Volvo XC70

[surveyor]

My turn, finally.

Currently drive a company Ford Ranger. A change of role means more desk time and less travel. I have to give the Ranger back (boo).

I had a tricky combo of a large caravan, large dog, and 15p a mile, plus Covid prices. After some thought, I have settled on an XC70, which is reasonably well equipped, refined, and reasonably economical on a run. 4wd is a bonus for caravan sites and accessing trick sites for work.

I'm not sure about the colour. I think I like it! Drives very nicely, has a good stereo and radar cruise. Not ULEZ exempt which may become a pain, but ultimately I'm more likely to go in for work so will claim any tolls back. Car did 47MPG on the way home which I'm happy with. Satnav took me straight into a closed road, ended up with a bit of off-road work, where it performed quite well, before being chucked straight into a tip run.

Hopefully will prove to be a good car! Few bits to do to make me happy, but a well-kept 50k car is a good starting base.

[surveyor]

AJB88 said:

Looks good that, whats the Polestar file produce power wise?

Not a great deal different, although it's hard to know without having driven the normal D5 how much difference is in the real world.

Performance
Power & Torque Mid-Range max starting from rpm shown.
Original: 440
Optimised: 470

Power Peak (hp)
Original: 215
Optimised: 230

Power Peak (kW)
Original: 158
Optimised: 169

Power Peak (rpm)
Original: 4000
Optimised: 4000

Torque (Nm)
Original: 440
Optimised: 470

Torque Peak (rpm)
Original: 1500-3000
Optimised: 1750-2250

Acceleration 0-100 km/h (s)
Original: 8.3
Optimised: 8.1

[surveyor]

I like the colour I have decided. Couple of minor issues to talk over with the car supermarket. We will see how that goes!

[surveyor]

bracken78 said:

Nice car, but of course I am bias and your one is a good colour. We have a 2014 black one which while is not my favorite colour had the specification I was after. We have had it 2.5 years and 20,000 miles so not much use really but it has been a good family car.

How on earth did you get MPG into the 40's! our long term average is 34.34 MPG for a mix of short town work and long drives to family. Best fill to fill MPG was 39.8 MPG.

Hope the issues are nothing to serious and enjoy the XC70.

I'm a slow driver noways Issues are minor. If I have to sort them out myself I will, but not giving up that easily!

[surveyor]

First money spent on the car…. My car is normally a workhorse and that won’t really change. Whether walking the dog or visiting sites carpet mats don’t really cut the mustard.

Picked up some new genuine Volvo rubber matts at half price £49. I had similar on a XC60 for 3 years and 90k which came up like new with a jet wash.

[surveyor]

Doofus said:

Davie said:

Doofus said:

I have never got more than 29mpg average out of a D5, even on a 1,000+ trip.

What flavour of D5? I ask as mine is showing 38mpg over the past several thousand mixed driving miles and it'll push on towards 45mpg if it's driven in true Volvo manner on a fairly long run.

What flavours are there? Current is a D5, previous one was a D5.

If I stick the cruise on at 85, and do 200 motorway miles across France, I can get to 29mpg.

At some point there was a massive change in consumption. I think probably at the P3 facelift, although I don't often hit the heady heights of 85 nowadays! I achieved 47mpg travelling home from picking it up, mostly motorway including the M62 hills.

[surveyor]

Something unique for me. I'm still on my first tank of fuel, including a drive back from Manchester and a return trip to Nottingham.

My work truck leaves me on 3rd Jan, so a few more miles will start to go on then. Far less than I have ever been used to though. In the meantime, it is doing odd dog runs, and the wife occasionally takes it to work when she can't be bothered to put fuel in her car...

I really like the rear lights. I was going to do the upgrade for the uppers (£10 ebay) only to find facelift has it.

I'm finding it very dark inside. I'm tempted with upgrading to the door handle recess lights.

[surveyor]

It's the inflated market.

£18,495, 48k. I'm gonna have to keep it for 5 years which is 2 longer than I have ever kept a car.

