I have a friend who has bought a 2.5 petrol XC70 and although his kids call it 'the old mans car' he loves it.

I am genuinely looking at swapping MY10 BMW 320d saloon as my kids are growing up and whinge and moan the back is not big enough for them to sit comfortably.

Question is.... do I go and buy an XC70 D5? Any ownership views appreciated. I want sat nav, heated leather etc etc so what do you think?

Beerok

I get this. My first foray into Volvo ownership was with a 2001 XC70 with the 2.4 petrol and manual box in October 2014. I remember driving it home think "well this is excellent". It had a great ride, went well for an old barge, the seats were excellent, I liked the way the dash wrapped around you and it felt VERY solid, like it was carved from granite. The sound system was excellent and I liked some of the small touches like the cup holder, the inbuilt dog guard and the boot tray under the floor.

I ran it for 18 months and just over 10k miles. It was also very useful with a nearly 2 year old child, a pushchair and a couple of dogs. It also had no social class if that makes sense. It wasn't a premium car, it wasn't a budget car. Nobody knows if you're rich or poor driving one of those.

Wasn't massively cheap to run, but I spent money on things I didn't really need to. I kept a log which is below. I ended up selling it as I worked out the AWD wasn't working and after reading horror stories of the early viscous coupling AWD systems I got shot, which I still regret. I do recall at the time also thinking the car would have suited an auto box more.

I replaced it with a Citroen C5 V6 with an auto box which I despised, and sold pretty quickly. I then replaced that with a V70R. I figured I enjoyed my XC70, the V70R was similar on steroids. Whilst it was a very capable car, with all the positives mentioned above (bar the ride, it was pretty poor tbh) it was thirsty, I cared too much about it meaning I tended not to actually use it as an estate and take the dogs out etc, and then I was worried about bork factor all the time, especially with the fragile AW 5 speed box. It did work well with an auto however.

Here is my thread on it.

https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...

I jumped into a 100hp from the V70R for the last few months, and whilst its great fun, I am tired of "driving" it all the time, and the size is starting to annoy me so I've been looking at Volvo estates again. Currently trying to get approval for another XC70, although SWMBO isn't overly chuffed...I'm looking forward to "those" heated leather seats, an auto box, a comfy ride and all that practicality again smile