V60 DRIVe - First 2,000 miles

[reggie59]

Wife xc90 was at service lately and was given a v60 d2 for 24 hours. Took it to work and back, 180 miles mainly motorway. Set the cruise at 75. Computer said 48 mpg.

[Harvey1512]

Originally Posted by weedge

Nice review, I will be doing one of my own soon, as off to France/Spain in September and my S60 SE Lux 1.6tdi should have done about 5000 miles by then, and a chance to fully try it out. The variance in mpg is a concern to me also. Just drove to Limerick and back pretty much on cruise at 65mph and averaged 50mpg and I am very dissapointed by that. Of course the engine will loosen over time but even if it does I cannot see me getting anywhere near the claimed figures. I dont really expect to get near them when buying a car but 20 + odd mpg difference is a pain. I am a fuelly member also and the other car I was considering was the new Octavia 2.0tdi (150 bhp) and they are getting 57ish + mpg by members on fuelly. Now I know the S60 is a better car in many respects but 57+ mpg and 150hp leaves a slightly sour taste in my mouth.

I think this is a really interesting point you raise. A tad controversial perhaps but I think the Octavia is very definite competition for Volvo, anyone who wants to counter that really needs to go in one. Skoda now get all the plaudits for service, quality, reliability etc that Volvo used to get (and still do to be fair) Volvo need to be looking over their shoulder at Skoda and worrying that the Octavia diesel is as good as it is. The Octavia estate and V60 are very comparable in terms of size and quality, the Octavia is slightly cheaper and yet the real world mpg performance of the 2.0d for Skoda outperforms the 1.6d. All this with similar CO2 emissions. Volvo need to make the 1.6d perform closer to its claimed figures as otherwise people will find the choice of Skoda over Volvo an easy one.

[Crockers]

Alsio the Skoda / VW DSG box is light years ahead if the geartronic.

[irishcarfan]

I agree that the Skoda must be seen as a rival, but I have to admit that last year I went to Switzerland and rented an Octavia. I was really looking forward to driving it as I had heard great things...

I gave it back the next day. I've mainly driven Volvos and Saabs for the last 10 years and it was a culture shock dealing with the lack of refinement. Seats were rock hard (compared to the Volvo/Saab) and the general vibration and harshness was just...tiresome. I couldn't believe it. Now, yes, it gets the job done and for anyone not interested in cars, it's perfectly fine. Very stable on an autobahn, too. But I amble about the city most days and I'm pretty sure the Octavia would have driven me to drink. The extra MPG just isn't worth the tiredness.

Having driven a Superb as well, I can confirm that I shall never be buying a Skoda (or any VW product, for that matter). I just need Volvo to keep making cars and hopefully, someday, Saab might get back into business with NEVS.

Cheers for the updates, Harvey - more please!

[I-S]

I too have hated every VAG product that I've driven.

I drove a passat 2.0TDI DSG and found the DSG to be utter junk - in order to preserve clutch life they have to bring it in very quickly without slip, which it does and does very smoothly. Unfortunately this means that pulling out of junctions or onto roundabouts from a standstill that the box won't slip so the engine is trying to pull from less 1000rpm, so the car crawls out of the junction for a second or so until the revs rise enough to actually make progress. Its sequential nature was also problematic in bunched traffic on the motorway as it would hang onto 6th when decelerating, down to 35mph, then when you put your foot down to accelerate again it decided it wanted 3rd and you have to wait for it to go 6-5-4-3.

The superb rides ok, but the interior is a world apart from Volvo or even my old accord tourer - the boot carpet looks like it came from an 80s Ford Orion and there's bare metal seat levers under the back and front seats.

Then there's the VAG driving dynamics - huge amounts of understeer (at normal, sane driving speeds, not just on the limit) and stupidly over-servoed brakes.

VW group are fine on paper. They just don't appeal to me in the real world.

[BenH]

I must get around to doing a similar update for my V60 D5 SE Lux - I'm over the 8k mark now.

Fortunately (for me), my drives are almost exclusively motorway miles and I'm averaging 51.3mpg for the life of the car to date. I'd assumed 37mpg based on his forum's feedback... and it drops to that level very readily when doing anything but motorway work... so it seems to all be about the type of driving you do.