Volvo V70 - demo report: Motoring Motoring Discussion forum

Motoring Discussion > Volvo V70 - demo report	Buying / Selling
Thread Author: WillDeBeest	Replies: 43

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New Wed 15 Jun 11 16:30

Volvo V70 - demo report - WillDeBeest

Further to the thinking in my Succession planning thread the other day, I responded to a telephone invitation and spent an hour driving what I’ve been think of as our ideal family car, a Volvo V70. Here are a few impressions, some of which relate to my old Volvo S60 and our current family bus, a Toyota Verso. Bear In mind that I’m a long-torsoed 6’5”, so my first question on encountering a car is “Do I fit?”

Comfort and driving environment
It’s a big Volvo; it’s comfortable from the start. I set the seat well away from its highest, lowest or furthest-back position, and I had plenty of head, shoulder and foot room. Best of all, I could set the steering wheel comfortably close and low without obscuring the instrument panel.

The seats themselves are covered in soft black leather. I’m not a leather fan but I’d be happy with this stuff – neither shiny nor slippery, and a world away from the DFS stuff I’ve hated in other cars. They also have backrests tall enough to support my shoulders, which I appreciate in the S60 for the way it helps me stay relaxed on a long journey.

The basic control layout is familiar from my S60, with the same well-chosen textures and just the right amount of resistance. The one I drove had an integrated telephone system, which puts rather a lot of extra buttons in the central panel and makes the whole thing less immediately familiar than the S60’s layout; happily this is an option and not one I’ll be taking up.

On the road
I picked a mixed route based on familiar roads – fast dual carriageway, twisty A- and B-road and through two market towns. I also took it home and parked it on my drive to see how it would look. I have to say I was very impressed. This V70 has the new D3 engine – a short-stroke 2.0 litre version of the 2.4-litre five that I’m familiar with – and it’s very impressive: I honestly wouldn’t have guessed that this hefty car was propelled by a smaller engine. Even with an automatic gearbox, it climbs hills, accelerates out of sliproads, and pulls out to overtake plenty quick enough for me, and what noise it makes while doing so has that pleasing five-cylinder edge to it.

I didn’t have time for a prolonged cruise, but I don’t think I need worry; the car is well capable of high motorway speeds and makes very little fuss or noise about it. There’s no noticeable wind noise even at 75-ish, and the whole car feels very stable and secure – very Volvo-ish, in fact.

I’m not a fan of automatics but I reckon I could live with this one. It tends to change up too quickly, then have to change down to make further progress, so once out of town I knocked it sideways into manual mode and picked my own gears. No flappy paddles, and a counter-intuitive push-to-change-up movement of the lever, but it feels nice and works quickly and smoothly.

Over a bendy A-road with a very broken surface it was both quiet and composed, never uncomfortable as the Verso can be over the same route. The steering feels less meaty than my S60’s – but nor does it have the Verso’s annoying springiness – but I never had any trouble placing it where I wanted it.

I was expecting slightly better visibility from a car with such straight sides and so much glass but the rear head restraints rather spoil the view, especially for judging when to pull in after overtaking. No such problems when parking; the vertical rear window makes the tail very easy to position, and there’s a not-too-annoying beeper for confirmation.

One feature I’ve appreciated over the long solitary hours in the S60 is the superb HU-803 audio system, and I was looking forward to seeing how Volvo audio has progressed since 2002. I had no CDs with me, but Radio 3 obliged with Ashkenazy playing Beethoven’s ‘Emperor’ piano concerto. I have to say I was a little disappointed: the sound had a slightly muffled, boxed-in quality that stopped the music coming to life as I hoped it would – and this despite the much lower noise floor compared with the S60. Still much better than the Binatone tat in the Verso, of course.

Space
The main reason for choosing such a big car, but a disappointingly mixed result from the V70. No problem in the front seats, of course, and a big luggage deck at the back, but I’m not convinced the rear seat has the room we’ll need once our two boys become teenagers, as they will in the life of our next family car. I’ve ridden to and from airports in the rear of the closely-related S80; I’ve also set up the driver’s seat of a Mondeo hatch as I would want it, then got in behind and been quite comfortable, but person behind me in the V70 would have to make some compromises around the knees. Perhaps the lack of a clutch pedal was making me sit further back than I would in a manual, but there’s clearly more experimenting to do before we decide this is for us.

Conclusions
A lovely, civilized, grown-up car, and if I were a bit shorter, and my children really were fathered by the postman, it would go straight to the top of my list. As it is, we’ll have to see. It’s possible the S80 might be set up to favour rear-seat space over luggage, and we don’t absolutely have to have an estate. A Mondeo would certainly hold us all – but would it offer quite the same sense of being looked after as you (well, I) get in a Volvo? More fun with tape measures and live dummies awaits.