So, restarting this query.
First off, shame on me for me being lulled into complacency by the first 15 years of Volvo ownership. With Safe and Secure, I never checked oil level on our 3.2L. Well, by 35,000 we found excessive oil disappearing in addition to poor mileage (about 16 combined). Pistons and rings were replaced, but mileage never recovered, and actually got worse by 50,000, dropping to 15 mpg combined. All along, we have complained about poor transmission dynamics (slow to shift, no power applied, even with engine speed increasing, having to floor it to get it speed up at all).
So, now at 50,000, they are replacing the engine. We feel the car overall is not acceptable, especially after driving the T5, which replaced the place the SI6 occupied (and funny that the engine was discontinued and replaced by a variant of a 20 year old engine). There is no way this engine/tranny is working correctly. So, we want to move into a new or CPO T5. Corporate has been very uncommunicative, with no contact for the first week after first contact, when we started with our primary concern that the new engine will not last any longer than the first, leaving us with an issue before our expected 10 year/120,000 mile lifetime. We asked for the warranty to be extended another 50k, rather than than the standard 2 year component warranty. No reply after a couple of business days, so I halted the engine replacement, because I had no visibility as to how it affects resolution. I tried to bracket the negotiation, telling customer service replacing the car with a T5 would make me happy for sure. They only apply customer retention to new cars, so that’s not a reasonable request, as I acknowledged, asking what latitude we have. I’m flying blind, talking to people with no authority, and an area manager too busy to reply.
So, the dealer did a great job, having latitude to offer a decent deal and got us to $20,000 out of pocket to replace our 4 year old car because they already have permission to offer $4000 in customer sat cash on Volvo NA’s behalf. I’m leaving aside tax, licensing and docs. Just retail price. By my calculations, we bought the car for $41,000 expecting 10 years life, or $4100 per year. We recover 4 years by getting a new car. At about $42,000 after discounts, etc, that comes to $42,000 for the new car, or $4200 per year. I figure paying $16,800 (4 years times $4200 per year) plus all the transaction costs plus the trade of our 2011 is fair, especially given the hit to value due to trading in the car early and the poor experience we have had for the last 4 years of our 19 years of owning Volvos bought from dealers (CPO and new, and actually 3 in the past 9 years). I asked for $8000 in Volvo NA assistance and they turned me down flat. The number we need from Volvo NA is actually $7200, now that I have had time to crunch the numbers.
Is $7200 from Volvo NA unreasonable, given they will no longer have the burden of this POS Ford drivetrain I will continue to complain about if it never is made right, they get a new car sold, and they retain a 19 year customer who is buying their 5th new or CPO vehicle and will be satisfied enough to buy a sixth?
* One salient point I forgot to mention: we already looked the other way once on a defect on our 2006 XC70, may she rest in peace. Had a minor collision to the driver’s side front corner that was all but undetectable. I had to pop the plastic bumper cover back behind the fender, barely a scuff, no airbag deployed, minor damage to Camry hit. But the weld at the corner of the passenger box at the firewall popped, totaling the car, 5 years into our 10 year cycle. Obviously a factory defect, but we just took the hit and bought the XC60. No discussion with Volvo, no nothing, because we believed in the brand and understand things can happen. The irony is had the weld not failed we probably would have been trading the 2006 in on a 2016 T5 XC60 and never had to deal with the Ford engine.