After spending much time on forums and reading about the reliability of second hand Volvo XC90's, particularly the gearbox failing at 50000mls, and loathe to part with my Volvo 940 estate, I finally decided to make the jump to an XC90.

18 months on I have had my 3rd major garage bill. My total cost of repair bills has now totaled £4600!

My car, on purchase had done 39000 miles. It was immaculate condition.

At 39200mls a rattling came from beneath the car which after much searching, found it was the prop shaft bearing collapsing at a replacement cost of £1000. Fair wear and tear said Volvo??

6 months later and 45000, came bangs and clunks from the front area of the car. To correct the problem I had to replace all ball joints, track rod ends, strut top bearings and anti roll bar linkages. On MOT inspection, prior to this, ball joints and track rod ends were recommended to be replaced prior to the next MOT anyway. A further £1000.

At 58000 a 'gearbox urgent maintenance alarm' came up and the car locked into 3rd gear. This was not actually a gearbox fault but required the mass airflow meter to be replaced and a pipe had split (which you can't see) which is housed under the inlet manifold next to the engine block. To repair this, it required the front end of the car to be dismantled, radiator removed and the aircon system dismantled to get at the pipe, at a cost of £1068. It was off the road for 5 weeks.

Never to disappoint, and to confirm the previously investigated forums, 2000 miles later at 60000, the gearbox really did fail. No reconditioned gearboxes to be had in Britain. The garage informed me that Volvo had bought up all the recon gearboxes for their own use. Volvo garage said, no problem, we'll replace your gearbox for £8000. Yeh, right!!! So a gearbox specialist reconditioned my gearbox for £2620.

I now realise after all this that Volvo is really in name only and not really Volvo quality as I had known it for many years. General Motors (Ford) gearbox, Ford dials etc...

Although this has got to be the worst reliable car I have ever owned in my 34 years of motoring, it is the best car I have ever driven, when its going.

However, it will be my last Volvo and I will be looking to look for a more mechanically reliable car in future and will be going for Audi or BMW.

I'm sure, if you want to buy new, then reliability would not be an issue, but I wouldn't recommend a second hand one.

I also have friends who have owned a 5 year old XC70 for 15 months and they have spent £3200 on breakdown repairs. They too, will not be buying Volvo again.

Sad to see such a great company change under new management/ownership.