S80 2.5T & D5 opinions required

Hi,
Has any one any information on this engine or are there any reviews on the engine? Although I have just ordered a S80 D5 I may still have the opportunity to have the engine changed to a 2.5T.
I have been a petrol head all my life and this is my first venture into the diesel arena, however I do enjoy that surge of power that you get with petrol when it is required.
A rough analysis based mainly on actually running costs such as petrol, servicing costs and road tax in the UK over a 3 year period shows that the D5 equates to approximately £5182, the 2.4 (170bhp) £5865 and the 2.5T £6035. This calculated with petrol @ 75p a litre and diesel @ 77p a litre as there is always a 2p difference between the two no matter what. I assume servicing on the D5 at £1520, 2.4 at £1400 and the 2.5 at a guess at £1500 excluding insurance as they should all fall into the same insurance group. On all of the above I stand to be corrected.
Therefore I am trying to persuade myself that a extra £850 running costs spread over 36 months is not going to make a hell of a lot of difference, except that your repayments will be about £30 more than the D5. At the end of the day the diesel may hold its value better. I don't know. Either way it is by intention to keep the car for a minimum of 5 years and possibly longer therefore it has to be reliable and have a few mod cons.
My vehicle is for personal use and is used to commute to and from work, a return trip is about 28 miles and is mostly out of town driving, and also in addition it is used for social activities. I do about 3 long trips a year. I have been advised that diesels do not take too kindly to short trips, (i.e. 14 miles and then parked up for the day) and prefer longer trips. How true or not this is, I have no idea. It is my intention to keep this car at least 5 years and possibly longer.
Has any one any suggestions or can they offer any opinions. Better still does any one drive the new 2.5T either S80 or S60 and can they offer an opinion?
Cheers,
Ian

Hi,
I have a S60 D5 which was new on 1 Mar and has now done 4500 miles. The D5 engine in the S80 is exactly the same, except that the S80 is a slightly heavier car. The engine is one of the best diesels I have driven. It is very quiet and flexible. Peak torque occurs at 1800RPM but in practice it will pull away rapidly from 1200rpm upwards. I have never really yet found the need to put my foot hard down. I use mine to pull a caravan, where it cruises comfortably at 60mph in 5th gear and have not yet found a motorway incline steep enough to warrant changing down to 4th. With the car solo, top gear flexibility is brilliant on the motorway - when you get baulked, just put your foot down to return to cruising speed without changing gear.

At the end of the day, its a personal choice of petrol or diesel, but ignoring the fuel saving benefits, the drivabilty of the diesel is better than the petrol.

My car computer shows a fuel consumption of around 48-49mpg on a 60 mile run (about 40 miles motorway)-and when I checked the computer, it was reading abou 0.5mpg low, so pretty accurate. Overall running about seems to be arouns 43mpg.

If you intend to drive on the continent, the fuel savings are well worth while as diesel is 20-25% cheaper than petrol.

I agree with you, though, that any fuel savings are relatively small in the total cost of motoring, depreciation, servicing, tax, insurance etc, but you should save 50-60% on fuel bills.

I dont know why you have the diesel service cost higher than the petrol. I have not looked into this, but there are no spark plugs or ignition systems to worry about but it probably needs a little more engine oil. Service intervals on the D5 are 12,000 miles.

Hope this helps - suggest you arrange a test drive on each one to compare.

Hi,
Thanks for that and after some consideration I decided to go for the diesel because of costs. What put the nail in the coffin for the 2.5T was the cost of insurance. It nearly doubled although I have no claims bonus and the car is garaged. The most expensive quotes were from so called "budget" companies and the best was from Volvo's own insurance.
I quite enjoyed the "roar" of the diesel while test driving the car and it made one think that they were driving a V8. Sort of took me back to my youth when I owned several V8s and straight sixes at different times of course.
Wife has also being nagging a bit about a caravan so between insurance and wife, D5 it is, although I would have enjoyed the performance of the 2.5t even though I am not exactly boy racer material any more.
Cheers,
Ian