New to the V70 and the world of Volvo

[griston64]

Originally Posted by Ant B

My (2012 model year) 215bhp D5 is only £150 to tax (134 g/km according to DVLA website).

Just throwing it out there...

My 2012 215bhp D5 is £210 a year ?

[Sotosound]

For what it's worth, I suspect that the D4 is more refined than the D3 as the D3's VEA engine doesn't have balancer shafts.

This is certainly noticeable in the V60 but might be moderated slightly by the generally heavier build of the V70.

[Sotosound]

Originally Posted by bananarama

Hi everyone

I'm new to the world of Volvo. In fact, I don't have one yet.

My lady and I have fallen head over heels for the V70 gen3 and it's epic boot. We're currently eying up a 2015 D4 SE Lux (4-cylinder ) and we're wondering if the community would be able to give us some tips, essential things to know, stuff like that. For example, what's this 4-cylinder engine like?

One thing we're already thinking about: this particular V70 has 18inch alloys and we could "feel" them on the test-ride, so we'd probably "downgrade" to 17inch for a comfier ride, maybe even 16inch. However, it could be the factory suspension was setup for the 18inch alloys; no idea...

We hope to be Volvo owners soon

Cheers!

So.... we've all pushed our opinions on you, but what are you looking for from your own V70?

[Ant B]

Originally Posted by griston64

My 2012 215bhp D5 is £210 a year ?

Mine's manual, I'm guessing that's slightly lower emissions than an auto (yours is geartronic?), hence probably a lower tax band?

I'll put any savings (£60-per-year) towards the hip replacement I'll likely need in the future due to all those manual gearchanges; doesn't seem like such good value now I think of it like that...!!

[bananarama]

griston64 - £80 buys a lot of burritos, but £1.54pw makes it so much easier to justify a D5. My lady laughed when I told her.

Sotosound - Is your D4 a manual? Or did you pay someone off at the DVLA? Yeah! That's the V70 we test drove, and not sure what the salesman did with the advert, because some of the interior pictures don't match the car; I'm pretty sure it does have the driver's support pack (didn't know it was called that). It's a lovely car in lovely condition, and it's a lot of money, hence why my lady and I are undecided...

Tannaton - I have no experience or knowledge on xenon headlights, so good to know they're pukka, along with the TFT panel and 8-speed auto!

Sotosound - Interesting! Well in that case I'll give the D3 a miss. I like the idea of having a well balanced engine, seems like a no-brainer.

Sotosound - What we're looking for in an estate: well my lady likes to have a toasty bottom so electric heated seats are a must, plus she wants an auto-box. I would like comfortable seats, and a massive boot, and when dropping the back seats, to have a perfect horizontal bay. As far as I know, the V70 is the only estate that has this. We checked out a 5-series estate (F11) and its back seats don't lay perfectly flat. Plus, it seems like a reliable and relatively easy car to work on and service, and I've noticed there are quite a few tutorials on YouTube (timing belt, auto-box oil change, fuel filter, etc). Another thing we noticed is that the V70 feels spacious (as well as been spacious), whereas the F11 didn't feel spacious (despite been spacious). I suspect the V70 black leather is actually a dark-grey, and its windows are bigger, which contributes to that feeling of space and brightness.

Ant B - Your hip may need repairing, but at least your quad is buff and sculpted :-D

[Sotosound]

Originally Posted by bananarama

griston64 - £80 buys a lot of burritos, but £1.54pw makes it so much easier to justify a D5. My lady laughed when I told her.

Sotosound - Is your D4 a manual? Or did you pay someone off at the DVLA? Yeah! That's the V70 we test drove, and not sure what the salesman did with the advert, because some of the interior pictures don't match the car; I'm pretty sure it does have the driver's support pack (didn't know it was called that). It's a lovely car in lovely condition, and it's a lot of money, hence why my lady and I are undecided...

Tannaton - I have no experience or knowledge on xenon headlights, so good to know they're pukka, along with the TFT panel and 8-speed auto!

Sotosound - Interesting! Well in that case I'll give the D3 a miss. I like the idea of having a well balanced engine, seems like a no-brainer.

