£2k Volvo S60 or £4k Lexus GS?

[RoVoFob]

After a long and circuitous car hunt, I’ve pretty much narrowed it down to these two: the 2000-2008 S60 (in 2.0T/2.4T/2.5T/T5 form) and the 2003-2008 GS (GS300/GS430/GS450h).

Top of my wishlist is comfy seats, decent speakers, a charismatic engine with decent punch, a pleasant drive with decent reliability.

Has anyone lived with one/both of these? What were your thoughts?

Good Volvos seem to be very cheap, but still decently solid and I’m wondering whether the Lexus will feel satisfying enough day to day to warrant paying the premium.

Thanks.

[anonymous-user]

I’ve long been a devotee of the Volvo 5 pot and I’ve had a couple of S60s. They are very competent cruisers and nice places to sit. Make sure to get a high spec one with the pro-logic stereo and the sound system is decent. Even the 2.0T has enough go, in fact I think it’s a better match for the chassis than the higher powered engines, but a full fat T5 is great for in-gear whomp.

Personally though, I’d take the GS. Lexus build quality and reliability is in another league compared to pretty much anything else mass market.

[RoVoFob]

charltjr said:

I’ve long been a devotee of the Volvo 5 pot and I’ve had a couple of S60s. They are very competent cruisers and nice places to sit. Make sure to get a high spec one with the pro-logic stereo and the sound system is decent. Even the 2.0T has enough go, in fact I think it’s a better match for the chassis than the higher powered engines, but a full fat T5 is great for in-gear whomp.

Personally though, I’d take the GS. Lexus build quality and reliability is in another league compared to pretty much anything else mass market.

Thanks. Yes, the High Performance sound system is good, but the optional Premium Sound Audio System is essential for me. I’ve found a 2.0T S with small wheels, those speakers and leather. Sounds like the optimum combo for comfort.

I’ve just sold a V70 2.5T and despite it having lots of punch it wasn’t as sweet an engine as the one in a 2.0T S60 I test drove previously. I think you’re right; less is more with S60 engines. That S60 rode and handled better than my V70, despite them having the same size alloys, too.

Interesting to hear your thoughts about the Lexus. I test drove two GS430s today. In my eyes the Volvo felt more solid; the doors shut with a greater thump, the cabin materials, bar the leather felt nicer in the Volvo, too.

The engine and transmission in the Lexus was glorious, though (at least in one of the cars I drove!). I normally avoid autos at all costs, but this one felt really suited to the car. Annoyingly, the GS430 that drove like that had a few bodywork issues and a few rusty bits underneath, while the one with tidier bodywork felt slow and unresponsive in comparison...

[gamefreaks]

I had a 2001 V70 T5 for a while a few years ago. (I believe it shares engines and gearboxes with the S60)

There are a couple of things to be wary of with the Volvos as they are expensive to fix and seem to be common issues:

1) Throttle body wears out. This causes lurching in traffic at low revs and cutting out at junctions.

2) Automatic gearboxes. These can fail and mine was fine when cold but would act up badly when up to temperature. (Flares, banging into gear, limp-mode)

I'm not sure whether later cars were better though.

[LightningBlue]

I had a 2001 S60 2.0T. Very good car and you still see plenty around, they were well built. It drove better than reviews suggested and had extremely comfortable seats, a Volvo trademark. I remember the audio was very good although I was reliant on CDs being an early car, I’m not sure if they got USB connectivity later on. There was a mid life facelift and I’d be looking for one of those, they still look very classy cars.

[LightningBlue]

gamefreaks said:

I had a 2001 V70 T5 for a while a few years ago. (I believe it shares engines and gearboxes with the S60)

There are a couple of things to be wary of with the Volvos as they are expensive to fix and seem to be common issues:

1) Throttle body wears out. This causes lurching in traffic at low revs and cutting out at junctions.

2) Automatic gearboxes. These can fail and mine was fine when cold but would act up badly when up to temperature. (Flares, banging into gear, limp-mode)

I'm not sure whether later cars were better though.

It’s the ones with Magnetti Marelli throttle bodies which could be problematic but I would have thought most owners changed these a long time ago if they did go wrong. There was a thread in the Volvo Owners forum circa 2006 and Volvo were discounting replacements apparently. You could just look inside the engine bay and see if it was an original unchanged one, a replacement had a different mark or something. I think the facelifted cars switched to Bosch but that would need checking. It shouldn’t be a deal breaker as every brand on the market will have common issues of some sort

[RoVoFob]

So...I did a history check on an S60 I was going to look at this evening. Turns out it is a Cat C write off and used to be a taxi. That was £9 worth spending!

Shame, as the spec was just right for me - an odd combo of small wheels and the optional top speakers. Is it normal to be so disappointed over a £1,450 S60 in S trim?!

As much as I liked the first GS430 I drove yesterday, I came over all sensible and thought I should get the cheaper car in the S60 and keep an eye out for GS430s with reasonable bodywork and mechanicals in future. Back to the drawing board...

[RoVoFob]

gamefreaks said:

I had a 2001 V70 T5 for a while a few years ago. (I believe it shares engines and gearboxes with the S60)

There are a couple of things to be wary of with the Volvos as they are expensive to fix and seem to be common issues:

1) Throttle body wears out. This causes lurching in traffic at low revs and cutting out at junctions.

2) Automatic gearboxes. These can fail and mine was fine when cold but would act up badly when up to temperature. (Flares, banging into gear, limp-mode)

I'm not sure whether later cars were better though.

Thanks for the info. I normally try to avoid autos whenever there’s a manual equivalent, so wouldn’t even consider getting an older Volvo auto - partly for this reason!

Hadn’t heard about the throttle body issue. Maybe it only affects older models...will do some reading.

[RoVoFob]

LightningBlue said:

I had a 2001 S60 2.0T. Very good car and you still see plenty around, they were well built. It drove better than reviews suggested and had extremely comfortable seats, a Volvo trademark. I remember the audio was very good although I was reliant on CDs being an early car, I’m not sure if they got USB connectivity later on. There was a mid life facelift and I’d be looking for one of those, they still look very classy cars.

Yes, the facelift was particularly successful at sharpening up the look of the car, I think. I’d be keen to get a 2004-on S60 if I did get one. The model I was going to look at this evening is a very late model from 2008. Shame it’s been both taxi’d and crashed previously, as I’ve just found out!

I loved the seats in the V70 I had previously. Spot on for me and notably more comfortable than the Lexus ones - for my body shape, at least. Yes, even the 225W system in SE spec models is pretty decent. I’ve been trying to track down models with the 325W version, which are much rarer, but I assume should sound better still. CDs are fine by me - still the most satisfying format of music in my eyes!