Late XC70 Buying (ULEZ Compliant) - Anything to look for?

[apersson850]

There was no "winter pack" in Sweden. It was standard issue...

[yostumpy]

The heated screen is a bit of a Marmite thing really. In ice and snow it’s like Tigger! “coz Tiggers are wonderful things”, but I absolutely hate it in summer. When driving long distances in summer , wearing sunglasses, any sunglasses, after a while my eyes get very tired, and start to loose focus, and it took me a while to work out that it was constant eye strain due to looking through the hundreds of tiny filament wires in the screen, almost invisible, but not quite.

[simboc2004]

My wife's "new" 2017 V40 has a heated screen - i didn't even realise it had one until reading the manual because it didn't show up in sunlight - so they must have improved the heated screen elements since earlier versions - my 2004 Mini Cooper S had a heated screen and that was visible...

I think Winter Pack on V70s has varied depending on year and market. According to my 2011 V70 UK brochure two Winter Packs were offered that model year: Heated Seats with Headlamp Cleaning System for £375.00 or the same plus Active Bending Lights for £1000...

My 2011 car (ES base model) has heated seats, but neither of the others, so no Winter Pack - the heated seats it has were added separately as a £265 option. (Interestingly, heated rear seats were also available as a further £265 option, but no heated screen available at that time).

My car also had the BLIS pack installed for £650 (BLIS included auto fold mirrors and ground lights) and, at that time, came with free "bonus" rear seat Family Pack (height adjustable seats and powered rear door child locks).

So, it's not as easy as just saying "Winter Pack"...

[Tannaton]

Originally Posted by simboc2004

My wife's "new" 2017 V40 has a heated screen - i didn't even realise it had one until reading the manual because it didn't show up in sunlight - so they must have improved the heated screen elements since earlier versions - my 2004 Mini Cooper S had a heated screen and that was visible...

I think winter pack on V70s has varied depending on year and market. According to my 2011 V70 UK brochure two Winter Packs were offered that model year: Heated Seats with Headlamp Cleaning System for £375.00 or the same plus Active Bending Lights for £1000...

My car has heated seats, but neither of the others, so the seats were added separately.

I think in the UK the cost of the winter pack varied if you have LUX model - they had ABL lighting which included headlamp cleaning already, so the winter pack was quite a bit cheaper.

[simboc2004]

Hence the two different Winter Pack options in 2011 - with, or without, ABL.

[simboc2004]

Originally Posted by apersson850

There was no "winter pack" in Sweden. It was standard issue...

Is electric engine/block heating standard in Sweden too?

[apersson850]

Well, "was", since it's a long time ago now...
But no, the electric heater was not standard issue, not on any model. The fuel powered heater was standard on diesel versions, since they don't get warm enough when running under light load in cold weather. But the basic version was just a supplementary engine heater. The only thing you could do was to enable/disable it. When enabled, it would start automatically if you started driving with cold engine in cold weather.
Cars sold in semi-arid markets, like Germany, were equipped with an electric supplementary heater in the cooling system. So heated electrically by the car itself, not by plugging it into a wall socket. This was to augment the cabin heating when driving in cold weather.

Most people probably invested in the ability to set it manually too, so you could use it for pre-heating the engine and cabin before take off.
Next step up was to add Volvo on Call, which includes the ability to set the heater manually and via timer, in addition to setting the timers and start the heater via the phone. There's also a remote start you can have using the normal FOB.

Electric heating was available as an additional accessory. Some models couldn't combine that with a petrol/diesel heater, but some could. Before my XC70 I had some Volvos with petrol engines and electric heater for the engine.

Heated seats have been standard issue in Volvo cars sold in Sweden since the 140 back in the late 60's. The first we had was a 142 from 1974. The seat heating was controlled by a thermostat - you couldn't switch it on/off manually.
My 854 from 1994 was the first one I had with electric heating in the rear seat as well. But that was an option, just as it was in the XC70's we have now.
Electrically heated mirrors came with the 700-series.

[simboc2004]

I have read that UK market V70s have an additional electric heater element to help defrost quickly in the morning - mine certainly has the relay for it in the engine bay fusebox. That would just be in diesels, then? It certainly warms up faster than you would expect from just combustion warming of the coolant...

[Kev0607]

Originally Posted by simboc2004

I have read that UK market V70s have an additional electric heater element to help defrost quickly in the morning - mine certainly has the relay for it in the engine bay fusebox. That would just be in diesels, then? It certainly warms up faster than you would expect from just combustion warming of the coolant...

I'm not exactly sure how it works. I've noticed that my diesel S80 heats up very quick... It must have some kind of heater element. I can literally drive around the corner and the heater is getting warm (this is from a total cold start).

When I turn the control to turn the heater on, it doesn't actually do anything for a few seconds. Once the few seconds has passed, it then distributes the air to where you have it selected to go.

[Tannaton]

Originally Posted by Kev0607

I'm not exactly sure how it works. I've noticed that my diesel S80 heats up very quick... It must have some kind of heater element. I can literally drive around the corner and the heater is getting warm (this is from a total cold start).

When I turn the control to turn the heater on, it doesn't actually do anything for a few seconds. Once the few seconds has passed, it then distributes the air to where you have it selected to go.

It's this thing that slots in adjacent to the heater matrix

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/334956509999

C30/S40/V50's had them also, as well as Ford era Jaguar. Doesn't make a massive difference, but still worth having.

The system is quite intelligent and wont start the fans on defrost until there is some warmer air to blow around.