Volvo V70: any good?

[cdrx]

I've got two coupes and have been told I must replace one with a "sensible" car for moving the dog around. I've looked at a few estates and deciced I like the Volvo V70 & quite a few of them inside my budget, specifically the petrol models from 2000-2002.

I've seen a 2.4 170 that ticks all the right boxes, is there anything I should be aware of with these cars?

Not worried about economy (I do very few miles) or handling. Comfort is the priority really.

I stopped by the local volvo indy who said they are pretty solid which is reassuring, not much to worry about them (thanks ilovevolvo). A cambelt is £250 ish which is great much better than the £800 I was quoted to change the cambelt on my current daily driver.

It will be the first auto I'll have brought other than smooth changes & checking that the kick down works, how can I check an auto box on a test drive?

[jimbobsimmonds]

cdrx said:

I've got two coupes and have been told I must replace one with a "sensible" car for moving the dog around. I've looked at a few estates and deciced I like the Volvo V70 & quite a few of them inside my budget, specifically the petrol models from 2000-2002.

I've seen a 2.4 170 that ticks all the right boxes, is there anything I should be aware of with these cars?

Not worried about economy (I do very few miles) or handling. Comfort is the priority really.

I stopped by the local volvo indy who said they are pretty solid which is reassuring, not much to worry about them (thanks ilovevolvo). A cambelt is £250 ish which is great much better than the £800 I was quoted to change the cambelt on my current daily driver.

It will be the first auto I'll have brought other than smooth changes & checking that the kick down works, how can I check an auto box on a test drive?

drove an 99 S70 and now own an S60, both T5s and both manuals... pretty solid and dependable especially when looked after... beware of the ETM fault (check out VOC forum for more info) which is an expensive fix... essentially when you start the car the idle should be steady as a rock, no wobbling... and when hot make sure the car is staying as steady as your foot is as they tend to suffer from MAF faults also...

interiors, solid, well equiped, seats like armchairs... never driver the 2.4 but 170hp is going to be enough for your needs...

safety, put it this way i was rear ended by a Ford Ka at lights doing about 20 mph and the experience was kinda like an aircraft carrier hitting a pedalo... paint chip vs complete front end write off...

should be very happy with your car...

[jbi]

brake booster tends to go bad as well, around 100,000 miles.

On the automatics the engine has to be dropped down to get it out, which as you can imagine isn't cheap.

[Flintstone]

cdrx said:

It will be the first auto I'll have brought

Where will you be bringing it from?

[cdrx]

Damn. With all the spelling & grammar nazis on here I'm always so careful. I can't believe I let that slip; at least the smiley was in an appropriate place.

Assuming I bought an automatic, what should I have looked for?

jbi said:

On the automatics the engine has to be dropped down to get it out, which as you can imagine isn't cheap.

Cheers. I hope I don't ever have to take out the autobox! If I do then I got an engine crane which I've used before to lift a car up & over an engine when I couldn't lift it out of the bay.