Volvo estate appreciation

I like the Volvo Amazon and always wanted to a Restomod… Someone beat me to it and did a much better job than I would ever do!

Apparently the Guy who owns it rides bikes too!

Bumpage.

Looking at a V70 to replace the EP4 Civic.

Quite like the 52mpg to work and back, and the 60+ to BPW from the North East for the Civic, and I know the V70 won’t achieve that, but what’s people’s realistic MPG for the manual and the auto boxes?

I have had 2 old 2004 V70 D5 estates , both manual.
1st one was chipped and regually did 55mpg, up to 57mpg in the summer. That is brim -brim, not the OBC as they are always very optimistic.
Current one does 50 – 52mpg, but this does involve being sensible with the right foot , reading the traffic flow, rolling 200mtrs to red traffic lights etc.
They are huge , well built, reliable , safe , comfy
Personally I would avoid geartronics, do not be afraid of mega milages . Mines on 192, last one sold on at 212k. Change cambelt and aux tensioners as they are the main common fault ( 90k / 5yr interval) .
Clutch and dual mass will set you back £900-ish fitted just so you know
Can be tuned to 200bhp easily , but tend to need a better intercooler as they blow , but Ford RS ones fall into the same hole

I have a D5 V70 auto and get 42 – 44 mpg on a run, high 30’s/low 40’s mixed.

I’m on my third xc70…traded in my 2011 for a 2014 with 100,000 less on the clock. The onboard computer on the old (manual) said 41-42mpg, and on the new (auto) it claims 40.3mpg. The vast majority of my driving is motorway cruising. Both are the D5 215bhp model

That Restomod Amazon is just gorgeous.

realistic MPG for the manual

2013 D3 5-pot manual.
Long run on A-road or Motorway with a few of us – 47-49 calculated (50 on the dash).
Around town late 30’s to early 40’s.
2 Bikes on roof, 3 on towbar, 5 people and a weekends kit rind trip of 500 miles was 37mpg this weekend.

Going to look at a 1-owner, 150k miler 2007 D5 (182BHP) tomorrow. This one has no impact on insurance, yet a 163BHP auto was £170 more, and a 163 BHP manual £110 more.

Mental.

Well. The car itself was lovely enough, but there was a hiss in acceleration, almost like a split boost hose. Could hear it more inside the car, rather than outside. So it was a “no” from me. Figure there’s plenty more out there.

So I put new discs and pads on the back of the Civic. Better the devil you know. For a bit longer.

Split intercooler most likely .
Should pull really strongly from 1700rpm all the way through the rev range
The engine mounts are ‘active’ and controlled by the ecu and they can bleed air as well from the feed lines
Intake growl should be the only cabin noise once up and running

We keep our cars a good while, so it was only two cars ago we had the mighty Wentworth, a lot like this one:

Another “not an estate but…”. Going back to the late eighties, a bloke in our scuba diving group had one of these, but for reasons unknown it always seemed even more high maintenance than his wife. Great ride though.

Great ride though

We still talking about the car?

Loved my old Wentworth. Silver, boot that spanned multiple time zones and a proper mile muncher.

I now own this. 2005 with the facelift interior but the 163BHP Euro3 engine – no swirl flaps or DPF.
Black leather, too. Which is nice.

Just need to fettle the handbrake.

Check th yoke underneath the center console. One cable can become disconnected jut behind the handbrake
Short throw normally , just 2 or 3 clicks but I think this may lead to some cables rusting as the cable movemen is so short

For the handbrake you may need to get aftermarket barrel adjusters off eBay, they slot in to the rear shoe handbrake mechanism and allow you to adjust tension.

The handbrake mechanism isn’t particularly brilliant at the best of times.
I replaced the cables on mine a few years ago, also only use genuine shoes and get a spring kit if you are replacing the shoes

I spent the morning chasing DofE groups with another volunteer – a traffic copper. He was appreciating our wagon – he’s used T5 850’s through to V70 MK3’s.
Apparently the new 5 Series are just not as liked, cost a fortune in BMW parts and the Volvo is so much more comfy (although the BMW goes round corners better).
He was all but trading in his Audi A5 for a Volvo by the end of the short ride back to the start…

Just had a sit in my Dads new S90 T4 (dash showed average of 31mpg but I’ve no idea how he’s been driving it), it was really lovely, I’d love a V90, there have been some good PCP deals on them, but still too much for me 🙁

Just in the process of getting rid of our xc90. It’s a bit old and time for a change, but I’ll miss it. Would like another Volvo but can’t afford what we want.

We still Have a V50 though. 2.0d and got nearly 70mpg (75mpg indicated) on a recent 250 mile trip up north from London. Whole trip 520 miles and indicated 68mpg. Nice. It’s the ‘wrong’ engine (not D5) but it’s not bad.

