Considering 740/940 for practicality & adventure.

[Laird Scooby]

Originally Posted by Morton

Laird Scooby, I'm interested to read you prefer an auto box on slippy stuff and your reasoning makes sense. I've always favoured manual after sliding down the hill past our driveway in our old Auto Pajeiro following a downshift further up the hill to control the speed that caused everything to lock up. We once lived where it occasionally snowed and a couple of friends who each had auto V70 D5s couldn't go out but it was no problem for our manual one. Maybe it was their level of skill behind the wheel?! I'm guessing by your username that you're somewhere snowier than Devon so have done much more driving in slippy stuff than I have which is reassuring because my search for a good 7 or 9 doesn't need to be made trickier by eliminating autos.

Thinking about it, I'm sure if Volvo Autos couldn't cope in the white, they wouldn't sell many!

My first 144 was an auto back in 1985 and at that time, i used to give one of the office girls a lift in to work on the way. She lived in a huge dip on an estate and the only way in or out involved steep hills.
One icy morning with a small flurry of the white stuff, i had to negotiate one of these steep hills to get out of the estate. After passing the Land Rover that was slithering all over the road, it just sailed happily up the hill with a very light throttle.
Since then i've always found RWD autos much better in snow/ice than anything else.

That leads me neatly on to the V70 - i think they are FWD so it's highly likely the owners you describe simply jumped in and gave it the usual beans and sat there spinning their wheels.
Many people claim that FWD is better in snow/ice than RWD but i can't see how. If you lose traction on the driving wheels in a RWD car, you usually still have steering - not so in a FWD car. Also when you accelerate, weight transfer causes more weight to sit on the rear wheels and less on the front - straight away it's obvious that in a FWD car this will promote wheelspin.

As for the Pajero, two things - first is that while they are very capable in mud and snow because of the 4WD and the large, knobbly tyres, in ice those tyres actually have less grip simply because the knobbly bits don't add up to the same surface area of contact. In snow and mud though, those knobbles have a far superior surface area.

Second is if you had changed down to a lower gear before the hill, the downchange wouldn't have occurred halfway down keeping the overall stability. You know that already though.

I don't think i'm somewhere more snowy than the West Country, i'm in East Anglia. A lot of my work over the years has involved driving in all conditions, sometimes only commuting, other times reacting to breakdowns in the middle of a blizzard.

It's been done in a huge variety of vehicles and what i've found out of all of it is that a RWD auto is better in snow/ice than anything FWD - last 4WD drive i had (Jeep Cherokee) i never had the opportunity to test it out in snow/ice properly.
The only ice i really encountered with it was only a small amount, back end twitched a little then the Trac-Lok (aka Dana 1041) diff bit and brought it back in a straight line.

I'm by no means an expert on driving in snow/ice but done my fair share (and maybe more) of driving in it and i know where i'd put my faith - RWD auto every time!

[MiniNinjaRob]

Originally Posted by Morton

Laird Scooby, I'm interested to read you prefer an auto box on slippy stuff and your reasoning makes sense. I've always favoured manual after sliding down the hill past our driveway in our old Auto Pajeiro following a downshift further up the hill to control the speed that caused everything to lock up. We once lived where it occasionally snowed and a couple of friends who each had auto V70 D5s couldn't go out but it was no problem for our manual one. Maybe it was their level of skill behind the wheel?! I'm guessing by your username that you're somewhere snowier than Devon so have done much more driving in slippy stuff than I have which is reassuring because my search for a good 7 or 9 doesn't need to be made trickier by eliminating autos.

Thinking about it, I'm sure if Volvo Autos couldn't cope in the white, they wouldn't sell many!

The main thing is tyres. You can have all the fancy gearboxes, 4WD, AWD, traction/stability control but if you're running summer/eco tyres on your car in snow they'll never grip.

I've got Michelin CrossClimates on my auto 940 (which is being sold soon) and I struggled to get any wheelspin in 3 inches of slush - and I was intentionally trying to get wheelspin!

If you do get a 940 I've got a Thule roofrack and rooftray which will be available to increase the capacity of the car even further! I'll be selling it when I sell the car as I won't need it any more.

[tofufi]

If you're going to be driving somewhere cold, I'd not recommend a diesel 7/940.

I did 10 miles in mine last night, around 2 degrees outside, and the engine never got fully up to temperature because I just wasn't working it hard enough (max 40-50mph).

The heating and A/C systems in them generally are very good, but in my experience the diesels like to be working hard (higher speed or heavily loaded) to get up to temperature when it's very cold out. Mine has had the cooling system flushed, new thermostat, and still behaves the same. A couple of years ago I drove 10 miles at no more than 60mph (due to traffic) on my way through Essex and when I pulled up I was still able to touch the turbo body and downpipe from the turbo...

Diesel engines just run very cool as they are generally more efficient than petrol engines.

Luckily I only really use mine for motorway runs so it gets up to temp and stays there.

[kelvinp]

Originally Posted by Laird Scooby

A thorough back-flush, new 'stat and coolant on both would yield improvements all round i reckon!

I do that with every coolant change (every 2 years) on both of mine and the heater on my "modern" always outperforms the heater on my Volvo. Not by much admittedly but both are exceptionally good heaters.
As for cooling, the A/C on my modern is very good but i don't use it as often as i'd like because of a noisy clutch bearing on the compressor clutch. I have a new bearing to go on but it's a long and fiddly job to renew it.

The A/C in the Volvo is currently not working, something to do with the fact the previous owner had the evaporator removed!
Hoping to get it re-gaassed this year now i've reinstated an evaporator so fingers crossed, the cooling will function as intended again.

I think they are pretty toasty heaters, had to change the thermostat on my 740 last year as I noticed on fast runs the temperature gauge used to start dropping. On removal I found that it was stuck partially open. New one in and it is much better, especially in the colder weather recently.

[Ian21401]

I have 2.0L. 940 estate, Non turbo. Satisfied in general but disappointed when towing the caravan so bigger engine would be best. Heater is good, best I’ve ever had but AC would help. Good load lugger with plenty of space and good turning circle. Give me petrol and rear wheel drive any time.