<p>Clarkalum, I was thinking of you when I watched our weather forecast. We are to get 8 inches of sloppy, wet snow tonight and tomorrow. I will drive my 30 mile commute in my Audi A3 FWD without any concern beyond driving carefully and defensively. I do not have snow tires, but I do have relatively new and very good all season tires. Nothing wrong with snow tires, and some cars I have owned need them. (I am not specifically recommending my car: very easy to drive at excessive speeds without realizing it.)</p>
<p>Anyway, I was wondering: in what part of the country do you live? Does your daughter have experience driving in snowy and icy conditions? I think that information would influence the recommendations you could best use.</p>
<p>Definitely NO Volvo unless you also provide a significant repair fund. Those things are VERY EXPENSIVE to maintain and quirky! It’s also tough to find a good Volvo mechanic!</p>
<p>keep an extra set of car keys at home.
My son has a Volvo and has lost his keys several times. He was down to just one set and misplaced his keys. He could not drive for about a week till he finally found his keys. Later model Volvo keys can not be duplicated from the locksmith shop or Home Depot. You have to order the replacement key from Volvo. The key has to be programed at a Volvo dealer or a Volvo repair shop that has the special equipment and in our city only the Volvo dealer has the equipment and computer software. The car has to be at the shop for the key to work on the car. So if you have only 1 set of keys and they are lost the car must be towed to the Volvo dealer. And if no Volvo dealer is in your college town. It is extremely expensive. And I am not even talking about replacing the remote or having that programed.</p>
<p>Actually, the 2006 Volvo we have has the remote & transmitter all integrated into the key. You are only given two keys, so there’s very little room for error. Would definitely NOT want an absent-minded person owning this car and having to get multiple keys–as was posted above–VERY EXPENSIVE.</p>
<p>We’re happy S has the old 1992 BMW–it’s old enough not to be too attractive to thieves while prestigous enough to be a nice car & strong enough to be fairly safe in a collision.</p>
<p>Actually, these silly remote and transmitter all in one key things are not specific to Volvo.
I think they are ‘standard’ on newer cars now.</p>
<p>Until last summer, our newest car was a 2001 Town and country van, no remote key.
Bought a 2008 slightly used Scion XD. Lovely car, 5000 miles on it, great price.
Hardly an expensive car. BUT the day we picked it up, they handed me THE key.
The only one they got from the seller. No problem, I thought. $10 and a trip to the locksmith will fix this. Who in their right mind would have only one key for a vehicle?</p>
<p>Well, I soon learned (from locksmith) that I could only obtain key from Toyota dealer.
No prob, went up the street a mile and asked at the parts dept.
Sure, they could make me one, for $300!!!<br>
After I caught my breath, I asked if I could speak to the manager when he was available.
A looooong wait but a fruitful one. After listening to my "don’t you want me to be your next life long new service customer’ story, he took my key and returned about 5 minutes later with a spare. It DOESN’T have the remote (who cares) but it does have the chippy thing to start the engine. And it was FREE.</p>
<p>So Toyota does have its problems, yes, but this dealer gets high marks and my business.</p>
<p>Geez, WHY can’t we have cheap keys, especially for cheap cars?</p>
<p>WOW! It’s great that you were able to get a helpful manager! I haven’t tried that with our Volvo, since it does have two keys and SO FAR, we’ve been able to hang onto both of them. I too would be very nervous with only one key. The chip to start the engine is so crucial!</p>
<p>HIMom- with son’s Volvo we found a huge price difference between two different Volvo dealers. The local one which my H hates was double the price of the Volvo dealer 2 hours north of our house. The northern dealer is where we bought the car new. H and I took a day off and drove up and dropped off the car and walked and window shopped and had lunch. We drove out to the coast and had a nice walk after the car was ready.</p>
<p>We had a 2004 Toyota pickup that had the old fashion type of key. Granted the car also had roll down windows and the doors were not power locking.
Also with a Toyota you are likely to have a dealer nearby. My friend lives 45 minutes south and they no longer have a Volvo dealer. She has to drive 45 minutes North or South if she needs dealer service. Our town does not have a Suburu dealer. If you needed a key made you would have to have the car towed a significant distance.</p>
<p>We have ONE Volvo dealer on our island and their prices are outrageous. We have been to four independent Volvo mechanics, also on our island (which has a population of about a million people). The last one sent us to an independent transmission shop, after charging us $1400 for a “tune up” and a few other things. We ended up paying an extra $1000 to the transmission shop! All the mechanics said they will NOT buy future Volvos as they’re not made like the old cars & are so tough to service. We had not really wanted them to validate our opinions, but our next car will definitely be an American or Japanese car because it’s so much easier to get good/decent service at affordable prices.</p>