They seem to be a decent truck, but the Volvo big truck division has exchanged through so many hands (as everything in the truck/auto industry has) that I don't even have a clue who owns and runs that division now. It's far from the Swedes, tell you that- Was White/GMC, then Volvo/GMC, now just Volvo, and the Volvo auto division is now controlled by Ford. Figure that out??
They look and feel like good trucks. Mechanics HATE THEM! The last sentence of your post Arky is why- Over about the past 15 years no company has truly supported the Volvo truck line. Even as bad as Freightliner can be, I feel in the parts/service aspects Freightliner beats out Volvo easily. And that WILL come into play with ownership of any truck over time.
But, this new Volvo division just bought out Mack from Renault of France who owned Mack for quite some time.. You thought Mack was a rough-tough American truck?? Ha-Ha. Wrong, but whomever has Volvo now must be doing good. International has been supplying Ford with small diesels for a while, and now they have a joint venture going building class 7 trucks in Mexico.
Western Star sold out to Freightliner, as did the Ford big truck division, now Sterling.
Who has hung on--- Kenworth and Peterbilt of the Paccar corp. Really the only "American" trucks left, and most of them are built in Canada- no problem with Canadians, but Paccar does not like to do any custom build chassis. If they do, it takes forever.
The global market is a very confusing place right now, and one could not safely say which truck to buy. I don't love my Freightliner like a daughter, but the best part about it is most of its components come from common outside manufacturers and are easy to obtain and obtain quickly. This is a valuable asset to keep an O/O running.
-Weave-