Volvo XC70

[jamesbilluk]

Hi all,

Ive been debating fore a while wether to get rid of the VW Tiguan I have on finance at the moment, and get something thats still 4wd, and very comfy!
Ive now gone ahead with it, We buy any car are sorting out a brilliant deal paying the remainder of the finance off and buying the car off me.

Ive just got back from collecting my first Volvo, a 2008 XC70 SE Lux D5, seems to have all the toys, keyless entry, and xenon lights to name a few, it has 142000 on the clock but with 10 Volvo stamps in the service book, when you look closely it does show its miles in some areas, but others it seems fine, the interior is a lovely place to be and the comfiest seats I've ever sat in. The front grill is cracked so will need replacing, and the headlights have gone dull looking, so they'll need to be looked at too, also some new mats are in order... I'm really enjoying the way it goes along, especially the 5 cylinder growl (even for a diesel) and still returned 40MPG on the motorway (the 2.0 Tiguan managed about 45-50 so not too bad considering the size difference. Im looking forward to getting the little things done,







James.

Edited by jamesbilluk on Tuesday 28th August 16:11

Edited by jamesbilluk on Tuesday 28th August 16:11

[muhnkee2]

Thanks for sharing, it looks lovely, i will follow your updates, because i have a really weird fascination with the "ocean race edition" of these cars. I think they are all the best bits of a volvo without having to drive an SUV!

[jamesbilluk]

Will do I’ve already purchased the headlight restoration kit, and on the look out for a grill

Ah yes, I do like the look of those, saw a couple for sale when I was looking for this, love the look of them.

[Brads67]

Just not long ago bought one.
Towing a bike on a trailer 300 miles returned 46mpg (D5)
I love it, big, fast, auto, luxury barge.

[TR4man]

Looking forward to your updates.

There is something very appealing about the XC70 as a daily workhorse.

[Countdown]

Fantastic car OP. I think the normal V70 is pretty good looking but the XC70 just takes it a level higher. Yours is the perfect colour as well.

Personally not a big fan of light wood trim on the inside but other than that it looks good.

There seem to be a lot of Volvos doing mega-miles. Are they as reliable as Japanese or is it just that people are prepared to spend more money keeping them on the road because they’re good cars?

[e30m3Mark]

I ran one of these for a few months and really enjoyed wafting about in it. It did everything asked of it and always felt like a quality car. The interior always felt very smart and comfortable.

I'm guessing these are pretty good value now they're a little older?

[Countdown]

kapiteinlangzaam said:

Japanese cars just seem to run forever, no matter what.

Indeed

I currently have a Honda Accord Tourer and it’s great at motorway mile munching. My next car is probably going to be an XC60 but I can’t bring myself to change when the Honda has been running like a Casio (I was going to say “Swiss Watch” but Casio is probably a better comparison)

[jamesbilluk]

TR4man said:

Looking forward to your updates.

There is something very appealing about the XC70 as a daily workhorse.

Really looking forward to using it, feels like it will be a reliable old thing,

[jamesbilluk]

Countdown said:

Fantastic car OP. I think the normal V70 is pretty good looking but the XC70 just takes it a level higher. Yours is the perfect colour as well.

Personally not a big fan of light wood trim on the inside but other than that it looks good.

There seem to be a lot of Volvos doing mega-miles. Are they as reliable as Japanese or is it just that people are prepared to spend more money keeping them on the road because they’re good cars?

Cheers Was originally looking at the 05 shape, but saw this pop up, really like the look of the front of this shape one. Not to sure about the wood my self to be honest, doesn’t seem to cover you much of the interior which is good though.

[jamesbilluk]

e30m3Mark said:

I ran one of these for a few months and really enjoyed wafting about in it. It did everything asked of it and always felt like a quality car. The interior always felt very smart and comfortable.

I'm guessing these are pretty good value now they're a little older?

It does seem to be a lovely place to be, I spend a lot of time on the motorway so should be ideal for that, and carrying flight cases, the boot is fantastic

They do seem to be a lot of car for the money,
This one was about £4700 pricier than the pre face lift,

[aland75]

Countdown said:

There seem to be a lot of Volvos doing mega-miles. Are they as reliable as Japanese or is it just that people are prepared to spend more money keeping them on the road because they’re good cars?

My 2004 V70 D5 was on 256k when I sold it, with mostly just regular service items along the way. I only sold it because a V70R came along at a good price.
The new D5 owner has a thread on here about it, and has added another 4k miles in about 6 weeks!

They do wear the miles well.

[Davie]

These do have a certain appeal... probably stemming from a Volvo Corporate day I did a few years back at Rockingham where I was left genuinely astounded by their off road abilities, granted they're no Defender but for what they are and in the absence of diff locks and such like, they're very capable.

I did debate a P2 last year but opted for an R instead (as you do) and have latterly added a V70 D5 as my daily driver / tool for all occasions however I find myself looking at XC70's quite a lot now and thinking it'd perhaps be a better all round car given the state of the roads, the winter weather and the fact mine seems to spend a lot of time grounding out down farm tracks and such like.

There's a P3 XC70 fairly locally, ex traffic but does look very very clean and it's a manual... 2010 and priced at £5k which doesn't seem too bad and means it could be used and abused without getting too precious about any general wear and tear or when it gets bogged, axle deep in a trench somewhere after my optimism exceeds the car's ability.

Will be following with interest and keeping an eye on the classifieds soon I think... lovely cars, probably one of the least "real" Volvos in terms of styling before they went a bit generic and lost a bit of the Volvo, tank esque character.

[xcseventy]

Great purchase, and looks a good spec.

Love mine (2012 D4) having owned since Dec 17 and 9,000 miles.

Still enjoy driving it, and loved playing in the snow and off road. A set of winter tyres made it unstoppable.

[jamesbilluk]

Just tried to improve the headlights, they seem worse than I thought,

I purchased the meguiars headlight restoring kit, and used the included wet and dry sandpaper for the more stubborn areas.



Before


After


Other side


After





Certainly an improvement, but not completely gone, this was when I first got it home with the condensation

Edited by jamesbilluk on Thursday 30th August 14:00

[Davie]

I was a little more brutal with the headlights on my P2 which were almost opaque... 800 grit with warm soapy water until uniformly sanded, then 2000 grit again with warm soapy water and again worked to a uniform finish over the whole light, then a heavy cutting compound with a DA polisher and then a finer cut and finally some hard wax. They're completely clear now, hard work but made a massive difference and thus far they're still ok after 6 months of use.

[jamesbilluk]

Think I may have to do that as well!

[Uncle John]

Nice car! Almost bought one a few years ago.

Try Autoglym Super Resin Polish on the lights if you have some knocking around. Has worked well for me in the past.

[Krikkit]

I bought a 3M kit recently which included wet and dry with an adaptor for an electric drill. It completely removed the top coating of the lights without issue (Clio ones which were ruined) and brought them up a treat. There was one tiny patch which had a bit of pitting that made it through the protective layers.

[jamesbilluk]

Uncle John said:

Nice car! Almost bought one a few years ago.

Try Autoglym Super Resin Polish on the lights if you have some knocking around. Has worked well for me in the past.

Many thanks I think I have some somewhere, will give that a go!