Well, sounds like you're experiencing the same kind of annoyance that we
did last summer. We have 2001 V70 2,4T and it needed to have its
automatic gearbox replaced last year.

Same thing with us - never pulled anything or abused the engine. Our car
had around 43,000 kms at that time. Luckily we were able to negotiate it
so, that Volvo paid the gearbox (4300 euros) and we paid for the labour
(630 euros).

As an advice I can only say that do not give up. It is absoltely
unacceptable to have a gearbox failure with so little mileage. Thus
fight hard and use all the means you can think of to make your Volvo
dealer to come to senses. Negativity seldom works, so use hard facts and
try to persuade them to reach a somekind of a compromise.

At the end of the day, I got the impression from Volvo lads, that it's
not very rare phenomenon to have such problems. Especially with 2001
models. See, Volvo was trying to manufacture the world's shortest box at
the time, but I guess their goal was a tad too ambititious. This is only
my personal conclusion, but please do your own detective work, ask
around and try to find more cases to prove this point.

Furthermore, some sales persons actually have used "new, revised box" in
their sales pitches after these gearbox problems have been identified
and sorted out in Finland (where I live). I wonder what's the bloody
point to make it such an important point, if the gearbox really is
manufactured to meet today's standards....