Looking at an 06 plated diesel. Last of the non dpf's. 2ltr psa engine. Anyone have any good or bad to say about it ?. Test drive booked for lunch Wednesday. Dont want a huge car, has a towbar and I have a tow bike rack. With the pup in the house, need to sell the mini and go Volvo estate.
Got the 177ps job fab estate goes like stink nothing to report at 60k makes me smile as the boy racers get blown away by an old fart in a Volvo estate 😀
I'm looking at a tuning box for it to give me a bit more. 
Basically a focus estate. Same chassis
Dull as ditchwater to drive
Had one for 2 months and nearly died of boredom
Not that fussed Easygirl, have a 300 bhp focus for the fun. This is the dog and bike wagon.
I changed it to a chipped focus st
🙂
That was a lot more fun
I really didn't get on witht he Volvo
I had an 09 d5 r-design, so cant really comment on engine etc, however the car was decent looking and mechanically perfect for the full lease term. Size wise this is definitely a sportswagon rather than an estate in all respects so pretty much perfect for what you want. Think they also come with a secondary cargo / dog net too, if not they are pretty cheap on the bay!.
7.8/10
Kev
I had one as a company car, 58 plate, 140 bhp, 2 litre diesel. In 120k miles it did in 3 years, the only thing that broke on it was the air con condenser. They are located next to the radiator and pick up stone chips easily. It caused mine to break but its a common fault.
Apart from that, mine was faultless and never skipped a beat. I really loved it for everything I needed it for. The dog liked it in the boot too!
Changed mine a year and a half ago for an xc60, which is a brilliant car, but I'd have no problems buying a v50 if I was buying my own car rather than a company one
Got an 11 plate 1.6 Driv[i]e[/i]. Really like it. Comfortable, nice to drive, economic. Ticks all the boxes.
I had one for 6 years and did 144k in it - my brother's got it now and it's still going strong. Built like a tank, and although it is a focus platform it's build quality is another level up. I only ever replaced tyres, discs/pads, 1 wheel bearing and a fuel filter housing in that time, so it was probably the cheapest car I've had to run.
Not as dull a drive as some would say, the steering was pretty inert but it went round a corner well once you learnt to trust that steering.
Was a cracking car for sitting in for several hours, really comfy, easy to drive over long distances reasonably economical, but the bikes outside was the way to go - certainly not an estate.
My old man has an '09 plate that drives like a Focus of the same era- a bit meh, not very good, but it's a nice place to be in, is pretty quick and the seats and dash make it a good place to sit for a few hours at a time.
It did have some issues with a diesel filter and had to be towed twice before it reached 6 months old but since then it's been OK, although his previous V70 was very unreliable.
Dull as ditchwater to drive
Had one for 2 months and nearly died of boredom
I only test drove one but I clearly remember the drive, the excited salesman saying 'great isn't it'? and me replying 'it was too dull'. He went quiet and didn't say a word after that 😆
Why not go one up to a V70? (I've not driven one so can't validate why I've said this/but I'd be interested for me too).
Driving a V70 is like piloting a flying brontosaurus [/clarkson].
It's almost as good as a Ford Focus for a bit more money.
My wife has an 08 r design 2.0d 138 ish bhp.
Drives ok, not a sporty car and goes well, it is comfortable with excellent seats. We use it to transport our twins about, interior space is good considering its not a massive car.
Reliability has been excellent over the last 3 years. Good car for the money.
Cool, thanks for everyones input. Got a test drive at lunchtime today in it. Ran out of time yesterday. The only downside is the miserable px for our Mini Cooper S JCW , so trying to sell it privately at the moment.
Nice comfortable cars, reliable, until something goes wrong then you get a horrendous bill.
Some silly designs that add nothing but dust tray and relatively unusable space. and the boot space is disappointing at best.
The only up side over buying a much cheaper focus was it looks better.
Test drove several ranging from the 1.6 Diesel to the 2.5 t5 petrol. and guess what except for The T5 the were boring,we now have the t5 sat on our drive.
we had a 55 plate se sport 2.0D. I liked it, nice to drive, but 10mpg less fuel efficient than thr brochure states & pretty slow, expecially compared with contemporary 1.9TD vw's. It had a few electtrical glitches too.
Boot it quite square & not too good for getting an xl 5 spot into without putting all seats down.
Tell us what you think ...
FWIW I think it's a bit small, I looked briefly at one, liked the V60 better but that was too pricey. At V50 size I'd just go for a hatchback.
I will report back. We dont 'need' a big estate like the V70. I have enough fuel costs with the Focus St at 25 mpg. The wife needs to park it everyday going to work as well. If I need something bigger, i'll nick a transit from work.The pup is a border terrier, so no need for a big boot, just ideal for taking her up the road to Greenham Common for walks and chucking her back in afterwards. Happy days a coming , one more week until she can go out !!
Well, it seemed reasonable enough on the drive. Did everything I was expecting. Need to go through the car and see what does what with the controls etc, but have agreed a price with the dealer including a slightly better px on the mini. So collect it on Saturday. They are going to repair a windscreen chip, replace the discs and pads on the front and service it.
So dog walk on Saturday and mtb carrying duties on Sunday !!
Then onto getting it remapped......
Get used to it unmapped first. That different power output for the diesel is brilliant for around town. I wasn't used to it and went through the first pair of front tyres in under 7k miles!
I had one for 8 years - only sold it because I've moved overseas. Great car, most comfortable I've owned, drives very well if you want it to and handles better than most of that size and shape. Work out what are the best tyres for you - the Contis they came with as stock were not so good against the newer tyres - and none of them are cheap. Find an indie Volvo specialist as well for cheaper servicing. Oh - they respond well to good diesel. I was getting anything from 43 to 59.9 mpg with mine.
My mate has his own reputable garage to service it, but wont have to do that for a while. is it fixed or variable servicing on them? It has a set of reasonable Pirelli's all round on it.
Its a chugger, so if I want speed, i'll take the ST out the quiver for a blast, although a remap will give more punch and better mpg.
Try and find one from Arnold Clark, whilst they are the most retched salesmen and company to deal with, simply go in, tell what they will!! pay for the mini, and then how little you will pay for the V50......they then bring out the sales manager in his dirty burton suit, some forms to sign and you then drive off quite satisfied.
This seriously happened to me last year with the wifes car.
Kev