One for the Volvo V70 beards!
Discussion
I picked up a 2002 Volvo V70 for £notalot recently as a daily hack for work. It’s decently specced with full leather and the N/A 2.4 (170) engine. It’s a nice car, and it’s confirmed to me that these drive how I imagined they would (planted, solid, wafty etc...) which is what I like.
The quandary I’ve got is that this particular one is a little tatty in the bodywork department, has a bit of a knocking from the rear end in damp weather, the brakes wobble a bit from high speed, I’ve managed to knacker the driver’s window which has come off its runners & the driver’s seat needs a bit of stitching. If I were to spend on it, I could easily drop £1500 incl. labour on it and then the gearbox could go bang (for instance).
I intend to just continue to ‘use’ this one bangernomics style and try and limit any spending on it, while I look for a nicer example which ticks all the boxes. To this end I have a few questions which google can’t seem to answer for me.
If I were to look at a P2 XC70 are they all AWD? I like the look of the XC70, but not sure I want the added complication of an AWD system to service / worry about.
Are there any major differences (reliability-wise) between pre and post facelift P2 cars? I prefer the look of the pre-facelift vehicles.
I’m averaging 28mpg in my current one - are the manuals much more efficient? And do the manual petrol engines have DMFs?
Many thanks!
The quandary I’ve got is that this particular one is a little tatty in the bodywork department, has a bit of a knocking from the rear end in damp weather, the brakes wobble a bit from high speed, I’ve managed to knacker the driver’s window which has come off its runners & the driver’s seat needs a bit of stitching. If I were to spend on it, I could easily drop £1500 incl. labour on it and then the gearbox could go bang (for instance).
I intend to just continue to ‘use’ this one bangernomics style and try and limit any spending on it, while I look for a nicer example which ticks all the boxes. To this end I have a few questions which google can’t seem to answer for me.
If I were to look at a P2 XC70 are they all AWD? I like the look of the XC70, but not sure I want the added complication of an AWD system to service / worry about.
Are there any major differences (reliability-wise) between pre and post facelift P2 cars? I prefer the look of the pre-facelift vehicles.
I’m averaging 28mpg in my current one - are the manuals much more efficient? And do the manual petrol engines have DMFs?
Many thanks!
All XC70s are AWD and they do seem to suffer faults with the AWD system.
If you want pre facelift then aim for the '04 MY (late 53 plates through to pre facelift 54 plates) that had a host of electrical updates. This fixed loads of small annoying problems, and these cars can be identified by the different wing mirrors and the silver trim around the speedo/tacho dials. To be honest maintenance history and luck will have more bearing on reliability than any other factor on a 10+ year old car. Watch out for wallet raiding tax on 2006 onwards petrol models.
Manuals do have DMFs but don't really kill them like four pot diesels do. Economy is noticeably better on the manual cars, 20% or so.
If you're going to spend money on it I agree that you should start with a better car. The 2.5T low pressure turbo with 200bhp is nice, and if you can find a T5 that isn't priced stupidly and showing moon mileage then that's even better.
If you want pre facelift then aim for the '04 MY (late 53 plates through to pre facelift 54 plates) that had a host of electrical updates. This fixed loads of small annoying problems, and these cars can be identified by the different wing mirrors and the silver trim around the speedo/tacho dials. To be honest maintenance history and luck will have more bearing on reliability than any other factor on a 10+ year old car. Watch out for wallet raiding tax on 2006 onwards petrol models.
Manuals do have DMFs but don't really kill them like four pot diesels do. Economy is noticeably better on the manual cars, 20% or so.
If you're going to spend money on it I agree that you should start with a better car. The 2.5T low pressure turbo with 200bhp is nice, and if you can find a T5 that isn't priced stupidly and showing moon mileage then that's even better.
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