No, it's not because they are on all the time. We have replaced only two
bulbs on our 960 after 10 years and (at the time) 100K Kms. We replaced the
bulbs after 8 years, one failed then about 2-3 months later the other one
went. The front and rear bulbs run at 100% intensity at all times, and our
960 is a short hop car for the most part, so it has had many start/stop
cycles for the bulbs (and the car in general).
It's not just Volvo's I see with burnt out bulbs, tho I do see it. I see it
much more frequently in Audi's tho.
Volvo actually addressed headlamp problems in I believe the 99 or 2000 model
year, it's something about the electrical systems of these new cars. My 1999
VW Golf lost the front left lamp after only 4 years, it is always on (the
rear lights are off) luckily VW runs a low intesity, and offset bulb in the
high beam position when the main lights are on, so I still appeared to be a
full sized car to oncoming motorists, and it gave me some added illumination
(it may increase in brightness to compensate for a dead bulb... but that
might purely be my imagination).... actually I couldn't really tell a bulb
died until I pulled behind a car, and noticed the reflection.
I asked my VW dealer about bulb probems and he said all the European cars
are having similar problems, he said it was the worst on Audi's, saying they
are as bad as Volvo's of the late 90's to 2001's. I asked the Volvo dealer,
and he said the new ones were pretty good, but as my VW dealer said, the
98-01 models are a bit troublesome. He said he wished they kept the
electrical system from the older cars at least for the lightbulbs.
.....Another thing to consider, new car headlamps are a lot more efficient
(read: brighter) then the ones on 740s/960s/850s. My friends V70 has the
illumination equivilant of a freakin' lighthouse.
