Volvo estate

[drfrank]

Dear All,

I'm considering purchasing a volvo estate (not sure which one as I have no experience of them). Ideally it will be diesel with a budget of around £8000

All comments appreciated.

(I realise its a bit vague !)

[VeeTEC]

Without knowing your needs, I'd say if you want a "proper estate" it would have to be a V70. Should be able to get a decent 2.4L D5 for that money, with reasonable mileage.

I've got a V50, and it's a good car, but a bit of a halfway house. Not as big as I'd like it to be somrtimes.

[drfrank]

Thanks for the reply !!

It needs to fit a double buggy in !! (plus clutter)

The V70 may be a bit big for the wife ?

[SGirl]

I drive an 850. When I first bought it, it was a tad bigger than I was used to, but it's no hassle to drive. You don't really notice the "bigness", you just get on with it. It fits perfectly well into parking spaces (unless they're very short!) and it's not really that wide. I'm 5'3", and reaching the pedals has never been a problem.

Your best bet is to take her out to a dealer and get her to try one. If she feels she really can't handle the size of the V70, then fair enough. But TBH, with a double buggy plus equipment plus two small children, she'd better get used to driving "big" for a time.

Edited by SGirl on Tuesday 6th July 11:01

[dave_s13]

Your wife will be fine. As said above. My misses is 5"4' and has no problems. They even have seat/mirror positions memorised in each key fob so you can have one each. Handy when your 6"4'; it all buzzes and whirrs into position for you on pressing 'unlock'.

We have a 52 plate V70 D5 auto and it's a cracking car, not very exciting mind but super comfortable and has a very, very good stereo and really well spec'd (electric memory seats, auto wipers, isofix, leather blah blah).

Ours is on 106k (bought at 103 about 4 months ago) and cost £5.5k, trip computer says 42mpg but I think it's telling me lies, and the wrong way unfortunately. 8k should get you a minter but I do seem to remember reading that the earlier 163bhp engine is a lot more economical than the newer 185bhp model. Have a poke around on volvoforums.org, lots of info there. From my admittedly limited knowledge I would try and find a low mileage late as possible 163bhp manual version. They'll do 50mpg and will still shift a bit. Remappage is popular too.

[F i F]

drfrank said:

Thanks for the reply !!

It needs to fit a double buggy in !! (plus clutter)

The V70 may be a bit big for the wife ?

Then the V50 will be too small, definitely.

V70 it is then.

[TedMaul]

F i F said:

drfrank said:

Thanks for the reply !!

It needs to fit a double buggy in !! (plus clutter)

The V70 may be a bit big for the wife ?

Then the V50 will be too small, definitely.

V70 it is then.

Yep. I looked at v50 and you would struggle getting even a large buggy in there (Phil and Teds for example). v50 is Focus after all...

Although v70 boot is quite shallow (roof to floor), it is very deep (front to back) and very wide. Have easily taken me, Mrs and two kids, both of whom were in nappies at time and youngest needed moses basket, baby bath, Phil & Teds and god knows what else to Centreparcs for week, with no clutter in actual car cabin.

[pistonlager]

I think my V70 is a wallowy piece of cr4p.
Should've gone for a 5 series Touring or an A6 Avant.