How Reliable are Older Volvo XC60's with 100k+ Miles?

[Auto Addict]

Originally Posted by Deck1ng

Will also depend on budget, if your not wanting to pay a lot, you won’t get a lot.

Exactly that ... and then we also have the worst buyers who don't want to pay a lot but want a lot !!! aka "the chancers"

[88fofo]

Budget is ok, I'm not specially looking at the cheapest stuff, I want to use it for a while after all...Obviously won't pay double as well for same miles/age for glorified volvo approved etc..

[88fofo]

Originally Posted by XC90Mk1

At 100k the bores and heads and such will have no really wear and tear. Of course over the next 50k, as with any product made from Ford, volvo, Mercedes and rolls Royce the bearings will reach their service life/end of life. The bushes will also be at the end of their life and you will experience these failures.

All these parts are probably £15-£50 to buy but around £75-200 to fit.

You will need a new cam belt and aux belt unless it’s been done (officially it’s 10 years or 108K. I would expect the second set of pads AND hence rotors etc. Also clutch will go if you get a manual.

I bought my XC90 at 63,000 and it’s now got 110,000. I keep detailed service records and it has cost me £2,000 in full for all works etc including consumables such as tyres but excluding fuel.

I changed the winch at £100 on the spare whee (I broke it - don’t ask &#129315 and did the auto transmission service myself. I age only fitted genuine Volvo parts from the dealer in that time including

Rear discs, pads and fluid
Auto transmission service
Countless oil services and all filters twice
4 Michelin cross climates
Etc etc.

Will you buy a great car at 100k plus. Yes, with absolute ease. Will you need considerable work to keep it going. Yes, of course, all the components are designed for 120,000 to 150,000 miles or so. Shocks etc etc will need to be done. If you are not working on this yourself walk away or buy new as you don’t want to be running a £40,000. Plus car at 100k without preventative maintenance and repairs.

Thanks very much for writing this! It appears I need to follow the same route with these cars, pay more for newer car with max 50k miles & Hope I can take good enough care of it for it to last to those 150k miles...


I have had some excellent higher mileage cars, thought I can get away with that for xc60 as well...

btw do you know how you can decode which engines for these are actually made by volvo and which ones are made by ford?
The engine models are so confusing, and as I understand D4 D5 D3 stuff doesn't really tells you that..

[Tannaton]

Originally Posted by 88fofo

Thanks very much for writing this! It appears I need to follow the same route with these cars, pay more for newer car with max 50k miles & Hope I can take good enough care of it for it to last to those 150k miles...


I have had some excellent higher mileage cars, thought I can get away with that for xc60 as well...

btw do you know how you can decode which engines for these are actually made by volvo and which ones are made by ford?
The engine models are so confusing, and as I understand D4 D5 D3 stuff doesn't really tells you that..

The engines are good for hundreds of thousands of miles if maintained adequately, but when you get past say 130k you have a statistically higher chance of having to replace wheel bearings, springs, suspension bushes, door locks, etc.

I've recently had to replace my rear springs, but the cost of that was 1 month's depreciation if I bought a 3 year newer car with 80k less on it...

Unlike the V70, S60 & S80 in the XC60 only Volvo diesel engines were fitted - be that D3, D4, D5 or 2.4D.

[BlueDevil]

I'm reading posts here and I simply can't believe it.
I've mostly bought 2nd hand cars and they all had some miles (well, kms) on them. And were of different brands, owned by different people. And this XC60 I have now is best of them all regarding the state it is in.
There are others like mine in classifieds and before buying I checked a fair number of them, and they were all in decent shape. People buying Volvos as 1st owners, at least here, do care for them. It's not your regular VW that people buy because "it's the best" and then do 0 maintenance, or do it only when it breaks. Volvo drivers, much like any other "higher class" car drivers, care abut their cars. They don't cheap out on regular maintenance, they change oil and filters and stuff when recommended, go to dealer's once per year (at least) and do whatever they're told to do. They do tend to ask 3-4 different dealers to provide the offer for the same service so they pick the cheaper one, of course, but they simply do it. They don't cheap out on €40000+ car by buying the cheapest chinese tires or buying the cheapest, shadiest diesel they can find.

As a direct result, when they go to change their car (mostly after 5 years lease expires) with some 100-120k km on the clock (60-120k miles) you can get it as 2nd owner, with full service history (because the leasing house MAKES you do regular maintenance), and you know the car is OK then.

As 3rd owner, it all depends on how the 2nd one handled it. I am the 2nd one here, and I do maintenance as told by the dealer I trust. They even told me once not to do something I wanted to do, explained why, and to do it later when something else was to be done so that I can save some labor money. So they are decent and they know even if they cost a bit more than the other dealer, I will go to them. Trust is there.

So... I really don't know what kind of people would buy a €40000+ car and then cheap out on oil, filters or other mandatory stuff.

