Selling a dead or junk Volvo

Below you'll find Volvo's origins, the models owners report most to federal safety regulators, and each Volvo the EPA has listed since 1984.

Which Volvos draw the most NHTSA complaints

Volvo owners have sent NHTSA 10,639 complaints about the 26 models on this site, counted on October 10, 2026. Just three nameplates, the XC90, V70 and S60, account for more than a third of that total.

These numbers rank how often owners wrote in, not how good the cars are; none of it is a reliability score. Time on sale drives them hard. The XC90 and S60 each span more than twenty EPA model years, while the EX30, EX40 and EX90 arrived for 2025 and have had only a short window to draw reports. The EX60, listed only for 2027, has zero so far.

Two older cars stand out for how short their runs were. The S70 sold for three EPA model years and the 850 for five, yet each drew more complaints than the XC60, which has been listed since 2009.

Where Volvo started

Wikipedia's Volvo article gives the founding year as 1927 and the headquarters as Gothenburg, Sweden. The company built a car assembly plant in Torslanda between 1959 and 1964, and opened its Floby gearbox plant, about 100 kilometers northeast of Gothenburg, in 1958. Its first assembly plant outside Sweden came in 1963, in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

That article covers the Volvo Group, whose products today are listed as trucks, buses, construction equipment, and marine and industrial engines.

What the EPA list shows across the make

Volvo shows up in the EPA file from 1984 through 2027 and is still on sale. Its model names fall into clear eras:

• Numbered cars, 1984-1997: the 240, 700 Series, 850, 940 and 960. None is listed past the 1997 model year.
• Letter-and-number names from 1998: the S, V and C lines, with the XC models arriving for 2003.
• Electric EX models from 2025: the EX30, EX40 and EX90, with the EX60 listed for 2027.

Two letter names cover nearly the whole modern span: the S90 and V90 both show EPA years from 1998 to 2026. The V40 is the short-lived one, listed for 2000-2004 only.

Selling a Volvo that has stopped

An old 240 wagon parked behind the house and a late-model XC90 stuck at a dealer go the same way: whole, as they sit. Leave every part on it.

1. Note the model year, which Volvo it is (S60, V70, XC90 and so on) and about how many miles it shows.
2. Let us know if your Volvo's engine turns over, whether it rolls, and what's broken or already pulled.
3. Mention the title. A missing one has its own fix; see selling a junk car with no title.
4. Give the spot where the truck meets it: a garage, a back lot or a repair shop. Pickup is free anywhere in the US.

When it is gone, handle the plates and paperwork.

Rather talk it over? Call (877) 421-6008.

Every Volvo model in the EPA list

All 26 Volvo nameplates the EPA has listed since 1984, oldest first by first year. Years are model years from the EPA file, and the newest are still filling in.