Opinions on Volvo V70

gabbleRatchet

So due to the arrival of another baby in the Ratchet household and the need to transport my aged parent at the same time I desperately need a 7 seater.

I've been looking at Versos and FRVs but am also considering a V70 with the 2 extra seats in the rear boot space. My reasoning is mainly that I can afford to buy a good nick 2006/7 with FSH outright for about £4-5k so no need to get into debt.

It needs to be an auto as my wife, who will be driving it mostly can't drive a manual, and she doesn't do a lot of miles so a big thirsty petrol is no problem.

Are there any potential problems to look for with these cars or is this just a bad idea?

Hanky_Panky

Pretty good solid cars. My Mum's had one since '98 and still going strong although it does get serviced by the local garage each year.

However - I had a much newer XC90 (also needed 7 seats) and overall it wasn't as reliable as Mum's old banger and Volvo were truly awful to deal with, both the local dealer here in Milton Keynes and also Volvo Cars UK who effectively called me a liar to get out of paying a warranty claim. I read somewhere that the more modern Volvos were not quite a robust as their old image used to portray and my experience certainly backed that up. Also with the extra seats in the back you wont have much room for anything else - that may not be a problem to you.

Prior to buying the XC 90, on a couple of occasions when we needed to we hired a Kia Sedona. We honestly wished we had bought one of those for a third of the price as it was bloody brilliant.

forgotmyname

Are the 7 seat ones just for very small children with very little legroom?

gabbleRatchet

I guess they are, but it'll be a 4 yo and a 2 yo going in them on the few occasions we need to carry an extra adult. When they grow out of them we'll have to get something else


A full sized 7 seater is probably too big for our needs, and a 5 + 2 probably ideal. Also my wife is used to driving a Nissan Micra so I was looking for something more car-like than a great big bus

patman99

Volvo have been in Chinese hands for the last year or so. Hence the drop in quality. The Chinese don't do 'world class', they just do 'good enough is good enough'. That is why Volvos are not as good as they used to be.

Netwizard

The V70 has 2 child seats in the back like this:



Adult could sit in the middle?

spacey2012

Greedy, slow, clumsy dead feel steering with no warning of lost grip and very poor boot height for an estate.
Parts are expensive to eye watering levels and the favourite trick is random bouts of refusing to start.
The Older ones were far better, 2004 onwards they get worse and worse.

TrickyWicky

patman99 wrote: »

Volvo have been in Chinese hands for the last year or so. Hence the drop in quality. The Chinese don't do 'world class', they just do 'good enough is good enough'. That is why Volvos are not as good as they used to be.

This.

If you want a real volvo that will go for miles get one of the older ones like the 850 estate. Not only does it have 'real' volvo engineering but it has one of their most reliable power houses they ever made under the hood.

850s are also old now so a lot cheaper to buy.

Netwizard

940 is also a good Volvo to own. Those redblock engines go on forever but I fear they might be a bit too old for the OP to consider

gabbleRatchet

Yeah I didn't want to buy older than about 8 or 9 years.


Maybe not a good idea then.

kfw_2

Vauxhall zafira in my opinion, plenty about and cheap on parts too. I find these easy to work on too.