First of all I'd like to apologise to CaptJack - I know he has been considering an S70 as well, and normally I'd do the right thing and see if he was interested, but this one ticked so many boxes, and being a manual T5 I thought if I didn't buy it immediately someone else would nab it.
So having said that, the boxes to be ticked were -
wifey - saloon - tick
wifey - heated seats - tick
wifey - aircon - tick
me - whiteblock engine - tick
me - manual gearbox - tick
me - cream leather interior - tick
me - rose colour - tick
me - under 150k miles - tick
me - no rust - tick
me - condition at least 'above average' and capable of becoming A1 - tick
Its pretty nice isn't it. 130k miles, part service history HPI clear, excellent MoT history (just the usual tyres, light out etc).
A few things that caught my eye - it has an S70R front bumper and boot spoiler, it has genuine Volvo 'crystal' headlamps from a C70, it has an 'eggcrate' grille, and it has a genuine Volvo strut brace - all things that I put on my last V70
The PO has also installed a BSR air intake which will go - I've never understood why people put cone filters in a hot engine bay? Thats 10bhp+ lost straight away. I'll be fitting a std airbox once I've given it a 'stage 0' service. If you have a keen eye you'll have noticed the accelerator cable in the engine pic - yes, its a pre- 'electronic throttle body' engine
In other words, its mechanically identical to my beloved 850R - which I only sold because of the hard ride and auto gearbox.
After I'd hit the buy button, the garage called me back to give me some more info - its well known to the garage and they've been servicing it for a while. The PO was a bodyshop technician and so the spoilers are a perfect colour match and the body is 'very very good for a 23 year old vehicle'. He forgot to mention that its had a new clutch... and that he'll put a new MoT on it.
So I'm made up - I was after a long term keeper, and almost by accident I found the advert within an hour or so of it being posted. I reckon someone 'up there' was listening to my wish list and thought I could do with a break