Hello from a new member and a quick question

[revaido]

Hi, I recently bought a 2012 XC90 D5 Exec for £13.5k which is a similar spec to what you're looking at from an independent garage at Christmas and as it had the service light they said they'd get it serviced for me so this gives you an idea of buying non-Volvo.

I took it in to a dealer the day after I got it to find they'd massively overfilled the oil when cold which they said was a common thing they see. Vida was showing it as over 130% filled which can cause problems. Luckily I'd done 15 miles since picking it up so it was fixed immediately.

I've just come back from the dealer today after having what they class as the 108k service (might not be the exact milage as in reality the car is 86k) with new brake fluid, coolant, windscreen wipers and an auto gearbox oil change and the cost (including fitting some mudflaps which I provided) was £700 including the VAT.

I bought an aftermarket warranty to cover me for anything going bang but in hindsight I'd most likely just go straight to a dealer for the Selekt warranty next time as you hear good things. The aftermarket warranty was £350.

The car had full Volvo Service History but came with just the service book - I've tried to get the previous history from Volvo but they've said there are data protection issues (not sure why when the previous owners details were on the V5 and some of the paperwork I have), it's a shame they can't just remove the name and give details of the work provided.

So buying from a non Volvo dealer for the car, plus fully serviced and with warranty it's more like £14.5k than £13.5k. I've added a few more bits like running boards and winter wheels so £15.1k so far.

I picked up another set of 18 inch wheels for mine and have winter tyres on there which I'm using at the moment and they've been great and I could get through anything when we had the snow recently.

So the moral of the story is you can get cheaper from non Volvo but as the guys say the costs can start to creep in and you don't get Selekt warranty!

[nu11eaf]

Second piece of advice would be to sellect your car for the important things, condition history mileage and warranty rather than the secondary things like having a DVD TV etc. Far more important to buy the best well cared for car, you can add DVD players, Tablet/ipad holders to back of the headrests that can entertain the kids. Tablets/ipads can hold lots of movies on them. And if you buy a mifi wifi sharing device and a data simcard they can have Wifi as well. I have a Huawei mifi and a 3 payg 12gb data simcard that lasts upto 12 months or when data is used for around £28. Youtube on the go, they love it.

[Floodys]

Quick reply here, I brought a old 53 plate XC with 150k on the clock, I wanted it for the same reason as you for the kids and a workhorse, mine has the rear TVs, 10 disc Dvd changer in the boot, not sure on the newer models but mine has wireless headphones and TVs are mostly operated via a credit card style remote, all works fine which is good news for my 3 boys. Because over the time I have it'll probably get wrecked a bit with my kids in it I wanted something cheap,and cheerfully that I could fix up, I'm quite handy with a spanner and so far the car stands me in just over £3k and it drives lovely now, few bits done are the likes of the ABS rings, vac engine mounts, "mr muscle" turbo clean etc etc. Fingers crossed if I hold onto this one it should be good for many a few more miles.