V70 Buying advice
 

Hi,

I am looking to purchase a V70, part-ex'ing my 53 plate Vauxhall Zafira 2.0DTI.

I have seen a number of '10 plate V70's at main dealers with between 30 and 35K on the clock priced at around £17k. These cars have approx 2yrs remaining of their manufacturer’s warranty but have higher than normal mileage.

Can I ask for views on whether purchasing one of these cars is a good idea or should I look at an older car with less mileage. Currently I do around 11k miles per year and I intend to keep the car for 5+ years.

Your thoughts in this will be most welcome and very much appreciated.

Kind regards.

They are Volvo ex-rental cars!

amdvol,

Is this a problem considering they still have 2 yrs of warranty left? A dealer told me that the ones he gets in are ex Virgin Atlantic chauffeur cars.

Previous owner of my 2.4D V70 59-reg was ERAC (enterprise rent a car). They only run cars up to 18k though...

I am not happy with the discovery, but so far have put on at least 15k of troublefree miles (even with a mapped engine)

Cloggers,

I guess there are worries that having previously been a rental car may mean that the car has been thrashed. I know when I was younger; now in my 40's, when I had rental cars, I pushed it a little bit in the lower gears. When I'm looking I will make sure I look at the previous owner and the servicing.

I have a budget that I want to stick too and it's a toss up between going older with less mileage, no manufacturers warranty or newer with more mileage and manufacturers warranty. In both cases I have no idea how the car has been driven; I don't believe in the 'one careful driver' description as that's how I would describe myself.......most of the time!

Thank you.

Richy

If these are cars that have been used as chauffeur vehicles for Virgin Atlantic (and incidentally Emirates who use the same company at Heathrow) they are likely not to have been thrashed as most of their use will be motorway driving to and from Heathrow. They also will have been properly serviced and looked after. Used the service myself when travelling plutocrat class on flights and the cars are immaculate.

I bought an ex rental V70 a few years back and it was in excellent condition. These are strong cars and if they have a Geartronic box it is pretty difficult to over rev them. I would go for it as you will have the Volvo warranty.

I find the Geartronic frustrating as it does not seem to shift from 1st to 2nd until it gets past 3000 revs...

And also as a general comment: do the airlines not use the S80 instead of the V70?

Absolutevolvo,

Many thanks for your reply, it is very much appreciated.

Kind Regards, Richard.

My experience is different I have had two cars one used and one new both with Geartronic and both were/are excellent but they do adapt to driving style. Most used Volvos around here are Geartronics and IIRC the chauffeur fleets have always been autos. My first V70 was an ex rental and in really good condition.

When I used Emirates I had both V70s and S80s on airline pick ups and as I said it was the same outfit that Virgin used. Its a year or so since I last used the service so things may have changed.

Seem to be good deals at present on 59 V70 D5 R Designs with about 20k, some dealers already price reduced by 2-2.5k has had cars for several months. Cars only two ts old next month.

Might be a better buy than a higher mileage 10 or 60 plate.