The G Man

You are right, most European cars will still drive like new when it gets old. Japanese luxury car such as Lexus, Acura and Infiniti tends to loosen much quicker. Generally, Europeans are harder to maintenace, thus costing more for their repairs. There is no doult in my mind that Japanese cars are cheaper to maintenace once pass warranty. There is an old saying that goes, lease a German car or buy a Japanese car. I have heard way too many horror stories of Germans car repairs after warranty. Yearly repair bills that goes into thousands are not uncommon.
Now might be a good time to buy a Volvo or it may not be, depending on how you look at it. Volvo is having a fire sale right, very low lease rates and deep discounts. They are trying to counter a very bad year sales wise, have you notice how many Volvos are on the dealer's lot, they cannot get rid of them. Alot of people are staying away from Volve because of the recent sale of Volvo to a Chinese company. Volvo, as a company, is very unstable right now and anything can happen in the future, but now its a good time to buy a Volvo if you are willing to take a risk, you will find a lot of good bargains.