[88fofo]

Originally Posted by BlueDevil

I'm reading posts here and I simply can't believe it.
I've mostly bought 2nd hand cars and they all had some miles (well, kms) on them. And were of different brands, owned by different people. And this XC60 I have now is best of them all regarding the state it is in.
There are others like mine in classifieds and before buying I checked a fair number of them, and they were all in decent shape. People buying Volvos as 1st owners, at least here, do care for them. It's not your regular VW that people buy because "it's the best" and then do 0 maintenance, or do it only when it breaks. Volvo drivers, much like any other "higher class" car drivers, care abut their cars. They don't cheap out on regular maintenance, they change oil and filters and stuff when recommended, go to dealer's once per year (at least) and do whatever they're told to do. They do tend to ask 3-4 different dealers to provide the offer for the same service so they pick the cheaper one, of course, but they simply do it. They don't cheap out on €40000+ car by buying the cheapest chinese tires or buying the cheapest, shadiest diesel they can find.

As a direct result, when they go to change their car (mostly after 5 years lease expires) with some 100-120k km on the clock (60-120k miles) you can get it as 2nd owner, with full service history (because the leasing house MAKES you do regular maintenance), and you know the car is OK then.

As 3rd owner, it all depends on how the 2nd one handled it. I am the 2nd one here, and I do maintenance as told by the dealer I trust. They even told me once not to do something I wanted to do, explained why, and to do it later when something else was to be done so that I can save some labor money. So they are decent and they know even if they cost a bit more than the other dealer, I will go to them. Trust is there.

So... I really don't know what kind of people would buy a €40000+ car and then cheap out on oil, filters or other mandatory stuff.

Most people lease the cars here( UK ) , during the first 2-3years they just add fuel, could care less about the car as it's not theirs..

Than at that age usually the car gets a 2nd owner..again in most cases on different finance scheme for pricier cars like these and just pay a monthly fee, again very few actually know anything about cars here or give a 2nd thought about maintenance of them. No one does their own maintenance on cars here... Usually they know they are going to get rid of it very soon so why spend extra... Service costs here are VERY EXPENSIVE,so just the bare minimum is fine...

There are some people who doesn't even know you should change oil to your car

I'm looking at cars that have went through these 2 stages or possibly 3...
To get a car that someone has purchased new with their own money, have kept for 7-8years with good maintenance is extremely rare...almost impossible..

For cars like Hondas this neglect won't really cause much harm to them...for a £35k semi-luxury SUV it's a different story so it seems


Now, I'm not originally from UK, and from a country similar to yours, where expensive cars like these gets bought only really by people who have the money to purchase them,They will not purchase the car for 2-3years, but keep it for a long time & actually take care of it..

Servicing is VERY Cheap so this stuff doesn't really gets neglected,even if something goes wrong it will get repaired and won't make the owner bankrupt.

In a country like yours a Car for most people is an extremely valuable item..

In UK for most it's an appliance...


It's not all negative tho, cars here often are 2x cheaper due to this than in rest of the europe, so you can actually find that diamond in a rough if you look hard enough... Rare..but doable..

[BlueDevil]

I see your point, I understand it is much more difficult to find a decent used 5yr old xc60 with some 100-120 on the clock, and I see why.

Thanx for the info!

[Kev0607]

Originally Posted by 88fofo

I have also looked at few 20-30k mile ones just to know what to compare against, they were smooth and all ok
It's not that hard to spot a wonky engine if you have some sort of experience knowing what is good/what is not and have worked & taken apart quite a few cars yourself...

I just can't believe it was a coincidence that 6 out 7 , 100k+ ones were trash.
I have used cars that have had 250k miles without much problems, I solely believe miles are just a number if you take good care of the car and it's a solid model to start with.
For some reason I thought volvos are one of those, or only the old volvos were like that?

They are, with maintenance. You need to understand that a car with that mileage will need parts replacing, simply due to wear & tear. That’s not the cars fault, but if you did 250,000 miles walking, you’d be tired yourself!

Volvo’s are a very solid car. Buy a good example that has been well looked after & it’ll serve you well. No, this doesn’t mean it’ll never have issues because I haven’t got a crystal ball... Generally, the better example you buy, the less chance there is of it being a money pit from the outset.

[Tannaton]

Originally Posted by Kev0607

Generally, the better example you buy, the less chance there is of it being a money pit from the outset.

And we come back to that.... if you want to run a older car for 100k miles, unless you are a mechanic yourself start with the best car you can find for your money. And that might mean a slightly older car but with lower mileage and/or better history, or a newer higher mileage car that's been used mainly on motorways. If you are going to do 100k in 4-5 years you will likely sell it before age related issue start to appear.

But with regard to the points raised about about lease vehicles - a better starting point might be an ex-company car with 80k on it and full history that's sat on the motorway all it's life than a battered school run bus with 30k on and four different tyres on it.