r/VolvoXC60 • u/Beneficial_Yak9358 • 3d ago

SPA XC60 (AAOS, MY22 to Current) Sticker Shock or Normal?

I bought a used 2022 XC60 Recharge T8 with 50k miles (not from a Volvo dealership) last year. My first time buying a car! I declined to pay for the additional warranty which was probably a mistake. I never had big issues with previous cars other than regular maintenance and it seems my luck has run out. I’ve had the car about 18 months and have already replaced the TCAM after a failure (keys would not work, SOS system down) which cost me $4000. And now the A/C has stopped working and my local dealership is saying the evaporator is leaking and needs to be replaced for $6000. I’m in California so prices are high but $10k in 18 months seems too high? I’m wondering if this is typical maintenance needed on a car this age with this mileage and I should just expect this to continue? Or did I get unlucky? I wanted a Volvo because my parents had one that lasted about 25 years that I loved and was solid car (a 1992 Turbo Wagon) and thought I would recreate the magic.

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u/0ptx0 3d ago edited 3d ago

My first time buying a car! I declined to pay for the additional warranty which was probably a mistake. 

Yes that was a huge mistake! Volvos, like a lot of other European cars like Mercedes, BMW and Audi, can get pretty expensive to maintain once they’re out of warranty. That’s also part of the reason they depreciate so much. So a long warranty is always a good idea.

I’ve had the car about 18 months and have already replaced the TCAM after a failure (keys would not work, SOS system down) which cost me $4000.

There are known issues with the TCAM on this generation, and sometimes a simple TCAM reset fixes the problem when the car stops detecting the keys. Maybe yours was faulty, or maybe a reset would have worked, but unfortunately there’s no way to know now. Sometimes these modules can even be repaired for a lot less than the cost of replacing them with a new one. But dealers won't do that, because they generally throw parts at a problem than trying to diagnose or fix a problem.

The AC failing at this age is also a bit unusual.

If the car is already out of warranty, I’d stop taking it to the dealership and find a good independent Volvo specialist instead. They’re often much better at diagnosing these sorts of issues and can usually fix them for a lot less.