Why do people hate on the Ford era Volvo?

Question

whenever i talk about volvo someone has to mention that now that volvo is owned by ford its crap!

Answer 1

yes it has gone to sh*tt because ford is not taking the time to put quality parts on them . since my dad is a volvo mechanic every day a new volvo comes in and needs 2 or 3000 $ worth the work and then they dont want to pay that much so they sell it to the shop and say i aint buyin that kind of volvo unless it under a 2001 because the old cars have lasted forever because that is when volvo was not bought off so they used high quality part not cheap walmart special $hit!!

Answer 2

The idea that ford turned Volvo into garbage is only partially true. As long as Volvo was producing cars with their tried and true 4-cylinder engines (the so-called "red"engines), all was fine. Their foray into front wheel drive and the transverse 5-cylinder engine (the 850) was somewhat of a disaster. They continued their RWD line with the 960, a very nice car but with a somewhat problematic in-line 6. I had what was the last of the 960s, a 1998 S90, that I purchased new. Frankly, it was the worst car I ever had. All I've related here is pre-Ford, nothing to do with the Ford-Volvo alliance. Volvos just got very complicated and the engineering became second rate. No enter Ford. Volvo now has all-wheel drives, SUVs and who-knows-what. It stands to reason that their quality would suffer because they are trying to keep up with the American market and all of its whims. It' unfortunate that this is the case because Volvo has been my car of choice for a long time but I will never have a Volvo model later or more complicated than the 940.

Answer 3

After the 4 cylinder cars were done with and Volvo went to the 850, front wheel drive and all the rest, they didn't need any help from anyone in making crappy cars. They managed to do it all by themselves. If anything, Ford probably helped the company stabilize.

Volvo has always enjoyed an undeserved reputation as a "good" car, which it never was---but it was an easy car to work on, and it had a strong, safe chassis. Both those qualities made it fairly easy to deal with and keep running for a long time.

Now Volvos are just as complex as every other car, so when your warranty runs out, you are at great risk for punishing expenses.

Answer 4

Post-Ford Volvo's are not crap...they're still European-made (primarily) vehicles that are fairly long-lasting and very safe.

The big problem is...parts and service. Volvos were still fairly easy to work on after the 850's and 960's came out. When Ford took over, there was a desire to make the cars more technologically advanced to compete with the expensive European SUV craze of the late 90's/early 2000's.

A lot of these technologically advanced Volvos cannot be easily worked on by the owner or by the average small mechanic. This forces them to go to the dealer or to a sophisticated garage. So, on top of the expensive parts, you have expensive labor!!!!

So yeah, post-1998 Volvos are still decent cars, just be sure to have a good credit line if something breaks!

Joe C.

Answer 5

while most everyone who answered has a valid point about the complexity of the later models and the front wheel drive / all wheel drive laments the real fact is with ford involved volvo has lost focus.- a quality car at a reasonable price - the electronic glitches oddball drivability complaints and cheap hardware plague all car manufactures ford is a convenient scape-goat and while the turbo cars are overpowering the automatic transaxels the engines seem to be staying together very well. i have several customers w/ 850's and v-70's that are over 280k miles and run just fine the real fact is volvo sells units not cars any more. it is customer driven, we seem to want [en-mass] all the bells and whistles that turn any good car into a sometimes rolling nightmare. we are the enemy here. i still prefer working on the newer volvo's than the hack trash coming out of germany.

Answer 6

Volvo's are not crap now that ford owns them just more complicated to work on i personally have a 1999 V70 and love it. Mainly it is the sales end at least around here no one tries hard enough to make the sale and people would rather get something that the salesman is willing to talk with you and give you the time of day if you are not happy with the sales end of it how are you going to be when it comes to the service side of the purchase

Answer 7

Because Ford/Chrysler/GM makes cars by pissed off dont give a shite union workers. End result=Non quality product. Volvo was quality. Now Volvo has been branded with a POS company.

Answer 8

Yep, I blame the Japanese for setting the tone in the market. Volvo adapted to front-drive because almost everyone else was doing it.

It's self destruction similar to BMW and their new shapes. Both companies had to change and go somewhere to keep a name associated with innovation, but it backfired.