Thoughts on Volvo

AntennaMan

AntennaMan

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I am not interested in buying one at this stage.

I just want to hear your thoughts on Volvo's in South Africa.

Yesterday I walked past a V40 and I thought to myself, "this is a fine looking car".

My next thought went to the resale value, running costs, etc.

So what do you guys think about them? And not just the V40, but Volvo's in general.
 
AntennaMan said:
I am not interested in buying one at this stage.

I just want to hear your thoughts on Volvo's in South Africa.

Yesterday I walked past a V40 and I thought to myself, "this is a fine looking car".

My next thought went to the resale value, running costs, etc.

So what do you guys think about them? And not just the V40, but Volvo's in general.
Click to expand...

My wife drives a 2005 V50 2.0D station wagon. it's a great car and we both love driving it. it's still going strong with minimal issues. We did the cambelt service at the start of the year at a Volvo dealership and it was expensive, about R15k for cambelt + service. In retrospect I should've taken it to an independent mechanic....

We bought the V50 from my mom and she in turn bought another Volvo, the V50 Cross Country. It's a beautiful car inside and out and great to drive. No issues with it so far, but my mom's only done about 16,000 with it in the 2+ years she's had it.

Hope that helps a bit.
 
Don't do it!

Biggest mistake of my life was buying a 2009 S40 T5 R-Design in 2011. Had 23 000km's on the clock. All good and well under motor plan, never had any real issues with it anyway while it was still under motor plan. (now there is plenty issues, started 5 days after motor plan was out lol )
And it has no resale value at all, none zero zilch. Maybe the V40 has better resale value, but I will never buy another Volvo in my life, that's for sure. Could not even sell this one last year for R100 000 when it was still under motor plan and had 70 000km's on the clock. (And still owed the bank R160 000 on the loan)

There's a reason they say "Volvo for life", once you buy it you cannot get rid of it unless you are prepared to give it away for free.

Edit: Ok, maybe no one wanted to buy it cause I did upgrade to a bigger intercooler, loaded ACT software and did decat and 76mm downpipe, 221kw and 464nm's.
 
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I have a V40. I love that car, but I regret ever buying a Volvo purely because of their pathetic after-sale service.
 
I think they are brilliant cars but I wouldn't buy one new.

They aren't worth much second hand and therefore it's a buyer's market if you are getting a 3-5 year old one and will be using a third party agent to maintain it.
 
This :
stephen_and_me_volvo.png
 
irBosOtter said:
Don't do it!

Biggest mistake of my life was buying a 2009 S40 T5 R-Design in 2011. Had 23 000km's on the clock. All good and well under motor plan, never had any real issues with it anyway while it was still under motor plan. (now there is plenty issues, started 5 days after motor plan was out lol )
And it has no resale value at all, none zero zilch. Maybe the V40 has better resale value, but I will never buy another Volvo in my life, that's for sure. Could not even sell this one last year for R100 000 when it was still under motor plan and had 70 000km's on the clock. (And still owed the bank R160 000 on the loan)

There's a reason they say "Volvo for life", once you buy it you cannot get rid of it unless you are prepared to give it away for free.

Edit: Ok, maybe no one wanted to buy it cause I did upgrade to a bigger intercooler, loaded ACT software and did decat and 76mm downpipe, 221kw and 464nm's.
Click to expand...

Do you think your upgrades has something to do with the problems experienced when out of motor plan?
 
SauRoNZA said:
I think they are brilliant cars but I wouldn't buy one new.

They aren't worth much second hand and therefore it's a buyer's market if you are getting a 3-5 year old one and will be using a third party agent to maintain it.
Click to expand...

I know Goldwagen has parts for German cars and Japan Auto has parts for Japanese cars. I even saw ads for guys specialising in French cars. So is there something similar for Swedish cars?

And again, just to reiterate, I am not planning on buying one. Just interested in your experience with Volvo.
 
AntennaMan said:
Do you think your upgrades has something to do with the problems experienced when out of motor plan?
Click to expand...

None of the current issues is due to more power, just "small" stuff giving issues that costs a crap load to replace, this year alone ignition needed replacement, aircon replacement and boot not closing so had to get the "lock" part replaced. End of last year it started with the head lights not working, that was a R15 000 replacement. And the damn car only has 95 000km's.
This year it has cost me close to R20 000 to fix the issues so far. I should have extended the motor plan!
 
irBosOtter said:
None of the current issues is due to more power, just "small" stuff giving issues that costs a crap load to replace, this year alone ignition needed replacement, aircon replacement and boot not closing so had to get the "lock" part replaced. End of last year it started with the head lights not working, that was a R15 000 replacement. And the damn car only has 95 000km's.
This year it has cost me close to R20 000 to fix the issues so far. I should have extended the motor plan!
Click to expand...

The lock mechanism failing seems to be a common issue on Volvos. My father in law's S50 had the problem and our V50 gives issues now and then, but haven't had to replace it (yet)...
 
I drive a 2011 S40 T5.

Brilliant car with loads of boot space. Slightly narrow in body construction, which becomes an issue when you have a normal South African passenger (read: large) and need to engage the passenger side mounted handbrake. While in maintenance it had issues, every service bill came to ridiculous amounts (R35K+) as things broken left, right and center. Engine mountings have all been changed, both headlights (HID) and the brakes (pads and rotors) don't seem to last longer than 20 000Km each. All covered under maintenance but still annoying when the issues seemed to pop up on the regular.

