Volvo V70 2.4

Bought the Volvo 2.4 V70 estate car with around 75,000 miles, CD spec. auto. 10 valve. My last car, a Volvo 740 auto, had over 105,000 and was still like new (as near as a 14 year old car can be, anyway)so I wasn't worried that it was a relatively high miler.

The V70 is not as practical as the 740 was, difficult to park due to the poor turning circle and comparatively poor rear visibility. A great fast road cruiser, luxurious and relaxing to drive. It hasn't let me down once. Very good value for money. Thank you, Murray of Paisley.

Fuel economy of 28 - 29 miles to the gallon, the computer says a bit more, 31MPG. Front tyre wear is a little heavy, but only to be expected.

Years ago I bought the legendary old silver Volvo 740 2.3TD for £1800 at auction, it had 180,000 miles on the clock & was very clean & in good condition. I sold it at 220,000 miles for half the auction price after 4 happy years, there was no rust at all anywhere except the stone pings at the front & even they were barely noticeable & this car was 13 years old.

So after that sort of introduction to Volvo estates I decided to buy a nearly new V70 TDSE top of the range model with everything except a sunroof & expecting the same economy of maintenance & reliability as my old 740. It was 18 months old when I bought it & within 3 months the passenger door started to rust from the sill up quicker than a Ford Sierra used as ship's anchor. The dealer had to replace the whole door & gave me a courtesy vehicle whilst the work was done. Only I had to almost have an argument to get that vehicle (some courtesy) So my flagship v70 is substituted for an old Japanese Lancer, hardly a replacement as it was'nt even an estate. Even now there is rust appearing in all sorts of places & will not last as long as the 740 did. Gripe number 2 involves our old friends Riverside Motors of Doncaster again. After not being able to stop the alarm from sounding when a person is sat in the car with the engine off I contacted Riverside again after a clue from a mechanic friend. Apparently they gave me the WRONG master key & because THEY now did'nt have the master key THEY offered to replace the locks at my expense. Just before I turned blue they reluctantly offered to replace them free of charge & it would take 2 days but this time no courtesy vehicle & 60 miles from home. Gripe 3 & Riverside come up trumps again for being the true rip off artists they are. A sensor fault caused a warning light on the dashboard to be always on & no ordinary mechanic has the equipment to fix these type of problems. As the smarmy salesperson put it " Theyre not mechanics anymore theyre technicians"......ha! this 'technician' hooked it up to a pc & gave it a clean bill of health before charging me nearly £40 & as I drove off the warning light was still on........!!!! I could go on but I think you may be getting the picture already. I'm now in the process of 'getting shut' of the damn thing before I end up driving it through their plate glass windows in protest. On the inside its a Volvo, on the outside its a Ford & in the dealerships its daylight robbery. I will NEVER buy a volvo again not because of the car which may just be a one off but the Dealerships who just can't be bothered to realise they are destroying the reputation of a once fine car company.

The Volvo V70 2.4 is an excellent car. We bought ours from new, 3 years ago now. This is my wife's car and is also the family car - to date the car has done very well.

Has a tendency to be light at the front; steering and power going through the same wheels can cause this to happen.

We chose the 2.4 non-turbo to avoid excessive tyre wear and issues with huge power going through front wheels (having owned a T5 previously I was aware of these issues). Tyres still wear out quickly though!

A competent and fast car - once it gets there. Great cruiser and an excellent family car. High specification - feels special.

We bought the car with loads of extras and the family pack and winter pack are highly recommended (how did we ever live without electric child locks!).

Some of the build quality is suspect and can be a bit "plasticy". But I would be nit-picking to insinuate that this detracts from how good the car really is. Great stereo system. Bulbs seem to blow quite often.