Volvo XC90 2008-2010

[ugene425]

Hi
Has anyone owned one of these cars (1st gen). Ideally an R design?
The time has come for me get a 4x4 due to having another child (2nd) on the way and therefore I need to do some homework before I part with my £12.5k savings!
My wife is very keen on the Volvo brand due to its safety and also having worked for them many years ago. The other competition we have is no 2 VW Touareg and no 3 BMW X5. All around the same year (2008-2009 approx) with under 100k on the clock. I have looked at the Q5 but I don’t think the boot is big enough. Q7 is just too big! A shame as Audi I feel make the one of the best car cabins in the market.
The running cost for whatever 4x4 is going to be a shock to the system but I don’t think there is any way round that, unless I am missing something? Other than use Black Circle to help with the tyre cost?
Thank you for help and looking forward to hearing your comments.
Henry

[KevinCamaroSS]

What is wrong with an estate car? Never had a problem running a Skoda Octavia estate with up to 5 people and kit in it.

[NugentS]

Allegedly, check very carefully whether the vehicle is still a 4WD car.
Apparently (according to an X-Volvo dealer - independant) most of the older XC90's are 2WD due to repairs being too expensive

[S100HP]

NugentS said:

Allegedly, check very carefully whether the vehicle is still a 4WD car.
Apparently (according to an X-Volvo dealer - independant) most of the older XC90's are 2WD due to repairs being too expensive

I disagree, it's the earlier ones that have the issue. 06 onwards should be fine.

[Justin S]

D5's are good engines, but watch for belt tensioners. They were on the Mk5 or 6 version when ours failed in the XC60. Can take out a lot of things if unlucky , like the cambelt. That age will also need a cambelt change on time , which isnt cheap, so make sure its done in the cost. Rear discs can wear but are Ford Galaxy, so are cheap. Electrical stuff, make sure all works. Auto gearboxes arent great . 6 speed in that time gets lost as to what it needs to do. They are mechanically quite agricultural and not precision, if thats the right way to say it, but pick a good one and it should be fine.

[Tomo1971]

Not considered an XC70?

AWD but lower to the ground, should be better (lower) fuel costs.

[A900ss]

KevinCamaroSS said:

What is wrong with an estate car? Never had a problem running a Skoda Octavia estate with up to 5 people and kit in it.

Stop speaking sense.

Wife has a baby and wants to join the yummy mummy brigade so needs a 4x4. The bigger the better.

Apologies to sound crass but an estate car is a better family car than a 4x4 unless you are a farmer.

[Toed64]

A900ss said:

KevinCamaroSS said:

What is wrong with an estate car? Never had a problem running a Skoda Octavia estate with up to 5 people and kit in it.

Stop speaking sense.

Wife has a baby and wants to join the yummy mummy brigade so needs a 4x4. The bigger the better.

Apologies to sound crass but an estate car is a better family car than a 4x4 unless you are a farmer.

...or you tow, or you need to get the other side of 3 ft deep snow drifts to get out of the village, or you want to be able to bump up and down kerbs without buying new tyres, or the verges on the lanes around your village have big roots that wreck the nearside front tyre on your wife's normal estate car when she is trying to avoid the high speed white van coming the other way, or you like the lofty driving position, or you just want one...

I sold my wife's Honda Accord estate and my Octavia for most of the reasons above. They were both excellent vehicles, but they didn't do all that we needed them to do.

I bought a tall 4x4 estate car and a medium height 4x4 estate car to replace them. They perform slightly overlapping jobs for us. I choose the big Subaru for long trips and people carrying, because it's the more comfortable car. I use the tall 4x4 whenever I need to tow large heavy things, whenever the weather is really bad or when I need a very large carrying capacity.

However, I have been considering whether I should be sensible: sell both and buy another big, newer, 4x4. I was considering buying an XC90, but it doesn't have the tow capacity I need - it is only a soft-roader/exec family car, after all.

Is this really a motoring enthusiasts' forum?

[A900ss]

Toed64 said:

A900ss said:

KevinCamaroSS said:

What is wrong with an estate car? Never had a problem running a Skoda Octavia estate with up to 5 people and kit in it.

Stop speaking sense.

Wife has a baby and wants to join the yummy mummy brigade so needs a 4x4. The bigger the better.

Apologies to sound crass but an estate car is a better family car than a 4x4 unless you are a farmer.

...or you tow, or you need to get the other side of 3 ft deep snow drifts to get out of the village, or you want to be able to bump up and down kerbs without buying new tyres, or the verges on the lanes around your village have big roots that wreck the nearside front tyre on your wife's normal estate car when she is trying to avoid the high speed white van coming the other way, or you like the lofty driving position, or you just want one...

I sold my wife's Honda Accord estate and my Octavia for most of the reasons above. They were both excellent vehicles, but they didn't do all that we needed them to do.

