I love my 99 V70!

I just wanted to let anyone out there know if they are looking for a
great used car consider the '99 V70 (wagon). I am in sales and this car
is incredable. Everyday I stop start this car ten + times with never a
problem. Yes, the repairs are expensive but average less than $1000.00
per year over the past four. It is the most dependable car I have EVER
owned (equal only to the Toyota Camry of my earlier years in sales). I
have 150,000 miles on it now and it actually seems to ride nicer and
run smoother than when brand new. It was a perfect car for my wife
while the kids were small with the third seat and the gas milage is
great...still around 25 mpg!!! How many cars do you know that handle 4
years of small town short run driving then three + of major highway
speed/miles and do it well?...the volvo is. Hope the Navigator I just
bought works out half as well!!!

 

Great news - I am lookig at the same thing, but the XC version. I am
just scared b/c the car has 71K and I cannot verify tha tthe timing has
been done.
Kevin

 

They don't do real well in snow.

 

In an earlier contribution to this discussion,

That's not snow - that's sheet ice! Even so, the V70 did better than most
until it clipped the corner of another vehicle which was sticking out into
the road.
--
Cheers,
Roger
______
Email address maintained for newsgroup use only, and not regularly
monitored.. Messages sent to it may not be read for several weeks.
PLEASE REPLY TO NEWSGROUP!

 

Don't be scared. You really have no choice but to assume the timing belt
hasn't been done, so it will need to be scheduled immediately if you buy the
car. The price should also reflect that - otherwise, there is negotiating to
be done.

An awful lot of owners sell a car when the first timing belt replacement is
due. They see the cost of ownership suddenly rising and jump ship.In any
event, if you don't know when the belt was changed, when should it be
changed next?

Mike

 

What snow. That was glare ice and nothing did well, especially parked
cars. When cars slide sideways, you know there is no traction. Here in
PA where we get over 30 inches of snow annually, I have had no problems
in 40 years with my Volvos, even the old 240's which "were bad in snow".
It takes some common sense to drive in snow. The most dangerous
vehicles on the road are the 4x4 pickups which get overconfident and
smash up spectacularly.

 

A car that young that "only" averages about $1k a year in
repairs is not a great vehicle. We bought our '96 Camry sedan in
'99 with 99k miles on it. In the first *five* years it cost us
about $400 in repairs, and about $1k *total* for repairs and
maintainance over the whole five years. From 2003 until about six
months ago, it cost us about another thousand in repairs and
maintainance. Now, with 160k miles, at 12 years old, it's
starting to cost as much to maintain as your Volvo. I'd like to
sell it.

I don't doubt that the Navigator will do half as well...

 

What snow. That was glare ice.

Oh, really?

It was snow.

I live there.

We had a couple inches of SNOW.

No freezing rain.

Note the color is WHITE: snow.

Yeah, the heading of the clip talks about ice, but it fell as snow.

Usually out here the snow doesn't stick: this time it did.

The bumper car scene is a steep hill in downtown Portland.

 

When wet snow freezes it forms white ice. When snow gets packed, it
forms white ice. When cars slide in snow they push the snow ahead of
tires, especially when sliding sideways. None of the cars sliding were
pushing snow. When cars slide sideways on frozen snow and packed snow
they don't push the snow, they slide on top as the cars in the video
did. If it is just below freezing, the weight of the cars forms a wet
layer under the tires and cars slide effortlessly as in the video.

I lived in Portland 21 years. We had two types of snow, slush and
frozen slush. I remember one state football championship game that was
played in the snow between Jefferson and Gresham. When players were
tackled they would slide about 10 yards on the ground and throw up a
wake of slush.

 

I'm not so sure about the .

My 98 V70 has cost me over £4,300 (~$8,000) in servicing and repairs since
the middle of 2003 (I've covered ~60,000 miles) compared to £5,500 for
petrol (~$11,000 for Gas) and the 1st years repairs were all done under
warranty.

Servicing is about 30% of my total running costs and in the UK petrol costs
about $10 a gallon.

I know my next car will be something reliable and cheap to repair (probably
a VW or one of it's derivatives like SEAT or maybe even Skoda).

Richard
Web pages: http://www.caravanningnow.co.uk/ for caravanning,
http://www.rcole.org/ for my personal web site and
http://www.homeindorset.co.uk because I love the email address.

 

150,000 miles on a Volvo is not young, but middle aged. Volvo owners
spend money on their cars, not because they have to, but because they
want to. Most problems are not fatal and seldom ever to the cars break
down. But they do have symptoms such as check engine codes that are
treated. The owners don't drive them into the ground like they do
econoboxes but keep them in good shape. My '95 850 seldom needs
repairs, but always gets routine service, new tires, a new battery, new
brake pads, and serves me well. Today it is like new, inside and out.
It drives like new. The proof is in the resale. A Volvo wagon with
180,000 miles sells in one day to the first person that looks at it. I
know, I have done it 8 times.

 

That's a lot - what went wrong? You could buy another for that money. Mind
you, the car could be almost 10 years old. We traded an S40 for a 2001 V70
wit 70k on it in 2005 - no big bills yet but we do a lot fewer miles than
you. Having a lot of trouble with tyres deflating and the headlamp bulbs
have both gone last week. We are in UK too.

E.

 

E.

Nothing special, several electrical problems fixed under warranty (I don't
have the invoices for these), new throttle cable, new sunroof module, new
exhaust system (all that was wrong was the rear bracket was bust), new
thermostat, new drivers window switch pack, new coin box, new ignition key
lock, new MAF plus servicing (including 1 cam belt change). Nothing major
(apart from the exhaust when a £5 weld job would have done) and the main
dealer servicing charges,

Richard

Web pages: http://www.caravanningnow.co.uk/ for caravanning,
http://www.rcole.org/ for my personal web site and
http://www.homeindorset.co.uk because I love the email address.

 

Main dealer charges I expect being the lion's share? It seems like a huge
amount for what, 3 years? Surely you could have got ATS or likewise to fit
a new exhaust bracket. We've had ours serviced at a Volvo specialist in
east London but not a main dealer. The last service was about £200 but the
one with cambelt is coming up this year, and I will have to buy 4 tyres.

E.

 

Bloody hell!! We have a 97 S70, and its cost next to nothing over its so-far
92k miles, other than scheduled servicing. I have had to have a new electric
window switch pack though.

It feels hardly run in and gagging to do another 100k of trouble free miles.
(touch wood)

Tim..

 

Maybe they sell fast where you are, but here they are worth
little. And your points above don't refute my basic one: that a
car requiring $1k a year in repairs and maintainance is, at very
best, unexceptional in ownership costs and not "a great used car."

 

Yes, you could see the first vehicle left no tracks in the "snow" on the
roads, but did in the snow when it went across the sidewalk. But what
amazed me the most were the people standing around as the cars bounced
off each other and various poles etc.

--
Mike F.
Thornhill (near Toronto), Ont.

Replace tt with t (twice!) and remove parentheses to email me directly.
(But I check the newsgroup more often than this email address.)