Volvo Repair: V70 XC Tail Light Issue, volvo dealer, john welcome

Question
I have owned my 2001 V70 XC for 8 years now.  Over the past 5 or 6 years, I have myself replacing tail lights on a regular basis.  This problem mostly occurs on the driver side and only once or twice on the passenger side.  At best as I can remember, I must have replaced the driver side tail lights at least 15 times in the last 5 or 6 years.  I have only had to replace the passenger tail light about twice in that same time frame.  At times, I find that if I close the tailgate on the car, the driver tail light will work or not work.  Other times, I have turned the socket that holds the tail light and that seems to resolves the problem temporarily .  I have even swapped the socket that holds the bulb in place with the passenger side to see if the problem occurs on the other side.  At first, it looked as if the problem have moved to the other side.  But after a couple of years, I find that I am still blowing the same bulb on the driver side.

Can you tell me why this is happening?  All the Volvo dealer in my neighborhood does is replace the bulb for a substantial fee.  Now I replace the bulb on my own at a fraction of the cost.

Answer
John, welcome to the world of the new series of Volvos. I deal with this on a daily basis.  Mainly its caused because the darn lights are on all the time, and with cheap bulbs, they burn out quickly.  Annoying but an unfortunate fact of life with the newer Volvos.  Roger