Faults:

Leaking Sunroof at 15,000 miles.

1st Transmission at 36,000 miles.

2nd Transmission at 50,000 miles.

Engine Mount at 40,000 miles.

Steering Rack and sway bar endlinks at 55,000 miles.

Several interior plastic parts have been replaced because they have cracked or broken.

General Comments:

The XC90 is a relatively safe and comfortable vehicle that is plagued by poor design choices.

The exterior flows smoothly and is typical design scheme of Volvo P2 based vehicles.

The interior look standard, however the controls are laid out well and are easy to reach. Interior plastics are of poor quality and they break easily under normal use.

Mechanically this vehicle is a disaster. While the Twin Turbo Inline six is a solid engine, the transmission it is mated to was a poor choice. Volvo decided to use a General Motors 4 speed automatic (4T65AWD). This transmission has proven troublesome, regularly failing in many units due to a combination of poor quality parts, excessive vehicle weight, and all wheel drive equipment being fitted onto a transmission designed for front wheel drive use only.

The rack and pinion seems to be a trouble spot as well, wearing prematurely and resulting in a noticeable 'clunk,' especially when turning while in reverse gear (i.e. backing out of your driveway in the morning).

Faults:

Broken cup hold cover.

Rear bearing failed, but these were covered by the warranty.

OEM tires wore quickly (23K miles)

General Comments:

My XC90 V8 has been really great so far.

The performance of the engine is super. It has great pickup especially at highway speeds. The car is really fast from 50 to 70 for example. The ride is a little stiff, but you feel in control even when the vehicle is full.

The AWD works very well. I drive this in challenging snow conditions almost every winter weekend. The traction control and Winter mode are great. You have to try really hard to get this to misbehave.

We can get a lot of people and gear on this SUV. All the seats (except Driver's) fold flat, so it is very configurable.

The XC90 is comfortable without overdoing it. The interior follows the rule of "less is more"

Faults:

My Volvo dealer's service department detected a broken front-right strut at 36,000 miles, which required replacement and was not covered by Volvo's standard warranty.

Anti-skid and traction control "warning" and "service required" messages began to flash on and off intermittently at 36,000 - 39,000 miles. The service manager said the problem was due to a glitch in the XC90's central computer and required a software upgrade. The dealer upgraded the software, which was covered under Volvo's warranty.

At 47,000 miles the service department detected two cracked wheel rims, front-left and rear-right, both which required replacement. These were not covered by Volvo's standard warranty.

The same "warning" and "service required" messages began to recur again at 49,000 miles. This was worrisome as I was 600 miles into a 3,000 mile cross-county, winter road trip, and the car's warranty was due to lapse at 50,000 miles.

At just over 51,500 miles my XC90 suddenly refused to go into reverse. The service manager at the nearest Volvo dealer said this was a tricky problem to diagnose, but they would begin by replacing a "valve sleeve." A week later the manager phoned to say that they'd decided instead to replace the entire transmission. He also said, after reviewing my car's service records and history with the service manager at my original Volvo dealer, that it was very likely Volvo would give me "a new, free transmission" under "Volvo's goodwill policy." Three days later the manager phoned again to say that the local corporate rep, under this policy, had indeed signed-off on a "new, free transmission" for my XC90.

I'm scheduled to pick up the my early next week, and am curious about three things: 1) If "new, free transmission" also includes free labor, as these costs would be significant; 2) the prospect that the new transmission will follow the same problem-ridden pattern as the old one; and 3) if any Volvo owners have had similar experiences or maintenance problems, especially with 2005 XC90/T6s.

General Comments:

The XC90/T6 is a beautifully-designed and appointed car, and it drives like a dream. I've also found that it gives me far better MP-G's than listed, although this could be due to the fact that 75% of my driving occurs on interstate highways. I use cruise control a lot, and whenever possible prefer to rely on the cruise control deceleration and shut-off buttons rather than the brakes.

As a consequence I didn't need new brake pads until 47,000 miles.

However this car has given me more maintenance and repair problems than any car I've owned, including two previous Volvo's. This hasn't been a big problem while the XC90's 50,000 mile warranty was in effect, but I'm now concerned -- at 51K-plus miles -- that future repairs and maintenance will begin to get very, very expensive.