First trip abroad in the car - very impressed.

[Tigerseye]

I've just returned from two weeks holiday in France and the V70 D5 has been an absolute pleasure to drive. Although only covering a couple of thousand miles it has done everything I threw at it with total competence. It coped with four passengers plus a vast amount of luggage (wife and two teenage daughters - believe me that's a lot of luggage) swallowed up easily. Motoring on the French Autoroutes is easy anyway but it is reassuring to have the power available, despite the weight.
MPG returned was a respectable 39.5 if the computer is accurate, the majority of which was at a cruise-controlled 80mph.
I discovered a couple of things about the car that I didn't know about, though would have if I'd read the manual! Firstly, if the alarm has been activated there is a message telling you so. This was my fault as I didn't turn off the motion detector on the ferry. The facility to do this as a one-off or on a request basis each time you switch off is good and easy to do.
Secondly, because all the toll booths are on the 'wrong' side for us, it meant my wife had to take the seat belt off to pay/retrieve the ticket. It is annoying when the seatbelt reminder chime gets louder as you power away from the booth. I discovered that you can switch it off be pressing the 'read' button. This only works when you have had the seatbelt on, not when first setting off.
For those enquring about beam benders, I used them but turned the light position down low enough to not be an issue - it was tricky to find the centre spot on the light and place the beam bender in the right position.
Finally, the Sat Nav worked superbly well ( I did change the DVD although I don't know if it was really necessary) and I find the ability to program it from the back of the steering wheel easily the best and safest of any system I have used.
Overall I couldn't fault the car - it does exactly what I bought it for.

[dodgyken]

Beam benders??

If you have xenons the manual explains how to switch from left to right - best to take the whole headlight out the first time until you can feel what needs to be changed.

It is a 5min job.

[Tigerseye]

Sigh - sadly my budget had to stop somewhere so only plain halogen for me I'm afraid! It was either beam benders or masses of masking tape using the template in the manual so I took the easier route.
TBH I don't usually bother (I've never seen a foreign car in the UK with adjusted headlights) but apparently the French police have been having a purge with UK drivers - well it said so in the press so it must be true!

[Dazzlev70r]

On topic
Ive an 09 V70 R design

towing a 1500Kg caravan currently sitting in eastern Spain
tore through France and for the fun we went to Andorra on route with caravan

To be very fair this car has some grunt, sat comfortably in 6th gear throughout most of it dealt with the mountains very easy
Would of liked a temp guage though, I do wonder as this gets older why they didnt fit one, its a early warning system and if your getting hot you can pull over for a coffee before committing yourself to next stage

i got normal headlights and couldnt buy converters or covers
Fuel economy at good speed including a roof box and 1500Kg behind was 27MPG and thats recorded over 1500 miles
cars now got 10K on it and opened up nicely

now caravans off it the car feels more lively almost like its been lubed up and everything feels much looser nipier