Volvo V70 Shed help please - help finding one.....

Volvo V70 Shed help please - help finding one.....

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Discussion

da_murphster

Original Poster:

1,052 posts

254 months

Wednesday 2nd February 2011
quotequote all
My lovely E39 530i manual sport has just been declared a write off after a m'way pile up.

I'm leaving the country in 6 months so just need something to get me by - load lugger makes sense.

I do 110m a day, would like at least 30mpg.

Was thinking Volvo V70 for about £1k with a view to selling it on when I leave the country - but I know nothing about them.

I'm struggling for time at the moment so it needs to need no 'sorting' and to be reliable.

Anyone care to guide me in the right direction?

I'm in Reading so something close would be good, 12m MOT (so I can sell it with 6m), must be able to be resold easily (prob ebay) losing as little money as I can.

Anything I should be hunting for or avoiding?

Saw this one.....manual (I like manuals and less to go wrong), FSH, 12m MOT - no idea if engine is good choice.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/1999-VOLVO-V70-XT-GREEN-/250...

Is 2.0 to puny? I have a mixture of m'way and b-roads.

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2011...

2.5 and manual?

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2011...

Other ideas considered but I have heard these volvos are bulletproof!

Any help appreciated!

BarringtonBrown

89 posts

168 months

Wednesday 2nd February 2011
quotequote all
The green one looks decent - it's also a late one, so anything I ramble on about below will be more relevant than the earlier cars.

Having had the cambelt recently changed (I think it's about every 70k miles recommended) will help you flog it when the time comes.

Buy one with a decent amount of service history in preference to low mileage - a 200k miler that's not wanted for anything should be bulletproof.

When viewing (or enquiring), front suspension bits wear out after a hundred thousand or so and if there's knocking it'll be expensive to fix (unless you leave it be). It should be alright if there's no advisories on the MOT though.

The air-con is often faulty - caused by a worn compressor clutch and solved easily (or ignored).

Any other minor problems can just be ignored, as per bangernomics.

Fancy swapping the Tuscan for my V70? laugh


Edited by BarringtonBrown on Wednesday 2nd February 18:58

da_murphster

Original Poster:

1,052 posts

254 months

Wednesday 2nd February 2011
quotequote all
Tuscans gone I'm afraid - still wonder if I did the right thing selling it!

Thanks for the advice - I reckon 12m MOT, hopefully with sight of the advisories and FSH sounds good.

Any engine types good/bad?


BarringtonBrown

89 posts

168 months

Wednesday 2nd February 2011
quotequote all
I've got a manual Tdi in a similar spec to the XLT above, which has been perfectly reliable until last week when it ate both it's MAF sensor and electric window switch as a celebration of hitting 170k. It'll still do 45+mpg below .9 leptons in near silence though.

My father had an auto 2.5 10V from new as a company car back in the day which apart from being dog-slow and a bit juicy around town was again perfectly reliable. General consensus among the family is that the manuals are far better.


Parrot of Doom

23,075 posts

241 months

Wednesday 2nd February 2011
quotequote all
The 2.0 is gutless, you want the 2.5 auto. I had one years back, beautiful car to drive.

NugentS

689 posts

254 months

Wednesday 2nd February 2011
quotequote all
Yeah 2.5 all the way
You also have the option of the T (2.5T) - light pressure turbo - but they do approx 25mpg combined. If you want to be a bit silly get the T5 which a bigger turbo on a 2.3

Early+ ones the aircon fails due to the as previously stated worn compressor clutch or more likely evaporator failure - and thats a £600+ fix as it requires the dash out to fix

Check under the car for oil as the rear seal is a failure point.
ABS light should come on and then go off. If it doesn't the ABS module has probably failed.

Gearbox are generally good. The auto's don't require an oil change (ROFL) allegedly - but they do

I have a 98 2.5T and knew the list above. All of them have gone wrong at the appropriate times.

Nice cars though

Sean

da_murphster

Original Poster:

1,052 posts

254 months

Wednesday 2nd February 2011
quotequote all
Going through AT in price order looking for decnt stuff with 12m MOT....

What about this??

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2011...

525d estate?

Another Volvo - full Volvo service history and good price (prob my fav so far and only 40 miles away)

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2011...

Merc? Doesn't look that practical shape?

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2011...