Where do you see Volvo against other marques?

[wisc]

Originally Posted by st4

With good quality components there's no reason for a small engine not to last well.

There's Skodas and VAG taxi's with 2litre engines all with 500k plus miles on them. Not big sixes and eights.

Driving characteristics and refinement are a bigger concern re this downsizing trend. Good maintenance and repairs to known weak spots (ie changing tensionrers if they are known to go bang) will see any modern engine do 300k miles no problem

ok..... fair points....

[Palmer 221]

I would conceder Volvo be a premium marque.
Premium doesn't have to be pretentious.
Quite frankly from reading a few of the posts on this thread I get the impression the average owner suites the description.
I had a Mercedes and to be honest it was a Great, reliable car. Never let me down. When it hit around 10 year old stuff like bushing needed to be replaced but I see this as a matter of course. But it was dull...

We had an XC 60 for a while. was really nice.

but I get the impression the only real difference between most of todays cars are the owners. didn't really like being a Mercedes owner, but I feel more positive towards Volvo.

[Laney760]

I see the Volvo marque quite rightfully deserving the title of premium and being a little prestigious

It's great owning a 1996 940 where I work

H who I work with had a 7 year old Jaguar XF, it started having all sorts of electrical gremlins and not starting. So she bought a 3 year old Jaguar XF, top of the range, every single toy imaginable, nice looking beast. A couple of months into ownership, you've guessed, electrical gremlins and starting issues, being driven into work by her husband

J has a 2005 Mini Cooper, using the girlfriend's car into work, having to rebuild his head gasket. Had it from new, he's not a racer either

D has a very new supermini, she didn't make it to work on that very cold morning

My old gal, despite needing masses of work, servicing and having residues of water in her petrol tank, she is having a lot of work done in April, starts every day and never fails to get me to work

They also ask me how on earth I park a battleship so quickly in our very difficult car park - maybe because THEIR turning circles resemble that of battleships!

[spike1987]

Definitely up there with bmw, merc ect back in the 740 days they were much better spec'd then a equivalent merc, bm ect.

[volvorocks]

I think anything was better specced than a BMW or Merc back then. Think a radio was even on the options list!!

Regards

[tiredted]

Id say volvo are equal to the premium german marques , However in the eyes of mr average i don't think thats the case , Hence the mega rates of depreciation seen on volvo models

Im considering buying a BMW 330D/335D however you would not believe the money even ten year examples with high miles command ..eye watering.

Specify a M sport model with top spec and it gets even sillier

Looked at a very nice top spec 2006 E91 330D Msport today with 130k ...however they were asking 7k and refused to budge on the price ...who are they kidding?

[Squealey]

So in my eyes it starts with the big 3, Merc, BMW and Audi.
Until a couple of years back I worked for a large, international car hire company so covered lots of miles in most variants of cars.
Most people with sense know that Merc has only recently turned the quality back up, maybe not to mid 80's standards, but comparable to modern Audi's.
BMW seem to be trying to fill every niche.out there and I honestly think that 2-series 7 seater is a monstrosity. In fact money no option the 4 door 6 series is the only one I'd go for. They sell a LOT of their cars on image alone and having driven a vast array of models they truly are nothing special. (Although the 3.0 twin turbo diesel is a bit special)
Aud make some very samey cars (ooh a new A4, or is it the old one, or is it the A6, oh it's an A3 saloon!) But they are such a great place to sit, although I personally think the quality has dropped since the days of the early noughties A6. But have you driven one??? They are quite possibly the most boring cars to drive!!! Again selling on image.
We also had Volvo's. Mainly V70's, and I'll be honest, as a non Volvo owner, I thought they were not very good, maybe equivalent to the new Saab 95 at the time. Whereas Audi et al get the details spot on, Volvo and Saab just didn't in my eyes. The dashboard graphics were like you'd find on a mid nineties Saisho Hi Fi system, the sat nav that looked OK raising out the dash, was awful to use and graphics wise, very dated. Could you imagine Audi using it? The engine sounded very gruff and the interior colours were not in keeping in my eyes with a premium brand.
I would say they were a tier 2 premium brand with aspirations of reaching tier 1 but falling short on the details. Way above the likes of Ford and Vauxhall. A little bit above Toyota, and ever so slightly above Honda and VW.
Just my opinion, and as the owner of a stupid mileage (340k) 2003 S60 D5, I can see the quality is there in bucket loads, I honestly don't think any of the above would still drive as well and have as many original parts still fitted as my Vin (Diesel)
Cheers
Wayne

[V50scoobS70]

No.
I wouldn't put either of my Volvo's in the same category as Audi,BMW and Mercedes.
They both have indicators that work!!
Regards Andy

[Clan]

This thread started 4 years ago .. things have changed since , What ever you want to call a Volvo sales are UP UP UP and UP in the last 2 years predicted to keep on doing so for the next 3 years at least . So they must be doing something right . They are the fastest growing " premium" car maker in Europe . All the reviews of teh XC90 were/are top marks . The new V90 just yesterday won 5 stars in the Daily Telegraph road test, no mean feat for Andrew English ! There are many exciting new things coming in the next 3 years , a smaller Hybrid next year , a full electric car the year after just to name a couple , Volvo is more than bang up to date now competing with the best . Remember where a lot of today's innovations came from when volvo had them 5 years , 35 years , 10 years before anyone else . It is a less known fact that they first developed the lambda probe and catalytic converter in 1976 ...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/cars/volvo/volvo-v90-review/

[Billggski]

Just read the review of the V90, interesting they sloped the roof to give it a better look, but less headroom and rear space?
I chose the V70 because I have two big labs, (so predictable) and the upright rear door was the clincher.
Moved from an xj Jaguar, definitely seen as a move down by all relations and friends.
But an xf estate was nor really big enough.