Near the end of the maintenance plan I decided to trade in for S60. Two issues: S60 doesn't come with a spare tyre (big no no for me) and Volvo gave me a worse trade in value than BMW or Mercedes had offered (both also pitifully low). So now I'm stuck with the S40 (out of maintenance plan and still costing an arm and a leg every service but down to sub R10K at least) until I can pay it off and sell it off for whatever Zim dollars I can eventually get for it.

In terms of service: I use Volvo Hatfield. The service area is ridiculously busy there every day because cars from Mpumalanga, Limpopo and North West Province would rather drive all the way to Pretoria then use their local Volvo dealerships. You have been warned if you reside in any of those provinces. Dealership's car wash guys stole loose change out of the car twice and were promptly dismissed by the dealer principle but otherwise the service experience is relatively good. Until the bill comes of course.

In terms of the V40 itself: Great looking car inside and out. Good level of stock features, really comfy seats and I love the Volvo floating console. However rear passenger legroom is not too great (average height driver with average height passenger) and boot space is disappointing as well.

My opinion: Buy a Golf. No where near as visually exciting in my opinion but the resale at the end of the day will be decent.
 
I currently own two Volvo's and previously owned another one.

Let's start at the beginning...

2006 S40 2.0i manual bought in 2012 and sold in 2014. Bought on 68k km and sold on just over 100k km. In that time we replaced the battery and the front shocks. Front shocks were R2950 for the pair. Services ranged between R1200 and R1800 at the local Volvo specialist. Hands down the best car I've ever owned as a package - reliability, comfort, economy, etc.

2009 S40 D5 Geartronic Auto. Bought in 2014 and still own it. Bought on 88k km and now on 103k km. Awesome power from the D5 engine, very good "High Performance" sound system. Xenon lights, electric memory seats, the list goes on. In the time we've had it, I had the wiring to the bootlid repaired at R650 (Volvo Specialist), rear brake pads R1600 (Volvo Specialist), major service R3500, Coolant reservoir R650 (original Volvo part), Wiper Blades R550 (Volvo OEM), Battery R1400. Hardly a money pit, just normal wear and tear and maintenance.

My daily drive 2005 Volvo XC70 2.5T Geartronic Auto. Bought in 2014, still own it. Got it with 74k km and now on 89k km. You would have to look far and wide to find a more comfortable car to be in, full stop. Absolutely fantastic seats, feels like a well made leather lounge suite. Enough power - 154kW and 320nm is not to be sniffed at. Enough space for me, wife, kid and dogs to go away for a weekend. Keep in mind now, this is a 10 year old car that basically stood for 4 years when I bought it. I did a service R1800, front upper shock mounts R850 each, vacuum pump R3000, vacuum switch R650, upper engine mount and lower gearbox torque mount ~ less than R2000. I also had to put on 4 new tyres as it is essential to have the same tyres for the AWD system ~ R4500. I fitted Falken high performance road tyres, which I'm regretting a bit now. 15k km in, and they are showing significant wear. The compound is just too soft for the weight of the car (1.7ton unladen) and the AWD system. The car needs to be on more offroad-biased tyres and I would probably go for AT's if I had the chance again.

Let's talk resale - bought the S40 2.0 for R107k and sold for R90k two years later.

Bought the S40 D5 for R129900 - should easily settle the bank if we sold now.

Bought the XC70 for R110 000 + Warranties = R125k. Currently sitting with an offer for R112k on it.

Yes, I would probably own a Volvo product for the rest of my life. They are just fantastic used bargains. You get loads of car and masses of kit for a very reasonable price.

BUT more importantly - the reason why I am not scared to own Volvo's out of warranty:

SWEDO TECH BLOEMFONTEIN www.swedo.co.za

They know Volvo's inside and out and they are very reasonably priced. They don't try to shaft the customer and they rather fix properly than replace.

For instance, my XC70 is now due for a cambelt replacement due to age. (Mileage for it is ~160k km). Swedo Tech advised that they can do the rubber belt only as the metal rollers and tensioners should still be fine due to the low mileage on the car. Should cost me R3k instead of R15k.

Hope this helps.
 
T4 R-Design, beautiful car, would I buy one, never ever in your life. Heard too many sob stories about people losing BIG time when in it comes to resale.
 
AntennaMan said:
I am not interested in buying one at this stage.

I just want to hear your thoughts on Volvo's in South Africa.

Yesterday I walked past a V40 and I thought to myself, "this is a fine looking car".

My next thought went to the resale value, running costs, etc.

So what do you guys think about them? And not just the V40, but Volvo's in general.
Click to expand...

Got a V40 10 months ago and been loving it. Could only afford the T3 motor but its decently powerful when i need it to be (evidenced by the number of speeding tickets since i got it)
Concerns around boot space and rear leg room are real if you carry lots of cargo / relatively tall people
Also if you get the one with the (fixed) glass roof it further limits rear headroom

Stunning looking car though, great drive, very comfortable and decent fuel economy. Looked around on Autotrader for similarly specced and aged V40s and the resale value wasn't an issue - probably because its still on plan.
 
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