Engine hesitation upon acceleration and sudden transition into the "reduced engine performance" mode which was extremely dangerous on the freeway. The incident happened several times with the failure codes pointing to the "ETM". in other cases the engine was surging after start and then went back to the "limp" mode.

- West Hills, CA, USA

Car began lurching/chugging forward as I tried to accelerate onto the highway, reminiscent of spark plug problems, except that the plugs were replaced the day before. Car slowed to "limp" mode and "reduced engine performance" light came on. After shutting the car off, waiting a minute or two, I was able to start it and drive without problems. The exact same thing happened exactly one week later. I took it in to the dealer and was told they couldn't find anything wrong--no codes were coming back on the computer and that it was a weather related issue. Less than one week after getting it back it did the same thing, thankfully, after I crossed a major road. This time the check engine light came on, as did the "engine system service required" message. According to the dealer, the throttle control needs to be cleaned and possibly the mass airflow sensor needs to be replaced. I thought Volvo had fixed this on '02 and later. Guess not. This isn't just an inconvenient problem, it's highly dangerous. I was fortunate enough the three times that this happened (within 3 weeks) to be able to pull over and out of traffic. Had I been in heavier traffic, I easily could have been in an accident or worse on the highway.

- Saint Paul, MN, USA

Vehicle accelerates without warning causing loss of control. The sudden acceleration condition occurred mostly after the vehicle was placed in reverse to parallel park.

- Flushing, NY, USA