idiotgap's 2013 Volvo XC90
Discussion
I've not run many cars so a brief history by means of introduction.
I learned to drive in 1992/3 in my mum's biscuit beige 1.3 Metro 1988 e-reg which was a hand-me-down from my dotty great aunts. They were elderly spinsters living together in LLandudno, they'd buy a new car every 3 years and give my mum the old one each time. The metro felt quick compared with anything else I'd had a go in and I l liked the a-series engine.
Around the time I past the test mum got the aunties old Peugeot 205, followed by another not all that long after, the second one was a 1994 205 Junior 1124cc in silver, I used to borrow it once in a while back up in Yorkshire from London during uni holidays. I found this one lacking in power and you used to have to change down on motorway inclines if you had passengers, but auto-choke was a step forward though and I loved the chassis, you could steer it on the throttle quite nicely. It also had natty denim seats When I finished university in about 1997 my mum gave me this car as she got another from the aunties so it was the first car that was properly mine and I kept it outside my flat in Kentish Town.
After a bit, probably around year 2000, another hand-me-down came along, a fairly horrible purple 1.4 4-door corsa LS I think this was on an N-plate so 1996. Sadly the free car fountain dried up. One aunt was making the fire one morning and keeled over with a heart-attack and died. When the other one found her, she promptly had kittens, phoned a relative, then a heart attack herself while on the phone and died later the same day. I didn't like the way the corsa drove, whilst it seemed more modern and refined in the cabin, the ride was awful, felt like the centre of gravity was way higher than the 205.
In 2001, I'd given the Pug to my sister who crashed it, had it repaired, but didn't fancy driving it any more. I agreed to swap, so she took the corsa on and I sold the 205 on autotrader from my flat in Marylebone - at last I had the chance to choose my own car!
I chose analytically, having looked at MR2 mk3, Honda S2000, vx200 and mx-5s, I ended up buying a 2001 1.4 Golf mk4 S. I realised that I enjoyed getting out and about with mates and at the time you could import a new car from Europe cheaper than buying a 3 year old one. I took the easy option and bought a pre-reg Belgian sourced Golf from car supermarket trade-sales in Slough for £10,300. OK it was boring, but good in so many ways - not least as I found a wife and we'd had a child over that period. I kept it for 8 years and only got rid because my wife didn't like it. To me it was the car I'd had from new and looked after, to her it was like a pair of someone elses old slippers. We replaced it with an a-class merc in 2010, her car, her choice, we've still got it.
I'd wanted a e-class 124 shape estate for as long as I could remember, something so right about the shape of them and the quality. Once son no.2 was on the way I felt ready/justified to get something bigger to run alongside the a-class. We'd bought a 1984 R107 SL in 2007 which had been little bother and so in 2010 I had the confidence to get a 1996 E280 estate 7 seater. So we now had a 3 merc collection. I loved the 124 and we had it for 5 years at which point we sold it for double what we'd paid for it. We got rid of that because we'd had a 3rd son and the centre rear seatbelt was only a lap belt, also the family did feel it was a bit old fashioned and lacked some comfort.
We replaced the 124 in 2015 with another e-class estate, skipping the 210 generation with an S211 2004 E320 auto petrol 3.2 v6. This was a highly optioned car and seemed space age in comparison with the 124. It had:-
- full airmatic suspension like an s-class
- Harmon Kardon audio upgrade
- avantgarde bizenon headlights, leather, etc.
- quad zone climate with digital controls for the rear passengers.
- 7 seats
- comand sat nav, DVD, robot opening cd auto changer
I bought this pre-facelift 211 knowing about the issues with the airmatic suspension and also the SBS brakes. We only paid about £3k for it and after 3 years when the warning for the SBS pump came up at 150k miles I had to decide between spending the money on replacing the pump (several quotes £1.5k+) as well as attending to the ever ongoing suspension refreshment. I decided to get the warning coded away and punt it on to WBAC for £1k rather than spend and keep or spend and flog privately.
I learned to drive in 1992/3 in my mum's biscuit beige 1.3 Metro 1988 e-reg which was a hand-me-down from my dotty great aunts. They were elderly spinsters living together in LLandudno, they'd buy a new car every 3 years and give my mum the old one each time. The metro felt quick compared with anything else I'd had a go in and I l liked the a-series engine.
