Volvo T5 buying advice

I think you're judging your engines by that of lesser cars...

The message from Stu contains these words:

And what do they know about car maintenance?

That's not the point - they how how badly it's been driven.

If they were worth buying, don't you think police officers would buy ex-police cars themselves?

The fact that they don't tells you all you need to know.

"Tim S Kemp" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@karoo.co.uk:

Hides the dirt ;-) Seriously, beige leather easily easily gets scruffy. This car has excellent seats - in much better nick than my younger and far less used Primera.

The clutch is very smooth to operate but engages rather sharply when letting it in after a gearchange. In this respect, it reminds my of the Ferraris I drove on one of those 'driving experience' days. I assume it's a sympton of bigger clutches that have to transmit more power and torque. No sign of abuse, though, quite soft to operate and bites at just the right point of the pedal travel.

Seems brisk enough to me :-)

To me it seemed in very good condition, would pass for a lot younger car, IMO. No obvious signs of abuse and service history is impeccable. Anyway, I've bought it now! See my new thread for more info :-)

Thanks

snipped-for-privacy@italiancar.co.uk (SteveH) wrote in news:1h11sm7.18eroluxlf1zgN% snipped-for-privacy@italiancar.co.uk:

Agree with Steve, here. The maintenance is second to none, I'm not disputing that. However, they're not exactly pampered are they? The fact that many people find them good second hand buys is a testament to the strength and quality of the vehicle, IMHO. Perhaps the cars are just too tough for it to matter, but many people are put off by this harsher than usual treatment, including myself, if I'm being totally honest.

South Yorkshire used to dive into their T5's and rag them from cold straight onto the motorway from Ecclesfield nick if there was a shout on. The first thing to go was the turbo - it got so bad they eventually had electric preheaters with quick disconnects keeping the coolant at 55C.

How would that help? - you'd want the oil kept warm, not the coolant.

The preheaters I've been involved with circulate the coolant (they nobble the stat too) which keeps the block and most of the rest 'warm enough' to avoid the vast majority of cold start wear.

OTOH, I was under the impression that due to shift working, traffic cars rarely stopped...

Of course it's always worth getting it HPI checked. Even if not stolen, there could be outstanding finance. And do HPI yourself; the compensation only goes to the client of the HPI check.

Johannes ( snipped-for-privacy@spam-gets-nowhere-sizefitter.com) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

Wouldn't there be a delicious irony if it turned out to be stolen AND ex- plod...?

You sometimes see this kind of stuff on "wildest police videos" from US.

Even better if it were stolen FROM plod...