Shed Of The Week: Volvo S60 T 2.4
Why boring can also be cool, according to our man Shed
Fancy a little experiment? Look at the first page of the ad. We can probably all agree that the pic is rather boring. At this point, most of us would probably click off to somewhere else in the magical mystery land that is PH Classifieds. But hold your water a minute. Have a scroll through the rest of the pics.
Done that? Now, be honest. Did anything happen? Did you find yourself being drawn into the ad, maybe wondering exactly what this car is, perhaps even feeling a slight sense of desire?
Thought so. The lesson here for PH advertisers, or indeed any car vendor using the miracle of the internet to unload a vehicle, is to try and use the best image as the lead shot on your ad. Let's not be too hard on David, the advertiser in this specific case, as he has done a very decent job on the words. He certainly comes across as an honest Joe, but he's forgotten to mention a few salient facts about the S60 T that might ramp up his chances of selling it.
To Shed, this all sounds like at least 11 months of fast and luxurious motoring to enjoy. It will be both of those because the S 60 T is a fast and luxurious car, and a very useable one too. Our Shed is not the awesome 300hp 2.5-litre R version, which summarily dealt with the 0-60 dash in five and a bit seconds. Nor is it the 250hp T5. However, it is the 195hp 2.4 petrol believed by many to be the most user-friendly of all the performance-oriented S-series Volvos.
People would have paid up to £28K for one like this in the UK back in the day. Now you can have it for a piffling £750. This Volvo a bit of a sleeper in more ways than one.
Volvo S60 - Deep Metallic Blue for sale
The car has only covered 93000 miles and has a full service history.
I have owned it for five years
It has had almost no use in the past year as i have other vehicle to drive and subsequently i have decided to sell it. It has the following features :
1 years MOT
Full service history
Full leather interior
Heated front seats
Dual zone climate control
Cruise control
Electric glass sunroof
Trip computer
Original factory carpet mat set
Factory fitted car phone (you can use your own sim - cool in a retro way)
Remote central locking with 2 keys
The car is extremely well equipped and is very comfortable to drive. The engine is incredibly smooth and everything works. The exterior paint is in good condition with no rust but please remember it is 15 years old and therefore has a few scuffs and is not perfect - the interior is also in good condition but could do with a longer valet (i have given it a quick clean). The alloy wheels are ok but could honestly do with a refurb - all four tyres have loads of tread left 6mm or more all around
There are probably some things i have forgotten - please feel free to call for more information.
Please Call or Txt me as i dont regularly check my emails - many thanks David
Nearly 12 months' MOT, tidyish body, decent boots and FSH - at £750 I reckon this is a bargain.
Must convince myself I don't need another car...!
However I've bought T5's for this money or less, albeit with 120-140k recorded (but fsh) and they were all V70's
Three hings come to mind as things to be checkers;
PCV system, which iirc is a ball ache to replace so I'd let my friendly garage sort it (around £81 & 2hrs labour to fit)
ETM is another thing that goes wrong, easy to fix but I beleive needs coding in to the vehicle so an extra cost incurred
Battery alarm fault; not difficult to replace at all but throws up warnings on the dashboard
Auto gearbox - I'd want an extended test drive, from cold, as when they warm up they can flare between gear changes. A fluid and filter change 'may' fix it, but chances are it could be more expensive.
If all the above check out then this could be a good reliable barge, especially as it's not the higher powered T5
It's quite the sleeper, too. You can drive enthusiastically when appropriate or drive like a vicar. It's no mapped 335D, mind.
The two things I am most impressed with:
-the engine: nice 5 cylinder sound
-and the hifi: bit OTT for a family car!!
The seats are the best I've ever experienced. And as mentioned above the stereo is fantastic!
However I've bought T5's for this money or less, albeit with 120-140k recorded (but fsh) and they were all V70's
Three hings come to mind as things to be checkers;
PCV system, which iirc is a ball ache to replace so I'd let my friendly garage sort it (around £81 & 2hrs labour to fit)
ETM is another thing that goes wrong, easy to fix but I beleive needs coding in to the vehicle so an extra cost incurred
Battery alarm fault; not difficult to replace at all but throws up warnings on the dashboard
Auto gearbox - I'd want an extended test drive, from cold, as when they warm up they can flare between gear changes. A fluid and filter change 'may' fix it, but chances are it could be more expensive.
If all the above check out then this could be a good reliable barge, especially as it's not the higher powered T5
PCV - on top of the quoted labour the parts are going to be £150> for genuine Volvo (and they need to be genuine). I bought them all a few months ago but forget the exact price (and that was with a discount). Some people have had luck just cleaning out the PCV but some of the hoses go brittle with age and are apparently impossible to clean.
Got the battery alarm warning on my V70. Have ignored it. Warning only stays on for a few minutes and doesn't distract. I like to think nobody would want to break in to my ratty old V70 so couldn't care less about fixing it. Genuine alarm batteries are not cheap, used ones from a breaker will likely be no better. Have read you can swap them with cheaper universal batteries but can be a faff.
The only problem mine has thrown is the very common ETM issue which gives a rough, hunting idle and occasional kangaroo issues. Haven't got it fixed yet as led to believe there's are company which can mend them, avoiding the recoding issue.
This shed is on 90k, and unless already replaced, it will fail in the not too distant future...
Personally, I love it. Comfy seats, bonkers stereo, and that 5 pot warble...
ETA shameless picture.
The Aero Saab was faster, but the ride was abysmal, the normal 9-3 LPT was much nicer and did the Swedish thing, where the Aero felt like it was trying to be a german sports saloon and failing, Swedish stuff is not about sporting pretensions, its about comfy ride, fantastic mid range, comfy seats, good brakes, dependebale if not exactly exciting handling and looking a bit cool despite being gawky, throw in a bit of strangeness as well.
The top of the range ones are good but if you can see past headline power outputs, big wheels and lowered suspension, the LPT versions are the pick of the bunch in my humble opinion and realistically, not that much slower.
The Swedes were ahead of the game with their LPT engines, everything pretty much has a turbo now and they arent the super high performance types, they are the fill in the middle range variety, I drove the NA Saab 9-3 back to back with the LPT, only 15 bhp in it but the NA felt like it had half the performance.
Short of a big capacity NA, for smaller engines, its the way to go.
I don't know if I'd actually buy one though. I imagine they're great wafters, but are they not rather dull to drive? And probably quite thirsty for their somewhat average performance?
Thirsty? Maybe - low 20s in suburban traffic.
Average performance? In-gear acceleration is good enough for a family car. 8 seconds to 60 thanks to the automatic box which is fine if you're lazy like me.
Vehicle make VOLVO
Date of first registration 22 March 2001
CO?Emissions 239 g/km
That's band L £500 vehicle tax per year, in case anyone is wondering..
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