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From: fowler@uw-beaver (Rob Fowler)
Newsgroups: net.auto
Subject: Re: any hard data on saab/volvo reliability/low maintenance cost?
Message-ID: <876@uw-beaver>
Date: Thu, 21-Feb-85 13:55:38 EST
Article-I.D.: uw-beave.876
Posted: Thu Feb 21 13:55:38 1985
Date-Received: Tue, 26-Feb-85 04:18:31 EST
References: whuxlm.671 <12195@brunix.UUCP> <711@aluxe.UUCP> <855@ariel.UUCP>
Organization: U of Washington Computer Science
Lines: 21

An friend's brother runs an excellent repair shop in a large Eastern city.
They  specialize in Volvos, a couple of other makes, and build racing
engines.  The last I heard the brother was making an unusually large amount
of money.  The reason?  Apparently the trubochargers that Volvo uses are not
particularly reliable.  He discovered that he was replacing so many turbos
that it became reasonable for him to order replacements in quantity directly
from the manufacturer rather than from the Volvo parts organization.  He
resells them to other repair shops as well as to customers.

When this story was related to me the point was not the unreliability
Volvo turbos per se, rather the appropriateness of turbo technology
for ordinary street machines.  I'd be interested in hearing about
turbo reliability problems of all kinds.

Other that that, friends who have had Volvos have uniformly gotten
extraordinary use from them.  The only problems that I know of were
problems in starting in really cold damp climates and these were
solved with shower caps over the air filters to keep moisture
out.

-- Rob Fowler