Car appreciation... the aesthetics, the engineering, etc

YES ! i love V70 Rssss

Ah brilliant car logic of that is what I want. My advice is take someone with you that is clued up, as rose tinted glasses can be expensive when you find a car you want.

good choice dude. look forward to update after you have checked the one out at the weekend.

I keep looking at Volvo estates. But slightly older ones. And I have to wait for the BMW to die first. Which it shows no signs of doing.

Lovely cars.

Watch out for the Geartronic autos; the 5-speed AW box cars are torque-limited in 1st and 2nd, consequently feel very sluggish off the line. Massive mid-range punch though. The box is prone to failure as it’s specced as ‘sealed for life’, with the fluid degrading and gumming up the solenoids. £1.5K to repair.

The 6-speed auto box is much better and not/less torque limited, but still suffers from failure due to prescribed lack of maintenance.

If you’re looking at a V70R, get a manual.

The AWD gubbins, aforementioned cylinder liners and 4C active suspension are all prone to disintegrating as well, and cost fucktons to fix properly.

A T5 or 2.5T with a mild tune will give you 90% of the usable performance for a fraction of the purchase and maintenance cost.

Looked at a load in uk a few year back. Only one I would have personally bought was from a local scrappy. Mechanic there had made a greatest hits car out of every nice one he every saw go through his yard. Replaced engine due to split liners, was one of first people to get a liner brace and bottom end girdle made up, moderate tune and then put new 4c dampers on it. Was dark met blue with the bright orange interior. Should have bought it lol.

Normally would say uk over Japanese import. But with these things, get the absolute best and lowest milage one you can. And then still budget for a moderate engine rebuild in time. They don't rust, they don't habe many gremlins apart from Cem/clock springs going bad, abs system just being an older car (rings go as does various bits of wiring), dash display are apl broken by now. Radio most of them are dead by now. Just replace with a double din alpine android nav job.
The mk1 850 and v70 are starting to actively outlive the mk2 which is crazy lol.

They are fun though, just got to live with 22 to 28 mpg on the real world.