XC70/V70 Seats
 

Hi - A good question for all you technical types-

Can you fit a V70 Velour power/heated seat into an XC70 SE LUX?

I am going to buy an XC70 SE Lux with all the bells and whistles but her indoors is a Vegetarian so refuses to sit on cow hide. Major Problem. I just wondered if I could talk an enterprising dealer into changing the seats. The XC70ES comes with T Tec and would be a direct swop but I would prefer the nice soft velour seats in the V70. Any ideas please.

I'd be very wary about swapping out the leather for velour....think it might make the car very difficult to sell when you want to get rid of it.

Thanks n7xtc and thanks also for the reply to my previous query regarding specs on a new XC70. I think I can get the dealer to do a deal and swop the seats, it means them getting an ES as a demo and then changing everything over so they get a leather upgrade for their demo car and some fancy 18" wheels from an SE Lux and my wife lets me buy the car without a drama. I did the same trick with my 2002 V70SE which now has S spec Velour instead of the original leather - I take your point about resale value but I still have the V70 after 9 years so I doubt it would make much difference now and I intend to keep the Xc for the same or longer.

On the subject of 4 C Chassis, I cant find out about the performance whilst towing a caravan and the dealer is recommending Load Comp instead whilst saying the comfort setting on the 4 C is about the same as the standard car. I personally would have thought that using the sport setting whilst towing would suffice but the dealer is worried about the long term durability of the system for towing.

Thanks for your interest. Regards Rackingman

I haven't been told anything by the dealer about 4c not being suitable for towing....I hope your dealer isn't right.

I never had any 4C problems towing with my old V70R.

In 3 weeks I'll be towing my Caterham 7 to the Nurburgring a journey I last did with my Disco 3...although I don't expect the XC to be quite so effortless I don't expect (fingers crossed) any problems. Car and trailer should be about 1300kgs

Next weekend I should be towing a Caterham 21 over to Huntingdon, so nowhere near as far, but car and triler will be closer to 1400kgs.

I don't know how quickly you need some feedback on the towing but I'm happy to post up my experience in due course.

Re your interior swap, going for T-tec I don't think would be so much of a problem, it was more the putting in of an interior that isn't fitted to any model (the velour)

Cheers

Gordon

hi Thanks for the info. We are being quoted October if ordered now. We are currently in Sussex after towing the caravan down at 1600 Kgs. The XC60 tows well, very stable and bags of D5 power, but the suspension is dreadful. It is proberably better than most other 4x4 but not what we were used to with our previous V70. Every bump comes through and it only managed 24.1 mpg on a 182 mile slow journey.

I think the dealer was saying that the 4C comfort would be too soft for towing and, because we want a soft ride he was suggesting the standard set up with load compensating suspension would be the best compromise. However I feel we could use the comfort setting solo and then sport to firm things up when towing. Your towing info would be greatly appreciated and what MPG you achieved would be most welcome.

We wont be able to test drive the demo for a couple of weeks so nothing will happen prior to that and only then if he can sort some way of putting T-Tec in an SE Lux. Depends how much he needs the sale I guess. Thanks for your interest.

peter

Peter,

Towed the empty trailer tonight and it seemed fine, on a bumpy road it was a bit better in sport than comfort. On a dual carriageway or smooth A road comfort would be fine.

Will let you know what it's like after tomorrow when it'll be towing this

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-o...0/IMAG0473.jpg

Back from towing the Caterham with the XC70 for the first time.

Have to say I'm most impressed...100 or so miles and an average of 27mpg including a fair bit around town so feel confident that on a proper long run I'll be able to get closer to 30 out of it.

Personal preference would be to tow on sport not comfort, not that comfort is unsuitable but it's just the frequency of vibration from the road is less, well, comfortable...that's only when towing though.

I would honestly say it towed every bit as well as my previous Disco3 :thumbs_up:

Hi Gordon - thanks for the info. Pleased to know you got on with it OK and that the MPG was better than the XC60. The fact that it tows as well as the Disco is encouraging.

Peter

Back from a 1000 mile round trip to the Nurburgring towing the Caterham so thought I'd post my experience.

The XC70 was faultless...towing approx 1500kg of car and trailer and with a boot load of kit and spares too...average 27mpg running on 65mph cruise most of the way.

Ran on comfort not sport as the foreign road surfaces seemed not to have the same vibrations as the UK.

It was every bit as stable as my Disco3 and was a fair bit more pokey...not weighing 2.7 tonnes itself has it's advantages!

Hi Gordon. Thanks for the info - good to know all went well - did you win?

Have now test driven the standard XC70 ( not with 4C) - it was much much much better than the XC60 so we will most likely be going for an SE lux with 4C based upon your experience and providing I can get the dealer to give me a decent deal. I note that you got 27MPG on both your trip to Nurburgring and Huntingdon but the engine is still tight I expect so it should improve. Thanks again for your input.

Peter