New Volvo owner with a fixer upper - seeking pointers

[LizardOfBodom]

Couple of pointers from me:

1) your sparks look bad. I would replace them whenever you can. Defo doesnt look like 15k ones and especially if you have "NGK" on receipt. My guess - garage bought 5 wrong NGK plugs, tried them on the car, car was working like s**t (T5 HATES wrong plugs) and put the OEM volvo back on. Plugs on our cars are hard to get as aftermarket ones (Bosch makes the OEM ones so that is the only direct replacement) and a lot of people have issues when replacing to "apparently correct" ones, either with spec or gap size or both. So either look for Bosch replacement or get set of OEM on ebay/Elk (seen them for 70euros). Set should last you for 60k atleast as those are long-life.

2) your air filter looks terrible (I expect a bid "ye, Duuh!" now :P)

3) USB+AUX is a really weird thing on your car, actually. 2005 version DID NOT have USB+AUX in any version, shape or form. Not until FL model 2008 when Volvo started making it optional. If you dig in the threads about our audio system, you will find out how weird and difficult it is (as for fiddling with it ) due to MOST fiber optic connections. Simply speaking - there are almost no options for upgrade/exchange/update of it once its in the car, except for 2 aftermarket systems (600e, give or take). Assuming you have standard dash and normal Volvo system, USB and AUX are most likely from FL version so I reckon you may have upgraded interior by previous owner (central console from 2008 model). Seen few ppl doing it. In the same time, those connections will not be active, ever, and maybe USB is only wired to charge the phone.

Have pics of interior, maybe?

4) Polestar badge - fingers crossed its actual factory upgrade, not only sticker, but you will be able to verify it in dealership. I am not familiar with polestar tune itself, but on most Stage1 tunes, the most noticeable thing is that car pulls much further than OEM spec RPM curve. On standard T5 the max torque is up until 5200rpm and after that it dulls down. After my remap I noticed car pulls like a choo choo until around 6500RPM.

What tyres (size & spec) that car sits on, btw? hard to judge from the pics.