RE: SOTW: Volvo C70 T5 Coupe

[Ecurie Ecosse]

davo23 said:

After seeing this as a young lad in 'The Saint' remake with Val Kilmer it changed my perception of Volvo's, it looked cool, and he had a Nokia flip phone...brilliant!

With a more mature eye the film is pants, the phone is a joke, but I think the
car still looks mighty handsome, in an understated way.

Ah, the Nokia 9000 Communicator. I still have mine - I may fire it up now

[cerb4.5lee]

The Spruce goose said:

Smokin Donut said:

Hate, Hate, Hate, so so so so boring, I'd rather shoot myself in the head than be seen in this!

I have been a passenger in one chipped, and these do go like the clappers and not the most ugly thing on the road. classless.

Must admit my brother in law bought one from auction in 2001 & i drove it back most of the way & i was well impressed with the power & the spec was awesome with the gt pack on it.

I thought it was a wolf in sheeps clothing & liked it alot,although he always struggled telling people he drove a volvo they thought he was about 85 yrs old.

[jbi]

if you know what you are doing than then is a great buy...

most issues can be sorted by the home mechanic with a bit of time and some visits to the scrappy

[mgmrw]

Wonderful cars.

Father had a high miler 2.0T version.

Never missed a beat. The odd eleccy gremlin (washer bottle indicator) and 1x wheel bearing at 167k miles.

So comfy it was untrue. If could get insured I'd be snottering one now

[bob42]

Motorrad said:

louiebaby said:

I like the plan, but if I was spending my own cash, I'd probably end up with:

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2011...

I understand the point of SOTW is a bag or less, but this would probably be a more sensible purchase...

My point exactly- I imagine if you turned up, with a grand, at the dealer you would be driving away in that car.

Having viewed that particular car myself (before buying this one: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/250889996985?ssPageName=...) I can confirm that "looks superb, viewing highly recomended" translates as: "Looks like its been polished with a brillo pad, has scratches, various dents and the sunroof doesn't open".

[Faust66]

Good shed!

Seriously considering one of these in the near future... well to be fair it's gonna be a C70 or 850 T5 but time will tell.

Agree with previous comments though: spending an extra 500 quid will get a much nicer car. I've been keeping a wary eye on the market for a while now: nice examples tend to go for around £1200-1500.

I do have the feeling that these may not be the easiest cars to work on. My girlfriend's V70 does not have huge amounts of space in the engine bay and that doesn't even have a bloody great turbo in the way!

[richard300]

I'd say it's a better car (not this example) than it's equivalent and contemporary W208 Mercedes CLK..... Which let's face it, at whatever price range should be classed as a shed!!!

[pSyCoSiS]

A lot of car for the cash. And if you are handy with tools, could get if fixed, then taxed, etc for around £850 all in.

I would prefer the 850 T5 over this - has a bit more pedigree about it, and nice boxy looks!

[angusc43]

Still a great looking car. There are a couple near me and I always admire them.

[pSyCoSiS]

richard300 said:

I'd say it's a better car (not this example) than it's equivalent and contemporary W208 Mercedes CLK..... Which let's face it, at whatever price range should be classed as a shed!!!

It's probably better-built than the 208 CLK, but has less class IMO.

Those old CLKs just rot through, and interiors are pretty ghastly.

[ITech]

Drove a normally aspirated one of these, back when they were new and it felt pretty gutless. But, I am sure the Turbo ones are pretty pokey. I remember the leather and plastic interior felt a bit cheap, the heater controls etc, were flimsy.

Always liked the shape, looks a classy car in the right colour. Really nice ones are often under £2k, which is a bargain really. Just a shame it's FWD, if it wasn't for that I would have bought a T5 by now.

[Dion20vt]

I had one of these a couple of years ago, a 98 model, T5 Gt spec in the saffron gold. lovely car! never missed a beat, apart from a constantly deflating tyre wich turned out to be a cracked alloy... D'oh!

But beofre that i had a 99 model V70 T5.... talk about electrical gremlins.... the ME7 engines in the 99-00 cars were riddled with little faults...

[Leptons]

Smokin Donut said:

Hate, Hate, Hate, so so so so boring, I'd rather shoot myself in the head than be seen in this!

Well do feel free to fire away...

[ITech]

Ecurie Ecosse said:

Ah, the Nokia 9000 Communicator. I still have mine - I may fire it up now

Had the 9500 Communicator, kept it for a long time, despite frequent jibes from colleagues about it being a housebrick. Best phone i've ever had, loved the golf game and the keyboard was really good.

[Scoobman]

Having driven alot of these.

Engine - The great T5 lump
Handling - One of the worst cars I have ever driven. Scuttle shake city
But a comfortable place to be

[Gizmo!]

Motorrad said:

Spend closer to the budget max of a grand and buy one with no issues. Other than that a good choice.

That would be the correct approach in my view also.

Just a few too many things wrong on that one.

[WeirdNeville]

That advert really isn't selling the car to me!
It just sounds like £500 worth of misery.
I like the idea, I'd just be looking for one without the faults and willing to spend a bit more of sheds budget.

[john_r]

Ahhh, the Volvo C70... or as they are known at work by the fleet managers - The Volvo Ditchfinder.

[sinbaddio]

Great looking car - regularly tempted by a convertible for wafting around in the summer and still enough room for the littl'uns in the back

[300bhp/ton]

Wasn't one of these a SOTW not so long ago????