Around the time I past the test mum got the aunties old Peugeot 205, followed by another not all that long after, the second one was a 1994 205 Junior 1124cc in silver, I used to borrow it once in a while back up in Yorkshire from London during uni holidays. I found this one lacking in power and you used to have to change down on motorway inclines if you had passengers, but auto-choke was a step forward though and I loved the chassis, you could steer it on the throttle quite nicely. It also had natty denim seats When I finished university in about 1997 my mum gave me this car as she got another from the aunties so it was the first car that was properly mine and I kept it outside my flat in Kentish Town.
After a bit, probably around year 2000, another hand-me-down came along, a fairly horrible purple 1.4 4-door corsa LS I think this was on an N-plate so 1996. Sadly the free car fountain dried up. One aunt was making the fire one morning and keeled over with a heart-attack and died. When the other one found her, she promptly had kittens, phoned a relative, then a heart attack herself while on the phone and died later the same day. I didn't like the way the corsa drove, whilst it seemed more modern and refined in the cabin, the ride was awful, felt like the centre of gravity was way higher than the 205.
In 2001, I'd given the Pug to my sister who crashed it, had it repaired, but didn't fancy driving it any more. I agreed to swap, so she took the corsa on and I sold the 205 on autotrader from my flat in Marylebone - at last I had the chance to choose my own car!
I chose analytically, having looked at MR2 mk3, Honda S2000, vx200 and mx-5s, I ended up buying a 2001 1.4 Golf mk4 S. I realised that I enjoyed getting out and about with mates and at the time you could import a new car from Europe cheaper than buying a 3 year old one. I took the easy option and bought a pre-reg Belgian sourced Golf from car supermarket trade-sales in Slough for £10,300. OK it was boring, but good in so many ways - not least as I found a wife and we'd had a child over that period. I kept it for 8 years and only got rid because my wife didn't like it. To me it was the car I'd had from new and looked after, to her it was like a pair of someone elses old slippers. We replaced it with an a-class merc in 2010, her car, her choice, we've still got it.
I'd wanted a e-class 124 shape estate for as long as I could remember, something so right about the shape of them and the quality. Once son no.2 was on the way I felt ready/justified to get something bigger to run alongside the a-class. We'd bought a 1984 R107 SL in 2007 which had been little bother and so in 2010 I had the confidence to get a 1996 E280 estate 7 seater. So we now had a 3 merc collection. I loved the 124 and we had it for 5 years at which point we sold it for double what we'd paid for it. We got rid of that because we'd had a 3rd son and the centre rear seatbelt was only a lap belt, also the family did feel it was a bit old fashioned and lacked some comfort.
We replaced the 124 in 2015 with another e-class estate, skipping the 210 generation with an S211 2004 E320 auto petrol 3.2 v6. This was a highly optioned car and seemed space age in comparison with the 124. It had:-
- full airmatic suspension like an s-class
- Harmon Kardon audio upgrade
- avantgarde bizenon headlights, leather, etc.
- quad zone climate with digital controls for the rear passengers.
- 7 seats
- comand sat nav, DVD, robot opening cd auto changer
I bought this pre-facelift 211 knowing about the issues with the airmatic suspension and also the SBS brakes. We only paid about £3k for it and after 3 years when the warning for the SBS pump came up at 150k miles I had to decide between spending the money on replacing the pump (several quotes £1.5k+) as well as attending to the ever ongoing suspension refreshment. I decided to get the warning coded away and punt it on to WBAC for £1k rather than spend and keep or spend and flog privately.
Edited by idiotgap on Friday 11th January 14:48
Edited by idiotgap on Friday 11th January 14:50
So, what to replace the e-class estate with?
I decided to buy a new car, I deserved it... having run shoestring barges for 10 years and spent time waiting around for things to get welded etc. We ordered a Skoda Kodiaq in June 2018 with a tentative September delivery estimate. It made a lot of sense, modern design, decent build, not too ostentatious, 7 seats, lot's of "intelligent" touches like the umbrellas and the door protectors, would tow our caravan well.
Then things started to go wrong. First of all, they said the car would be a 2019 model due to the demand delay, WLTP etc. so the spec we'd chosen against the 2018 order facility and prices would be translated into a 2019 spec without price change - any newly available options for 2019 we'd be able to add on prior to the build.
We decided we really wanted the virtual cockpit digital dash and made that known to the dealer, but the option wasn't added to the order before the spec was locked down for build. After quite a fight, we managed to get Skoda UK to agree to help the dealer offer us the spec we wanted, retain the 2018 pricing and to expedite the build so despite a fresh order we should get it in reasonable time. The order went in, but the pricing never got confirmed, the dealer discount changed and offers available at previous order time had evaporated. Added to that the delays in build and in testing due to WLTP caused the estimated delivery date to slip so we pulled out managing to get our deposit back. The whole process really soured the idea of ordering a new car and paying the premium for it being under our sole ownership seemed senseless. I've never been particularly motivated to pay for newness, bling or glitter.
