Volvo V70 D5 - 205bhp
Discussion
With a small person on the way the time has come to get rid of our 2 berth camper and get a safe sensible car. I quite fancied an Octavia VRS (petrol) and I suggested alternatives to the Volvo but the wife was having none of it. We were missing having a big, comfy, safe Swede in our lives having owned an S60 D5 for nigh on 7 years. It was just shy of 200k miles when it was sadly written off by a crazy taxi driver.
We looked at quite a few V60s and V70s and were open to either if the right car came along, the wife just wanted it to be blue and a manual. I wanted a D5 engine and there was more choice of these in the V70, although the manual thing narrowed our options down somewhat.
I found this one on a private sale, the price had already been reduced and it wasn't presented in its best light. A lack of dealer service history, a fairly light on detail advert and when I went to view it it was dirty on the outside and filthy inside. Beneath the grime I could see there was a decent car. What the previous owner seems to have lacked in enthusiasm for cleaning, they made up for it with an over zealous home servicing schedule. It came with a stack of receipts and it looks to have had a fuel filter with each service every year, pretty important with these engines.
It still needs a good clean outside but this time of year opportunities to do so are few and far between. Inside there was mud on the door cards, sand on the back seats, sugary residue on the rear arm rest and just general human detritus all over the interior, it was a bit grim. To be fair they are family cars and people tend to use them as they were intended, they are pretty robust and the interiors are quality so they stand up to the rough and tumble pretty well.
After a good clean it scrubbed up pretty well revealing minimal wear to the interior. Now clean and smelling fresh inside it was ready for its first proper journey with us - Halifax to Bristol and back in a weekend which it did with aplomb and managed a healthy average of 47 mpg, even with cruise control set to high on the quiet stretches of the M5 late on Friday night.
There weren't any other V70s this new in our budget and I was very happy it was the 205bhp engine. It goes pretty well - slip road, 40mph in 4th, put your foot down and it just goes without any fuss or drama, before you know it you are doing 70+.
Eventually we'll get a caravan to replace the camper so it should tow that without breaking too much of a sweat, even if I do having never towed before. I'd better get some lessons!
I've had it a month now so far I've put new wipers on it and a pair of Goodyear Vector 4 seasons on the front. I've a set of OEM rubber mats for the footwells on the way too, to replace the shabby aftermarket efforts.
Other than that it seems ready for everything our impending family life can throw at it, including the inevitable pushchair shopping which will be happening over the Xmas period.
If you've got this far, thanks for reading!
What sort of mileage does it have and what was the rough cost?
Reason I ask is that I may be buying one from a friend of mine in March that he uses for airport runs as a private hire. I have been in it quite a few times and we got chatting about its impending replacement in March when it will be three years old. By then it will have 260,000 on the clock the majority of which would have been on the motorway with full main dealer servicing.
He told me what he got for his last one with similar mileage and to be honest it would be a very cheap way of getting to work and family duties. I just did a wbac on a reg from eBay and they were offering about 6k if it had mega miles and 15k with average.
Got to be worth a punt.
Reason I ask is that I may be buying one from a friend of mine in March that he uses for airport runs as a private hire. I have been in it quite a few times and we got chatting about its impending replacement in March when it will be three years old. By then it will have 260,000 on the clock the majority of which would have been on the motorway with full main dealer servicing.
He told me what he got for his last one with similar mileage and to be honest it would be a very cheap way of getting to work and family duties. I just did a wbac on a reg from eBay and they were offering about 6k if it had mega miles and 15k with average.
Got to be worth a punt.
@cornishboy1970- The car has just 78k miles on it, so a mere puppy in comparison to your friends car. They do seem quite popular with the private hire drivers, there was an article a few years ago of an '04 with over 600k miles on it. I believe it is still going strong although not as a taxi anymore. I paid a smidge over the lower figure that WBAC quoted for your friends newer car. If it is a '16 plate it must be one of the last as they stopped making them a few years ago. I'd say its definitely worth a punt if its cheap enough, so long as its been serviced regularly.
@TopTrump - 205 bhp is standard on these, they are a twin turbo. The earlier P2 V70s were 163bhp, then 185 bhp and I think the first of P3 cars like mine were about 182bhp before the 205bhp came out. The newer ones are in fact 215bhp, so I bet they go pretty well! IIRC the V50 and V60 had slightly different power in the D5, for what reason though I'm not sure.
@TopTrump - 205 bhp is standard on these, they are a twin turbo. The earlier P2 V70s were 163bhp, then 185 bhp and I think the first of P3 cars like mine were about 182bhp before the 205bhp came out. The newer ones are in fact 215bhp, so I bet they go pretty well! IIRC the V50 and V60 had slightly different power in the D5, for what reason though I'm not sure.
I had mine fiddled with to 200bhp with a tuning box.Garett said:
IIRC the V50 and V60 had slightly different power in the D5, for what reason though I'm not sure.
I'm not sure about the V50 D5 but my V60 D5 is the 205bhp unit. I wanted a V70 but I couldn't find a decent one at the time I needed to swap. We've had it three years now and I'm quite attached to it.Deerfoot said:
I'm not sure about the V50 D5 but my V60 D5 is the 205bhp unit. I wanted a V70 but I couldn't find a decent one at the time I needed to swap. We've had it three years now and I'm quite attached to it.
Maybe it was just the V50 then, and I think they stopped doing the D5 in those around 2008/09.I do like the V60 too and would definitely have bought one if the right car popped up when we were looking, they are great looking cars.
Gassing Station | Readers' Cars | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff