I fully concur with your view.:thumbs_up:

I believe that this is not as big a worry as people suggest. Replacing a small proportion of the oil (up to about 3%) with diesel as Volvo suggest as an interim solution is not outrageous in my opinion. In any case, they will probably come up with a better solution in due course. In my case the software seems to have "fixed" the rising oil level problem.

Diesel has some lubricating properties similar to WD40. Diesel engines have always had some blow-by that contaminates the oil with diesel. Despite this diesel engines have traditionally had a life expectancy much better than petrol engines. Petrol engines have blow-by that contaminated the oil with petrol, that has no lubricating properties whatsoever.

Who intends to drive their diesel XC60 for more than 400,000 miles?

I hope your right that it’s not as big a problem as people suggest. The cynic in me senses that the manufacturers don’t really care as long as they last the warranty period out.
If as I now suspect and manufacturers have obviously long since learnt Diesel cars with DPF are unsuitable for people doing short journeys then the public should have long since be informed of this fact. So they can make an educated decision if a particular engine is suitable for their usage.

Instead they have been mis sold cars by eager salesmen with a “mums the word “attitude to DPFs.The whole thing is disgraceful really and it’s not just Volvo that are guilty. Once again the public are being treated as Mugs. Treated as mugs by the Banks, the Government and now the Auto industry ,the list is getting bigger!

I think that there are more pressing things to worry about if you intend to keep your car for a long time. For instance, premature break of the timing belt and stripped drive shaft splines. Look at the XC90 forum threads about older cars.

There are no complaints that I have seen about D5 engines that have worn out prematurely because of diluted oil.

Yup, Rip off Britain comes to mind. :)

There is of course the fact that many sales people just don't know. Information on cars is sometimes not forwared from the manager to the sales floor and sometimes leaves a salesmen to "think on their feet" which often leads to wildly inaccurate assumptions.

I'm often surprised that many sales people seem to know very little about the car they are selling!

It may or may not affect the long term reliability of the engine but I paid for a sumpful of expensive engine oil with the car and not a adulterated mix whatever the ratio might actually be. My view is that Volvo should fix the problem and reinstate the oil back to its original spec & why on earth shouldn't they? I'm not so worried about the engine itself although this is still an unknown but this car has two turbos and I would prefer them to be lubricated with the proper stuff.

One reason to choose high quality oil at refill is to provide a buffer for the dilution and contaminants that occur during normal operation of the engine. The reason the manufacturers recommend changing the oil at certain intervals is because it is well known that the oil gets contaminated in normal use.

If any drivers are particularly concerned about this aspect, because of their particular driving style or conditions, they should choose to change the oil at the shortest recommended interval. This happens with all internal combustion engines and is not a particular Volvo phenomenon.

The rising oil level issue mostly affects drivers who drive a diesel in short stop-start trips. I was personally affected in this way and it seems that the Volvo software update has fixed the problem for me. No more apparent rising oil level problem.

Yes you are right most of the salesmen are just that salesman with nice affable personalities that people will buy cars from. Product knowledge is often somewhat lacking even at top level. Unless you find a dealer that has good interested salesmen actually enthusiasts for the product who have a passion for it and know what they are talking about, very rare in my experience. Unfortunately everyone is really only interested in the money or bonus or targets as I think that most of commerce has been driven in this direction by the incentivisation of the work ethic

The dealer I had my original order with had salesmen who had come from the financial services industry and it was obvious he was virtually clueless about cars. He openly told me that at his job interview they said that if he could “sell a piece of paper” he would have no problem selling cars!

be at home selling the XC60 then since the body is as thin as paper :)