So what we wanted was something that wouldn't be too much of a waste of money when compared with running 10-15 year old e-class estates (approx £2k a year depreciation and maintenance), but be relatively reliable and not need constant fixing, 7 decent seats, safe, pull a caravan. Not be overly brash or tasteless or mahoosive.
The conclusion, a worthy but possibly boring XC90 in the mk1 shape.
I decided to buy a new car, I deserved it... having run shoestring barges for 10 years and spent time waiting around for things to get welded etc. We ordered a Skoda Kodiaq in June 2018 with a tentative September delivery estimate. It made a lot of sense, modern design, decent build, not too ostentatious, 7 seats, lot's of "intelligent" touches like the umbrellas and the door protectors, would tow our caravan well.
Then things started to go wrong. First of all, they said the car would be a 2019 model due to the demand delay, WLTP etc. so the spec we'd chosen against the 2018 order facility and prices would be translated into a 2019 spec without price change - any newly available options for 2019 we'd be able to add on prior to the build.
We decided we really wanted the virtual cockpit digital dash and made that known to the dealer, but the option wasn't added to the order before the spec was locked down for build. After quite a fight, we managed to get Skoda UK to agree to help the dealer offer us the spec we wanted, retain the 2018 pricing and to expedite the build so despite a fresh order we should get it in reasonable time. The order went in, but the pricing never got confirmed, the dealer discount changed and offers available at previous order time had evaporated. Added to that the delays in build and in testing due to WLTP caused the estimated delivery date to slip so we pulled out managing to get our deposit back. The whole process really soured the idea of ordering a new car and paying the premium for it being under our sole ownership seemed senseless. I've never been particularly motivated to pay for newness, bling or glitter.
So what we wanted was something that wouldn't be too much of a waste of money when compared with running 10-15 year old e-class estates (approx £2k a year depreciation and maintenance), but be relatively reliable and not need constant fixing, 7 decent seats, safe, pull a caravan. Not be overly brash or tasteless or mahoosive.
The conclusion, a worthy but possibly boring XC90 in the mk1 shape.
I pored over the specs brochures and reviews trying to work out what year, trim level engine and options we'd want or need. I visited a couple of local cars up for sale and not so local specialists LCD where I drove the V8 and pretty much all the other engine options and also Ravenscroft who were very patient and knowledgeable.
The wishlist ended up (in no particular order) being:-
- leather seats (most have this, but some base spec cars don't).
- full volvo dealer/specialist history
- preferably a later car with 200bhp D5 engine
- bluetooth phone and audio playback
- Not silver
- ideally a light coloured interior but with black carpets, I carry a bike in the back most days as part of my commute.
- family pack, primarily to get the electric child locks
- towbar
- reverse camera
I kept an eye on autotrader, ebay, the specialists and one afternoon I remembered pistonheads and found a car there that ticked all the boxes apart from the reversing camera. It hadn't made it's way onto autotrader or even the dealer's website yet but I put down a small deposit to hold it until the weekend when I could travel the 40 miles to view/buy.
The wishlist ended up (in no particular order) being:-
- leather seats (most have this, but some base spec cars don't).
- full volvo dealer/specialist history
- preferably a later car with 200bhp D5 engine
- bluetooth phone and audio playback
- Not silver
- ideally a light coloured interior but with black carpets, I carry a bike in the back most days as part of my commute.
- family pack, primarily to get the electric child locks
- towbar
- reverse camera
I kept an eye on autotrader, ebay, the specialists and one afternoon I remembered pistonheads and found a car there that ticked all the boxes apart from the reversing camera. It hadn't made it's way onto autotrader or even the dealer's website yet but I put down a small deposit to hold it until the weekend when I could travel the 40 miles to view/buy.
