What Should I Look Out For When Buying A V70?

Do you mean the current (new) shape V70??

Tim..

Hopefully.....

I have an '01 V70 XC with 38,000 miles and have had no problems. I bought it in the UK but it was built for the US market.

I purposely didn't get leather seats or a sunroof. The regular seats are better in hot or cold weather and hold up better. The only Volvo seats that I ever had that didn't hold up well were the leather seats on a P1800.

The '01 V70 was the first edition of a major update. This update has proved to be a major improvement and I would highly recommend it.

The '97-99 Volvo V70 station wagon had a recall: Tailpipe may extend too far beyond rear bumper, posing hazard to anyone exiting from third-row seat on 50,835 station wagons made 1/97-10/98. What to do: Check tailpipe, and if necessary, have dealer modify it.

The leather in the new ones hold up VERY well. Friends of mine have 105K Kms on their 2001 V70, the seats look mint... and they have a big golden lab too, but I think he goes in the trunk mostly. We have 139K Kms on our 10 year old 960, the seats are in amazing shape, the drivers seat has a few scratches on it, but this was user error, not the seats, there are no cracks, or anything but the expected broken in look of the leather... which looks very nice anyways.

As for the friends who have the new style V70, they are buy>

OI ! Don't scare the poor chap! I would like to suggest that one of the biggest expenses will be Tyres/Tires. My front tyres last about 10K miles, but back ones last 30-40K. I do lots of town driving and country lanes e.t.c in my 1997 model, but the new shape V70 is bound to be the same. It also has 17 inch wheels normally, so these will be even more expensive than my 16s. Anyone who already has one, Refrain from lecturing me about tracking e.t.c, my tyres do wear evenly, and I don't really drive like a nutcase. Just short journeys, with rough roads!!

Apart from that, if you get a good-un, you'll never want anything else. Mine has done me proud for 220K UK miles, and will hopefully do me long enough to find a 3-year old D5 new shape for the right price (under £15K!) P.S My cloth seats look in very good shape, but the driver's heated bit burned through. (common on early 97 ones). I'll shortly be fitting some new ones, or leather, whatever I can find. Good luck. Joe. Peterborough UK.

Most of my driving is country roads or highway driving. Very little city driving. My '01 V70 XC does very well on tires. The original Pirelli Scorpio tires have 38,000 miles on them and are just now getting to the point where they will need replacing. At about 40,000 miles I will replace them with another set of Pirelli Scorpios. They do great on flooded highways and in snow. They also are great on the open road. On any FWD/AWD vehicle you need to rotate the tires regularly to insure even wear. I have my Volvo dealer check my tires every routine service (7,500 miles) and see if they need rotating. The reason I am sticking with the Scorpios is that they drive great and have never shown uneven wear. By the way I was surprised to find that a set of Scorpios from the Volvo dealer cost about the same as more poorly rated tires from Sears. Sears doesn't carry a tire as good as the Scorpio (their words, not mine).

I have a V70 and I swear I will not buy a volvo any more. The design is ugly, the interior (plastic) does not last very long. The worst is the parts are very expensive in NZ(Perhaps it is not true in the UK /Europe). I found the price of a brand new bloody head lamp unit is almost double a Mercedes S-class's (almost x2). The pro is the car's body is very rigid and strong.

Sorry to all Volvo owner...

"Stephen M. Henn>

That's because the V70's tail lamp is a hell of a lot more difficult to produce then the S classes.

... Quite a bit more complicated

I used to work for the company that did the injection molding systems for the Volvo's, Mercedes, Maybach, Renualt, many, many, many other car manfs... We had some showpieces in some from Volvo, some from Chysler, some benz, the Volvo stuff was by far the most complicated, and large, which makes it even worse from a financial aspect.

The design is the same now as when you bought it. You should have looked.

In the US our headlamps aren't bloody and only cost $7 which isn't much on a $35,000 car.

I think he means the cost of the whole unit, not just the bulb, if the lense gets broken it's rather pricey anywhere.