Faults:

Less than 60 thousand miles... Transmission service urgent light came on... 15 minutes later, check engine light came on... then 4th gear gone.

Transmission needed to be replaced.

Call volvo... they repaired my car at no cost.

General Comments:

Other than sudden transmission failure... I am happy with the car.

Faults:

The front headlight covers are faded badly. Looks like a fogged up lens, but it's on the outside.

The 3rd seat would not fold down all the way, and I found a broken plastic piece, that I replaced. Cost about $3 at the dealer.

Besides that nothing has gone wrong yet, outside of normal wear and tear. It's never left us stranded.

I replaced the front rotors, and pads about 5k ago. And do regular oil/filter changes.

There was a recall notice about the fuel system, but the local Volvo dealer fixed it.

We did find out that the cost of the switchblade replacement key is too expensive. Around $400 just for the key. We went with the valet key instead, for about 1/2 that. It's terrible to think that you got a deal on a key when you pay $200 instead of $400.

General Comments:

I did some research before buying, and went with the T5 2.5 litre, 5 cylinder. It's a luxury car, with leather seats, sunroof, and a 6 CD unit. It doesn't have an jack for an Ipod though. But we make due with a cheap FM tuner, we bought at Rite Aide.

The tires are wearing low, now after 50K+ miles. Kumho Solus brand. Pretty good tires. I've taken this SUV through South Lake Tahoe in the winter, during a storm and it did fine. Didn't need to chain up like other drivers. There is a "winter" setting, and it just hugged the road, with plenty of traction. I've also taken this off road a couple times, in Minden Nevada area, going through some BLM land without any problems. Nothing serious though, just fair. It's a FWD most of the time, but when the front tires spin past a certain degree, it switches to AWD.

I had to do some emergency braking once, while doing 70 mph on the freeway, with it fully loaded, kids and all. The XC90 tracked straight, and level.

This T5 is good on gas, around 24-26 on the freeway. It doesn't have tons of power, but will get you around semi trailers and what not.

The heated seats are nice in winter. I like the dual controls for the A/C and heater. There is a rear A/C control for the seat in the back.

The sound system is nice, with head phone jacks for the rear passengers. They can listen to what they want with the control panels on the C frame pillar.

The middle seats can slide back a little, but not the 3rd row seats. There are lots of outlet jacks for accessories. I do like being able to put down all the seats and, even the passenger seat and load it down project materials.

Faults:

Engine nuked without warning due to popped hose. Total replacement of $10,000. Unclaimable.

Transmission gone at 67,000kms. Cost $8,000. Unclaimable and Volvo won't contribute.

Hoses collapse/pop off/need replacing regularly.

Brakes need machining regularly.

Lots of little things. In the workshop regularly.

General Comments:

As of November 2010, there's a Class Action in the USA underway with lawyers Chimicles & Tikellis. Contact them and list your name.

Faults:

We bought our 2004 XC at 57k; we thought the car was great..

We would never think Volvo would have any problems, because they are known for being very strong cars.

Well we bought the car in 2008, and now it's 2010, almost 2 years, but the car only has 87k and the transmission blew out.. I was driving up a hill and the car was rolling backwards.. thank god there were no cars behind me.