Do the front seats fold forward on the V50 so the headrest sits on , or below, the dash ?
Tempted by 60+mpg but windsurf boards need to fit inside .

Yes, there is a little lever that drops the front passenger seat. If you move it back before dropping it fits under the front glove box bit. It’s not as good as a V70 or the xc90 in many respects – Belgian build, not sweden – rear headrests have to be taken out to fold seats flat ( takes 5 seconds) – but overall qaulity is good.

As for 70mpg, I was really trying for it, proper hyper-miling to see what it could achieve, slip-streaming coaches and such stuff. The journey back was more realiatic with jams and more haste. Still, mid sixties mpg not bad. I get around 38mpg around town.

Ps. It’s a 2007, phase 1, euro 3 so no dpf. Might be relevant.

Volvo Amazon’s were great rally cars and have had cult following in Scandinavia for years. I always liked the roof chops for the ultimate slammed look. And no they are not practical…

It may be my age, but I’m very excited to be joining this thread tomorrow. 🙂

Must learn how to post pics….

Ours (the V70 in the beginning of this thread) sailed through its MOT yesterday at 15year old and 180k miles, the only advisory being a CV boot that I knew about. Awesome car.

So – I now have a V50 estate, 2.4 petrol, first-ever auto, and by some margin the comfiest barge I’ve munched miles in. However, it has twice failed to start, enough juice in the battery to make the solenoid click but not enough to turn the motor over, starts fine from a jump. Auto electrician dude says the battery is poor and the alternator is gently draining it overnight when it’s turned off, so we’re unhooking the battery in the interim. Does that sound like a solid diagnosis? Had no idea a duff alternator could drain the battery when not running – anyone had an alternator fixed or replaced and remember the cost?

Only on a Yaris (only fault ever on 140k/12 year old car…) so not really comparable.

The alternator should be changed every two times (IIRC)the auxiliary belt is changed (V70 non turbo) I didn’t know this and the one way alternator pulley seized and threw the aux belt one day resulting in a new alternator anyway.
I got a Bosch reconditioned one from ECP

**** these V70 handbrakes!
Cleaned up, new shoes, new cables – will it bollocks hold. New spring kit and P1 style adjusters on order.

Seriously tempted to convert the rear calipers to ones with the handbrake built in.

I took an 03 xc70 for a test drive yesterday. It was absolutely buggered. I’ve got a V40 estate at the mo. Not getting on with it. So I’m still looking for an old xc70 that isn’t a moving turd 🙄

The V70 handbrake is crap even with new cables and springs but ours passes it’s MOT even when it feels crap to me (my Mot guy is strict)
You do need to fit genuine Volvo shoes due to the possibility of non genuine friction material coming detached from the backing and taking out the hub backplate assembly apparently.

The alternator should be changed every two times (IIRC)the auxiliary belt is changed (V70 non turbo) 

Interesting, thank you – lots of fun tbis morning between diligently locked the car before disconnecting the battery and discovering the emergency key…. She started for about two seconds then keeled over and needed a jump, drove mebbe 30 minutes and parked her all day, she started fine this evening. Now on charge overnight courtesy of our fantastic Air BnB hosts – such a shame as she’s awesome other than not starting when left overnight.

I had a 62 plate 136hp auto V70 from new. Genuine 50+mpg and a great M-way machine. But it needed a new gearbox after 2 yrs (under warranty) and the seats gave me serious back ache ,so it had to go. No room for rear passengers, and not the biggest of boots.

Handbrake update.

Adjustable H-bars FTW.

20 mins to fit both sides and adjust, and job jobbed.

With the usual perfect timing, my venerable V70 D5 recently went to the great auction house in the sky (well in point of fact, it was traded in). It was a 13 plater with 80k on it dripping in kit and with the optional autobox fault… Possible valve body (£1k) or valve body plus rebuild (up to £3k!) so it needed rehoming. A sad day…

Step forward the mighty V90, hurrah!

I managed to find a pre reg Inscription D5 AWD jobbie with the princely sum of 35 miles on the clock – immediately before the lock down so not many miles are being put on it ATM.

Too early to tell how it compares to a ‘proper’ Volvo but it is a nice place to sit… which is just as well as as it’s not going anywhere…

Yeah, but it’s not an estate… 😉

In true panto stylee: ‘oh yes it is…’ though not mine:

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Oops, it looked like my sister in law’s XC90…

Are they bigger than V70? They look chuffing huge.

About the same on plan but not as many m³ due to the dropped roofline and slant tailgate. Main qualy for me is getting the tandem in which it still does – though not ATM obv….