My story starts off with small problems and just continues to grow. The problems are ongoing and, at this time, I see no end to the story. I purchased my first Volvo in December of 1999 from Great Southern Truck in Mobile, Ala. This truck had an automatic self leveling seat that was supposed to raise itself automatically to height correct of driving and lower to the floor when you got out of the seat. After several days, the seat would raise you up to the maximum height when you hit a bump. You would have to raise up off the the seat for the seat to go back down, or adjust the control button manually to let the seat down. Take note, that when you are in the maximum height setting, your feet do not touch the pedals on the floor. At one point, this "seat raising" almost caused an accident. I was back at the dealer on 9 different occassions trying to have this repaired. On 7 of these 9 occassions, it was actually worked on. After almost having an accident due to this problem, I went back to the dealership and demanded a permanent solution to this problem. (i.e. either a new automatic seat, or a new seat without the automation adjustment with a re-imbursement for the difference in price). The dealership disconnected the automation adjustment feature and did nothing else. This truck had an air leak (audible at some distance) since I had purchased it. The control thermostat in the sleeper for the heat-a/c would not work more than a couple of days and then it just stopped working completely. It was replaced 6 times over a 4 year period.

I told the technican that this was the 6th time this had been changed. He then started checking the wiring harness and winthin 5 minutes found a broken wire. This fixed the problem and it worked without any more incidents for the next year. The air leak was traced to the valve operation the air bags. That valve was replaced twice. The first time it was replaced as part of a recall. The second time it was as a warranty. Both times I recieved the truck back it still had an audible air leak. Several day later, the leak was written up during a D.O.T. inspection. It has to be repaired. I took it back to the dealer and was told that nothing was wrong. I ended up fixing a broken fitting, that was located on the valve, myself. The cable operating the tilt steering broke and was replaced 6 times. The problem with this is, you pay for the repair at one dealership (even though it is still under warranty) and when you go to a different dealership, they will not honor the warranty from the first dealership. They would make you pay and tell you to go to the first dealership and have them re-imburse you the charges. I also had this happen with the throttle position sensor that was replaced at my local dealer, and then replaced again 10 days later in Wyoming. I went back to the local dealer and took them the paperwork and the part. I have gone back 2 more times and called 4 times on this matter. I always get the same answer, "It will be looked into."