USED Volvo V70 Estate (00 - 07)

My car

Bought it 8 months old in 04 with 12k on the clock, and now done 97k, faultlessly. Negatives - Auto can be jerky (drive smoothly, it behaves) and servicing costs are horrendous (sure they had finance forms on the service desk!!). Turning circle akin to a super tanker, but a fantastic tourer. Mid-range is quick, fuel economy (the reason she has to go) is high 20's with a light right foot - get excited and 22-23 mpg the norm. I'm now changing for a diesel - I'll wait for the new V70 2.0d to come down in price and get one of those in 18 mnths. It is the 1st car I've kept more than 2 years and enjoy it to drive today as much as the day I bought it. Shame about the economy, but £300/month in fuel - it's more expensive than my wife!!!

My car

I've owned my manual D5 SE for 2 years now and think it's a superb car. I'd struggle to find anything as good as the V70 for a balance of comfort, space/practicality, economy and general all-round family-car abilities.

Fuel economy is superb for such a large and powerful car: we're averaging 45MPG on a mix of London and motorway driving (25mph average). Even the CO2 emmisions (at 177g) are great for such a tank. The D5 engine is brilliant: tons of power in the mid-range makes quick overtaking a doddle. Loads of torque too, so towing is easy. I can't say enough about how comfortable the seats are - its a genuine pleasure to go on 4/5-hour journeys. That said, it's not as good in corners as the BMW (which we owned before switching to Volvo), although that's only a marginal niggle. The V70 is also incredibly spacious in the boot; our friends with other estates are amazed at how much we can get in there. (Although it only scores a little more than its rivals in the 'official' capacity ratings, in reality it has quite a lot more space owing to the fact that the squarish back allows you to stack stright up to the roof... and this isn't counted in 'official' ratings). Our car is a '53 plate (we bought it second-hand) and over the two years (and 25k miles) of our ownership (it now has 55k on the clock), we've not had a single problem, although we've had to replace the front tyres once (which is a common requirement with V70s, as they're FWD and very heavy). Brilliant!

My car

We bought an 2003 2.4 D5 with 52,000 in Oct 2007 and we have done 8,000miles trouble free. Our overall fuel cosumption is 39.6mpg and on a long run to NW Scotland when we were really trying to stretch it, we hit 52.7mpg. (At one stage we had run 217miles and had 710 miles left in the tank.

We had not noticed the turning circle, but then we have had a few Discoveries and anything after a Disco is going to turn around more easily.

+ points; Wonderful relaxed tourer, eats miles whether motorways or poor back roads. Great seats, excellent cabin and bags of room for all. Huge space for front passengers. (Try pushing the steering wheel forward and then your seat to get comfortable, now see how much rear leg room your passenger has......) Big car that does not feel that bulky when on the move. Modest, almost self effacing presence. With back seats folded down the load deck rivals our previous Discovery 3. Drives much the same whether fully loaded or not.

- Points; Does not want to pushed hard, has grip, but a V70 is not a sports car. (Our other car is a V50 S and that is far sharper but the ride is nothing like as serene.) The engine is fine, but does not want to be pushed.

A good car that has joined our list of 'favourite cars ever'.

My car

We had our v70 estate as our company vehicle in 2000. In 2004 we were so impressed we bought the car from our company as a car for me...It had done 120,000 miles then...Never a problem and it just keeps going...Its been abroard with us to France Germany Italy...My only fault is the turning circle.....Dream of a car and still going strong and with us today...145,000 on the clock now...Ill be sorry to see him go...Have another.....You bet!