V70 or V50?

[judgeman]

After spending the whole day Tuesday T-cutting (Autoglym paint restorer actually, much better gunk...) my MY96 850 T5, no longer a pink roof, the whole car shines like new! (4 coats of Mer/Turtlewax, that should help???!!!) - I am now on the look out for buying a new car.

Although I love the 850 - CD spec so fully loaded with all the gadgets and gizmo's available at the time (and some still not found on many std cars today...), I think that it may be time to bite the bullet and buy new.

I am not one for getting into debt - so I may be lucky and get this as a company car/subsidised self-purchase.

Two questions -

1. Do I self-buy and take the allowance from work, or have my company buy the car and I get clobbered on tax?

2. Do I go for V70 or V50? I initially wanted an XC90, but too expensive new, and I'm told by local Indy that expensive to run (tyres etc dear). So I was going to go for V70.... and then I looked at the spec on the V50 from the Volvo website. I thought the V50 was much smaller - but comparing the spec it's not that much different to the V70. Certainly looks like it will do what we want it to. Our first (I hope ONLY...) offspring is due in January, so additional kit to carry there. And the caravan is max weight 1348kg, so V50 would easilly handle this. I prefer the look of the V50 in some respects. Also it seems the V50 is cheaper pro rata than the V70. I.E. I can get more toys for my money!

What do you guys think? I'm very keen on performance - without going to the extent of my own mods that is. The T5 I have now is still a cracking fast car, a match for most cars on the road today, even if it is 10 years old! So I'm looking at T5 or D5. V50 seems to have Geartronic as standard if you go for the D5? And what are these Bi-xenon headlights that seem an expensive option?

Help please! I've gone through a 340 1.4l, 440 1.8l, 440 2.0l, 854 T5 S, 240 GLT, and now 855 T5 CD. What will my next one be? I'm gonna use a lifeline here, I'd like to ask the audience.......

Chris.

[bircham]

The only thing I would say about the difference between the V70 and the V50 is that the 70 is going to be replaced in about 18 months (?). The next one, presumably based on the new S80 will be a cracker! The present one has been out for several years now and I think that despite the superb quality if the interior in terms of comfort and ergonomic design that the car is staring to look a little dated. My wife bought a new V50 SE diesel and it feels fresh and modern and is great to drive - sporty and sharp - very different to the more executive feel of the 70.
When looking to replace my 2.5 year old A6 avant (the old model) I looked at the XC70 initially but despite fact that I loved it I felt that with a replacement coming the financial hit would be too much when I came to trade it in so I have ordered a new XC90 - despite never imagining spending that much on a car.

Overall look at both cars and take a good long, uaccompanied test drive in both to really see whether you could get on with the definitely smaller 50 as opposed to the larger 70. If you do decide to go for a 70 make sure you get a HUGE discount to offset the fall in residual that is sure to come. Either that or go for one of the top spec ex-volvo cars, maybe a SE lux with 4C?

Hope this helps,

Jon

[bircham]

Oh yes, forgot to say that we have just had a baby (3 weeks old now) and the 50 fits the car seat fine (a silver cross ventura) and the buggy fits in the boot no problem. However, I always know that we have a larger car for more stuff - the boot in the 50 is slightly small for everything that a family might need.
As for towing the larger the car the better - have you tought about an XC70 for this? - slightly higher for getting child seats into and 4wd to help get that caravan across wet fields etc - only downside being the poorer fuel consupmtion.

Jon