Sotosound - What we're looking for in an estate: well my lady likes to have a toasty bottom so electric heated seats are a must, plus she wants an auto-box. I would like comfortable seats, and a massive boot, and when dropping the back seats, to have a perfect horizontal bay. As far as I know, the V70 is the only estate that has this. We checked out a 5-series estate (F11) and its back seats don't lay perfectly flat. Plus, it seems like a reliable and relatively easy car to work on and service, and I've noticed there are quite a few tutorials on YouTube (timing belt, auto-box oil change, fuel filter, etc). Another thing we noticed is that the V70 feels spacious (as well as been spacious), whereas the F11 didn't feel spacious (despite been spacious). I suspect the V70 black leather is actually a dark-grey, and its windows are bigger, which contributes to that feeling of space and brightness.

Ant B - Your hip may need repairing, but at least your quad is buff and sculpted :-D

My car is automatic. Not sure about paying someone off at DVLA since their offices might well be empty at this time.

(I suspect that Volvo had to revise their CO2 figures for later 2015 Model Year vehicles.)

In terms of features on the car, the details listed in the four relevant sections of the Specification section of the Autotrader advert are more likely to be right than a flung-out write-up done in upper case and written by someone who doesn't check their spelling.

Visually, a check of the bottom row of buttons on the centre console plus the two temperature control knobs for the climate control will tell you which option packs are present.

The two knobs will have a heated seat symbol in the centre if the Winter Pack has been fitted.

The bottom row of buttons running right to left are: -

1) Parking sensors

2) Lane Departure Warning (Useless distraction in town. Part of Driver's Support Pack.)

3) Stop-Start

4) Lane Departure Warning (Part of Driver's Support Pack).

5) Never seen it used. (Part of Keep Sotosound In The Dark pack).

The price is quite high, but that is partly a reflection of the current times, where obtaining a new car has become problematic. Think long term, however, and it is probably still a good choice. Plus you'll probably enjoy driving it every day.

If you can't really afford it, however, then that's a simpler but very annoying thing.

[bananarama]

Sotosound - Oh yeah! Just noticed some of the D4s are £30 VED. I take your point: cars are expensive but "YOLO" and at least we'd get to enjoy the V70 now instead of some arbitrary future. BTW could the other button be for a heated steering wheel? I came across these buttons on a YouTube video (screen grab bellow). What's the "seat" button?

Everyone - massive thanks for your advice and experiences. It's really good to hear the newer 4-cylinder engines, especially the D4, and the automatics, especially the 8-speed, are smooth and reliable. We're hard on the search for a V70 that we really like and can afford comfortably. Will post as soon as we get one :-)

Screenshot 2022-01-30 at 13.15.38.jpg

[bananarama]

BTW...I hear that some burn oil; how come? Are they prone to this? Or was it a particular batch/year?

[Sotosound]

Originally Posted by bananarama

BTW...I hear that some burn oil; how come? Are they prone to this? Or was it a particular batch/year?

Some VEA engines built prior to mid-2016 get this issue.

It is apparently caused by blocked drain holes in the oil control piston rings that cause engine oil to be left in the cylinder for combustion instead of being allowed to drain back into the oil sump. There are a few threads on the forum about this, including a couple with posts by me. After mid-2016, the pistons and rings were redesigned to prevent the problem from occurring.

Degraded valve stem oil seals can also contribute to the issue.

My wife's V60 D3 has the problem but my own V70 D4 doesn't, although last year I worried that it was starting. Instead, the car needed a new rocker cover and gasket because the old one had a bad leak.

I suspect that cars that have done mainly short journeys will be more prone to this problem, but that's only a suspicion.

It's also the case that the cars that I am aware of having the issue have mileages of over 100k.

With my wife's car, right now we just top up the oil as needed. It doesn't affect emissions, so the car flew through its MOT late last year with no advisories.

The full fix is new pistons and rings plus a rebuild of the cylinder head. Not cheap but probably cheaper and better than replacing the car with an unknown quantity.

[Sotosound]

Originally Posted by bananarama

Sotosound - Oh yeah! Just noticed some of the D4s are £30 VED. I take your point: cars are expensive but "YOLO" and at least we'd get to enjoy the V70 now instead of some arbitrary future. BTW could the other button be for a heated steering wheel? I came across these buttons on a YouTube video (screen grab bellow). What's the "seat" button?

Everyone - massive thanks for your advice and experiences. It's really good to hear the newer 4-cylinder engines, especially the D4, and the automatics, especially the 8-speed, are smooth and reliable. We're hard on the search for a V70 that we really like and can afford comfortably. Will post as soon as we get one :-)

Attachment 139632

Image 29 in the following advert shows the heated seat feature clearly.

The car also has heated steering wheel but no drivers support pack.

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-det...ceDeposit=true