mean you can leave the sleeping baby/toddler in the car for 3 seconds while you stand 5 meters away waiting for another child to come out of school/playgroup/whatever without people reporting you to the police for abandoning them. and poncy people too of course. i am both (bad mother and ponce, so they suit me well) they also shade the dc from the sun so you dont have to stick up shades that fall off... dark windows rock. im afraid.

XC90 - afraid i do have a fault to report. i had one which had a fault with the alarm. it went off. a lot. and only stops when you go out to the car, put key in lock and disable it. otherwise it keeps going off all night. so you end up locking it manually and not having the damn alarm on. unless you hate your neighbours i guess. volvo said it was a recognised fault for which they would soon have a fix, but not yet. they said this every time we called or had it serviced for about 2 years. its still not fixed. but its sold now, so not our problem anymore. i think it was a small leak in the sunroof that was the problem, but you cant tell mechanics their job, they hate you for it.

otherwise, i really liked it! oh, except for the turbo-lag. that was a right PITA (i had turbo deisel)

thanks very much for all the replies.
I think the Volvo is at the top of the list at the moment.

OK ok I concede that tinted windows may have a legitimate practical purpose

But they still look poncey .....>

Also you can apparently (never tried this) collapse all the seats flat with the exception of the driver seat if required - hey presto, a removal van.

Cool

the 3rd row is indeed perfectly servicable...unless the second row is populated by - count em - 3 baby seats, in which case they dont move forward and so the back row seats have to be climbed into from the boot and by v small or short-legged people. but hey, as the driver, that'll never be you so who cares?? lol. seriously though, the 3rd row are not great for say, grandparents. honestly.

and HMC -

dh- volvo technician says:
the new ones are much better. the older ones suffered from wheel bearing problems and tracking problems.
they have all been upgraded now and if there is a problem with the bearings they replace both under warranty.
the new 185bhp diesel is a lot better than the old 163bhp.

that's what he has just spouted whilst playing xbox.

he mumbled something about it is not turbo lag but the torque is not all in 1st gear as if it was it would blow the gear box up there is so much of it.
dont make sense to me- lol

The only thing I'd like that it doesn't have is Isofix in the back row but it wont stop me buying it if it ticks all the other boxes as DD wont be in that seat for too much longer. I was impressed with the built in booster seat in the middle of the second row. I'm sure a lot of cars will be offering that though going forward with the new law in mind.

Thanks again everyone for all the comments and thanks to your DH Ladyoftheflowers. Nice to hear a technicians view point.

ladyofflowers - just remembered im sposed to be coming to you to give you a pram!!!! doh. sorry sorry, busy week round here... promise ill come soon!

the turbolag thing, whether it was turbo lag or not, was prob a good thing; meant i had to be less of a girl-racer than i have a tendency to be besides, dp found some software thing recently that retuned it or something and it was a bit better. and its sold anyway, so moot point...

oh yes built in child seat is a bonus.

and the dc can each have headphones and listen to own music (mine too small to have benefitted from this)

and leather (effect?) seats a good thing with dc as can wipe off milk/choc/puke/squished fruit no probs!

we got an ex-demo one so was only a year old and had been spec'd up for showing off purposes... was like new but without new pricetag. cunning.