I bought a tall 4x4 estate car and a medium height 4x4 estate car to replace them. They perform slightly overlapping jobs for us. I choose the big Subaru for long trips and people carrying, because it's the more comfortable car. I use the tall 4x4 whenever I need to tow large heavy things, whenever the weather is really bad or when I need a very large carrying capacity.

However, I have been considering whether I should be sensible: sell both and buy another big, newer, 4x4. I was considering buying an XC90, but it doesn't have the tow capacity I need - it is only a soft-roader/exec family car, after all.

Is this really a motoring enthusiasts' forum?

Really? Ok, I'll bite

Towing - not mentioned by OP
3 foot snow drifts - I don't think so. Three foot snow drifts mean you are staying put unless you have a snow thrower. A 4X4 is better than an estate car in deep snow (no difference in depth up to 4/5 inches) but tyres are the important thing.
Bump up and down kerbs - learn to drive please. Bad roads will destroy tyres on any vehicle if you don't drive appropriately
Just want one - thats the important bit and one that I'd respect if stated but it isn't. The original request is all about more space as another child which an estate car satisfies better than a 4x4. For any given level of cash, an estate is more comfortable, handles better, cheaper to buy and cheaper to run.

The last comment asking if this is a motoring enthusiasts forum - surely an enthusiast would want handling and performance. Factors that an estate car will easily outperform a car with a higher COG, so the enthusiast would go for the estate surely? (Unless other factors such as towing come into play but then you are being practical rather than 'enthusiastic').

[Toed64]

A900ss said:

Toed64 said:

A900ss said:

KevinCamaroSS said:

What is wrong with an estate car? Never had a problem running a Skoda Octavia estate with up to 5 people and kit in it.

Stop speaking sense.

Wife has a baby and wants to join the yummy mummy brigade so needs a 4x4. The bigger the better.

Apologies to sound crass but an estate car is a better family car than a 4x4 unless you are a farmer.

...or you tow, or you need to get the other side of 3 ft deep snow drifts to get out of the village, or you want to be able to bump up and down kerbs without buying new tyres, or the verges on the lanes around your village have big roots that wreck the nearside front tyre on your wife's normal estate car when she is trying to avoid the high speed white van coming the other way, or you like the lofty driving position, or you just want one...

I sold my wife's Honda Accord estate and my Octavia for most of the reasons above. They were both excellent vehicles, but they didn't do all that we needed them to do.

I bought a tall 4x4 estate car and a medium height 4x4 estate car to replace them. They perform slightly overlapping jobs for us. I choose the big Subaru for long trips and people carrying, because it's the more comfortable car. I use the tall 4x4 whenever I need to tow large heavy things, whenever the weather is really bad or when I need a very large carrying capacity.

However, I have been considering whether I should be sensible: sell both and buy another big, newer, 4x4. I was considering buying an XC90, but it doesn't have the tow capacity I need - it is only a soft-roader/exec family car, after all.

Is this really a motoring enthusiasts' forum?

Really? Ok, I'll bite

Towing - not mentioned by OP
3 foot snow drifts - I don't think so. Three foot snow drifts mean you are staying put unless you have a snow thrower. A 4X4 is better than an estate car in deep snow (no difference in depth up to 4/5 inches) but tyres are the important thing.
Bump up and down kerbs - learn to drive please. Bad roads will destroy tyres on any vehicle if you don't drive appropriately
Just want one - thats the important bit and one that I'd respect if stated but it isn't. The original request is all about more space as another child which an estate car satisfies better than a 4x4. For any given level of cash, an estate is more comfortable, handles better, cheaper to buy and cheaper to run.

The last comment asking if this is a motoring enthusiasts forum - surely an enthusiast would want handling and performance. Factors that an estate car will easily outperform a car with a higher COG, so the enthusiast would go for the estate surely? (Unless other factors such as towing come into play but then you are being practical rather than 'enthusiastic').

Haha... OK, I agree on most of what you've said and I wouldn't buy a modern Range Rover or Disco (for example) because I'd cringe every time I scratched it...and I wouldn't choose a tall 4x4 as a daily driver or an exec barge. However, I ran a 3 litre Outback as a DD for years.

My daily driver is a BMW 130i and I sold my modified 135i last week...& I have a Riot track car. BMWs are totally useless in white weather, so the 4x4s serve.

I did drive through 200m of lane blocked by snow drifts yesterday in my aged Toyota 4Runner...and many of the drifts were more than 3ft. I would not have contemplated doing so in an Outback, and neither should the Evoke driver that got stuck.

We don't go anywhere near kerbs for 90% of our driving, but our Honda was on 225/45 tyres that did ot cope with rural potholes and lanes. I replaced a lot of XL rated tyres on that car. What I should ahve done was fit taller profile tyres, like those fitted to our Outback, perhaps.

A friend of mine has been running a V8 XC90 for some years. He claims that he needs it to cart his 4 boys around, I did argue that he would have been much weathier by now, had he bought a diesel Galaxy. I didn't argue very hard though, I'd rather be driving the silly Yamaha-engined Volvo too.