I bought the car the following Saturday 1st Dec 2018
It's an XC90 2.4 D5 Auto SE Lux in Caspian Blue with beige leather and dark carpets. The SE Lux spec is pretty good and this one has a few options on top including:-
- Winter pack including heated front seats and active bending xenon lights
- Family pack including power child locks, window tints, rear headphone sockets and 3rd row aircon
- towbar
- spare wheel
- sunshine roof
The dealer's photos
It's an XC90 2.4 D5 Auto SE Lux in Caspian Blue with beige leather and dark carpets. The SE Lux spec is pretty good and this one has a few options on top including:-
- Winter pack including heated front seats and active bending xenon lights
- Family pack including power child locks, window tints, rear headphone sockets and 3rd row aircon
- towbar
- spare wheel
- sunshine roof
The dealer's photos
The dealer seems to have a good reputation and was decent to deal with. The car was nicely detailed so it was easy to see it's condition and have a good look round. The only things I could spot wrong with it were:-
- the built in booster cushion in the centre seat middle row wouldn't latch into place
- there was a crease in the aluminium cupholder cover in the front centre console trim just behind the gear lever
- The ashtray cover in the rear centre unit wouldn't stay put.
- the dealer claimed there was an unstamped service but that the Chiswick Volvo garage verified it happened and would stamp if I got the book to them
- only 1 key
- no invoices, user manual etc., just the service book.
I negotiated a few hundred quid off, paid up (just over £16k), activated an insurance quote and drove off.
I got the car booked in to an independent Volvo specialist, Charlwood automotive, not far from home, to give the car a general check over and see what could be done about the minor cosmetic bits and bobs, with thing being busy that took a couple of weeks so I had some time to get used to the car and flush out any other problems.
The only additional things that came our were an intermittent suspension squeak and a rear seatbelt buckle that was reluctant to latch.
I discovered that there were no keys for the detachable towbar, I ordered a pair on ebay for £6, but when they arrived I found that although they'd turn the towbar wouldn't actually lock. You could still remove it without the key. The towbar itself seemed safe enough and Brink/Thule confirmed that it was a security rather than a safety issue. They have the towbar now though and should be able to refurb it for £60 including return carriage.
I use the car to commute in, taking a bike in the back half way and riding another 14 miles each way, as I'm always getting a bike in and out I bought a load bay lining and a rubber mat for the boot.
When the car finally went in to the garage for the check over they managed to fix the ashtray and booster cushion with parts from their scrappers in the yard. They also fitted a new ashtray cover. Unfortunately they also found a few problems.
- Poor acceleration from rest, broken swirl flap linkage, they fixed this very cheaply and it made a nice difference
- Front discs and pads needed changing
- re-gassed the aircon
- replaceed one of the engine top mounts
- replaced the seatbelt buckle with a new part
So a chunky bill of about £800 but most of my issues resolved and the car was set-up for some Christmas cruising between sets of relatives.
- the built in booster cushion in the centre seat middle row wouldn't latch into place
- there was a crease in the aluminium cupholder cover in the front centre console trim just behind the gear lever
- The ashtray cover in the rear centre unit wouldn't stay put.
- the dealer claimed there was an unstamped service but that the Chiswick Volvo garage verified it happened and would stamp if I got the book to them
- only 1 key
- no invoices, user manual etc., just the service book.
I negotiated a few hundred quid off, paid up (just over £16k), activated an insurance quote and drove off.
I got the car booked in to an independent Volvo specialist, Charlwood automotive, not far from home, to give the car a general check over and see what could be done about the minor cosmetic bits and bobs, with thing being busy that took a couple of weeks so I had some time to get used to the car and flush out any other problems.
The only additional things that came our were an intermittent suspension squeak and a rear seatbelt buckle that was reluctant to latch.
I discovered that there were no keys for the detachable towbar, I ordered a pair on ebay for £6, but when they arrived I found that although they'd turn the towbar wouldn't actually lock. You could still remove it without the key. The towbar itself seemed safe enough and Brink/Thule confirmed that it was a security rather than a safety issue. They have the towbar now though and should be able to refurb it for £60 including return carriage.
I use the car to commute in, taking a bike in the back half way and riding another 14 miles each way, as I'm always getting a bike in and out I bought a load bay lining and a rubber mat for the boot.
When the car finally went in to the garage for the check over they managed to fix the ashtray and booster cushion with parts from their scrappers in the yard. They also fitted a new ashtray cover. Unfortunately they also found a few problems.
- Poor acceleration from rest, broken swirl flap linkage, they fixed this very cheaply and it made a nice difference
- Front discs and pads needed changing
- re-gassed the aircon
- replaceed one of the engine top mounts
- replaced the seatbelt buckle with a new part
So a chunky bill of about £800 but most of my issues resolved and the car was set-up for some Christmas cruising between sets of relatives.
