Volvo S80 (P3)

The Volvo badge appears on not just cars, but also semi trucks, heavy industrial equipment, marine engines, and even some jet engines. In 1999, Volvo elected to sell off the automotive part of its business, and the now-separate Volvo Cars was picked up by Ford Motor Company, becoming a part of their Premier Automotive Group alongside Jaguar, Land Rover, and Aston Martin. By 1999, Volvo's new flagship on their new P2 platform, the S80, had already been released, and development on the soon-to-be-released S60 and V70 midsize cars was just finishing up; these P2s can be regarded as the last "pure" Volvos, and Ford soon began leveraging its global reach to integrate the companies.

For an automaker, "integration" means shared parts and shared platforms, and Volvo, Mazda, and Ford of Europe engineers put their heads together in Ford's Cologne, Germany design center to co-develop the compact P1 platform, also known as the Ford C1 platform and the Mazda BK platform, underpinning the S40/V50/C30, European Focus, and Mazda3 respectively. As with the P2 platform underpinning multiple sizes of car and crossover, Volvo and Ford extensively re-engineered the new P1 compact platform to a full-size format. The resulting "EUCD" (European Class D segment) platform became known as the P3 in Volvo usage, and in 2007 the first P3 to market was the 2nd generation of their S80 flagship.

The S80 brought all-new engines to the table, not using any of Volvo's "white block" inline fives or sixes in the US, but instead offering a 3.0 turbocharged or 3.2 naturally aspirated "SI6" inline six or a 4.4L naturally aspirated V8, with both engines designed by Volvo but built by Ford of Britain and Yamaha respectively. All engines were paired with the Aisin-Warner TF-80SC 6-speed automatic transmission, with Haldex AWD optional on the base model's 3.2i and standard on the T6 and the V8.

The SI6 engines were specially developed by Volvo to fit transversely (sideways) in the engine bay of FWD cars, and they feature some unique engineering tricks to do this: the timing chain, accessory belt drive, and components like the alternator and A/C compressor have been relocated either to the sides of the engine (driven via special gears off the middle of the crankshaft) or to the "back" end of the engine, above the transmission and driven by gears off the end of the crankshaft.

In our experience, these "short six" engines are generally pretty stout, but they have an achilles heel: the brake vacuum pump. Above the transmission and driven by the camshafts, this pump often develops leaks from the o-ring where the pump bolts to the engine, and the oil dripping down can appear like expensive transmission or rear main seal leak when viewed from underneath. We offer both a reseal kit and new pumps for this purpose.

The Yamaha V8, by contrast, has had some problems with the balance shaft in the vee of the unusual 60° narrow-angle V8: the shaft bearings aren't lubricated by engine oil and sometimes wear out, particularly in early motors where any water that gets in the engine bay can't drain and instead collects in the vee and gradually washes the grease out of the bearings. Without grease, the bearings fail and the balance shaft starts eating in to the engine block, potentially taking out the timing chain as well when it finally seizes. An update in 2006 saw a drainage hole drilled to allow any pooled water to escape; we don't know if this definitively fixed the problem, but we've found P3 S80s (made 2007 and later) do have fewer V8 balance shaft failures.

The V8 and the T6 both developed similar power levels, so to reduce complexity, Volvo dropped the V8 option in 2011. Towards the end of the S80's life cycle, the now-ubiquitous "modular" 2L inline four (also known as the Volvo Engine Architecture or "VEA" engine) appeared as a new "T5" base engine. It produced as much power as the 3.2i it replaced, but its smaller size, weight, and displacement paired with an Aisin-Warner TG-81 8-speed automatic boosted the fuel economy of this large sedan to 25mpg city / 37mpg highway.

2016 was the end-of-the-line for the S80, with the old S90 nameplate being resurrected for the new SPA-platform based flagship in 2017.

Model information is based on the USA vehicle market. Other model variations may exist outside the USA.