[surveyor]

Pretty good price at the moment and from a car supermarket. No haggle room.

[surveyor]

It’s January so time for the Volvo to go to work,

Typically the first inspection site notes were labelled 4x4 only. It did well, with only the odd complaint that the rutted track was better suited to a tractor.

[surveyor]

Countdown said:

Re: the D5 mileage debate our XC60 auto is getting 33mpg and that's mainly motorway miles. Disappointing and glad we're not the only ones. Having said that it's feels and drives like a tank and the slushy auto-box doesn't help!

OP - do you find the gearlever a bit clunky when shifting between P/R/N/D?

It's a bit more mechanical than the latest cars. The gearchanges were a bit rough between R & D (the dog fell over once), but have sorted themselves out. I think a flat battery meant that the gearbox had forgotten its adaptions.

[surveyor]

I forgot to reset this until just before hitting wales, so the below consumption is based on at best A roads, and they were in the majority twisty, so not good for cruising. Pretty acceptable I thought.

[surveyor]

Doofus said:

surveyor said:

I forgot to reset this until just before hitting wales, so the below consumption is based on at best A roads, and they were in the majority twisty, so not good for cruising. Pretty acceptable I thought.

Ah yes, but it's well documented that Radio2 listeners drive everywhere at 56 mph.

The heady height of 56 were a distant dream for much of the day…

[surveyor]

Pedro25 said:

I took delivery of a 4 yr old BMW X drive 520d M sport last August, great car but in December after reading this thread I started looking at the XC 70 as I had already decided to go the full ageing family man Volvo estate, they are like rocking horse s**t to find, looking for a D5 up to 55k miles, got close to a lovely one but it went to another buyer on NYE, I still look for them everyday which is more worrying, the Mrs thinks I'm mad!

They exist.

Today I went into a field. Initially, I was going to go no further than the gate, before deciding sod it and driving up the wet grass hill with no problems at all. It does need a wash!

[surveyor]

Contemplating a wash, but don’t want to spoil it!

[surveyor]

Going well. Still need to sort the towbar. I need to work out if I have self-leveling suspension or not.

The passenger mirror made an awful noise and no longer folds. Likely to be a gear, but an expensive fix as it's got the camera in it. Going to try and buy a used 'simple' one and transplant the gear. Eventually. Meanwhile who needs folding mirrors.

I love the way this car looks at home in a field or an inner-city...

[surveyor]

Accelebrate said:

Agreed, I think by this era of Volvo self-levelling meant the expensive to repair '4C' suspension, which adds buttons in front of the gear selector.


I'd like to add a towbar to mine, I was looking at this one from Brink (who I beleive make the OE bars for Volvo):

https://www.pfjones.co.uk/volvo-xc70-estate-08-200...

It's just under £300 with a vehicle specific wiring module. There's a detachable model for £100 more. I'm not quite sure if the car has to be coded to accept the Brink module.

In theory installation requires the exhaust to be chopped and sleeved back together to gain access to the fixing points underneath, but it looks like it can be done without cutting the exhaust if the installer has nimble fingers...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XrWN_zPrxbQ

Cheers. I need to see if there is any play in the mirror, but by the noise I expect broken gears!

ETA may be a repair gear available...

Edited by surveyor on Friday 4th March 17:33

[surveyor]

Accelebrate said:

I stand corrected, I was under the impression that Nivomats weren’t an option on the P3, but it looks like they were.

I’m not entirely sure they were standard fit, according to the internet…

“Nivomats are only standard on p3 xc70 SE LUX 185bhp versions ( 2007,2008,2009 ish). Option on other versions for these years.
For later xc70s, all models, they are options only.”

Edited by Accelebrate on Friday 4th March 20:02

Dealer told me yesterday that I don't have self-leveling.

[surveyor]

Still thinking about the towbar

Summer consumption kicking in.

[surveyor]

Stiff and sore today after fitting 1/2 a towbar. Unfortunately, missing bolts stopped play...