Edited by idiotgap on Friday 11th January 19:46
Cheers for the encouragement, I'd been meaning to do this for a few weeks so there's a bit of a monologue going on, but we're almost up to date now.
Hi Alex, the half bike/ half car commute is a way of making the journey manageable and sustainable year round, the bike bit is well lit, not too hilly or too long and I'm avoiding using Southern rail.
The XC90 put in good service on the motorways over Christmas, the kids love the space they get and it's comfortable. Compared with the S211 e-class, it doesn't drive in such a planted way, it does lean a bit in the bends and probably doesn't sound as good, though there is a hint of rort in the 5 pot warble when you push it.
It's quite old tech in the infotainment stakes which I was prepared for. The satnav theatricals as it rises from the dash are fun but the screen is at a funny angle and the resolution isn't great. To offset some of this, I asked for a retro fit DAB kit (Dension DAB+U £150) for Christmas, this uses the car's USB socket and presents the DAB stations as if they were mp3 tracks on a memory stick. This means there's no extra screens or controls and it's about as OEM as you can get in an old volvo.
I've also fitted a http://www.volvotech.eu CFE-Plus unit (£217) which is a very neat device that plugs into the OBD port and gives you a few extra features like auto mirror folding and additional driver information in the dash screen. The e-class was better at that, the trip computer being quite comprehensive.
I also asked for a load bay net/dog guard for Christmas, the e-class has a cassette arrangement that includes load cover and dog-guard in one, we only ever used the dog guard piece when loading the boot high to stop things flying forward though. Volvo has those two pieces separately and my car came with neither. The dog guard alone should do for me though.
The e-class used you tell you what speed you were doing digitally and on the dial and this info came from the satnav so was reasonably accurate. The volvo speedo (analogue only by default) being an unknown quantity I've exercised caution on the roads with cameras, it turns out with good reason, the speedo when compared with a GPS app on my phone seems to be dead on so none of the typical undereading to protect you. The CFE-Plus unti add-on gives you a live digital readout of the speed which will be handy as the dial is a fuzzier indicator, it'll also switch to km so if we're off to Europe again we'll be set.
Overall I'm enjoying the Volvo after 10 years plus of Merc buying. It feels like a solid and very well designed piece of kit, the only concern really is that it has been dated for a good while, won't get any newer and we might tire of that, right now we're good though!
Hi Alex, the half bike/ half car commute is a way of making the journey manageable and sustainable year round, the bike bit is well lit, not too hilly or too long and I'm avoiding using Southern rail.
The XC90 put in good service on the motorways over Christmas, the kids love the space they get and it's comfortable. Compared with the S211 e-class, it doesn't drive in such a planted way, it does lean a bit in the bends and probably doesn't sound as good, though there is a hint of rort in the 5 pot warble when you push it.
It's quite old tech in the infotainment stakes which I was prepared for. The satnav theatricals as it rises from the dash are fun but the screen is at a funny angle and the resolution isn't great. To offset some of this, I asked for a retro fit DAB kit (Dension DAB+U £150) for Christmas, this uses the car's USB socket and presents the DAB stations as if they were mp3 tracks on a memory stick. This means there's no extra screens or controls and it's about as OEM as you can get in an old volvo.
I've also fitted a http://www.volvotech.eu CFE-Plus unit (£217) which is a very neat device that plugs into the OBD port and gives you a few extra features like auto mirror folding and additional driver information in the dash screen. The e-class was better at that, the trip computer being quite comprehensive.
I also asked for a load bay net/dog guard for Christmas, the e-class has a cassette arrangement that includes load cover and dog-guard in one, we only ever used the dog guard piece when loading the boot high to stop things flying forward though. Volvo has those two pieces separately and my car came with neither. The dog guard alone should do for me though.
The e-class used you tell you what speed you were doing digitally and on the dial and this info came from the satnav so was reasonably accurate. The volvo speedo (analogue only by default) being an unknown quantity I've exercised caution on the roads with cameras, it turns out with good reason, the speedo when compared with a GPS app on my phone seems to be dead on so none of the typical undereading to protect you. The CFE-Plus unti add-on gives you a live digital readout of the speed which will be handy as the dial is a fuzzier indicator, it'll also switch to km so if we're off to Europe again we'll be set.
Overall I'm enjoying the Volvo after 10 years plus of Merc buying. It feels like a solid and very well designed piece of kit, the only concern really is that it has been dated for a good while, won't get any newer and we might tire of that, right now we're good though!
Gassing Station | Readers' Cars | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff