I would be interested to hear of people's personal experience.
Looking to mobve from a 5 series estate to one and I would be interesting to know what to look for, and any positive / negative feedback on them. Thanks.
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All I know is they're pretty small in the boot department. They look like they might be big, but with the inward sloping sides and rear window angle, it's a bit ike a pyramid.
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Son has one - traded in 5 series of 4 years old - for many weeks last year it sat in the garage - he could not get out in the car for snow with the RWD problems.
The XC60 has been reliable, no issues, new tyres at 20K, not tested in snow as there has been very little. Not the biggest estate car but copes with the new baby better than the 5 series saloon. Not cheap at £35K list for his specification.
XC 60 has been upgraded fairly recently so some big discounts in the old spec were going around late last year.
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Well-specced XC60s do seem to become pricey - might be verging on XC90 territory, especially with any discounts on the older XC90?
Does the new BMW X3 compete on price at all?
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Took the family yesterday to try a V70 for size, since it was a while since we'd all been in one and this looks like being the year we decide on a new family bus. Since there was an XC60 next to it in the the showroom, we had a good clamber over that as well.
A few unsorted thoughts:
- The boot, seats up, looks to be comparable in capacity to the V70, but it's a long way off the ground.
- The seating and driving positions are very nice - proper Volvo seats at a good height off the floor.
- There is marginally more space in the back seat than in the V70, by which I mean I would be a little more comfortable behind my own driving seat, although I still wouldn't want to be there for long.
- It has the same auto-first design and electric handbrake button as the V70. There will be more on this, since Mrs Beest is appalled at the idea of either.
- It also seems hugely expensive for a medium sized car. I didn't checl to see what version this was but the one we sat in was priced at £30,000 and I'm not sure where all that comes from.
Still, if it turned out to the be only Volvo that accommodated us, I think I'd be happy to have one. Dealer has a manual demo car and wants us to try that to be convinced by the brake button.
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I'm 100 % with Mrs de B on the subject of handbrakes - clearly a lady of good taste!
Having tried both, do you think either of those Volvos are worth the extra (about £10,000) over the Superb estate? (I'm not saying they aren't, as I haven't tried the Volvos - but I would need convincing.)
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Hard to say, Avant. (I was down your way again today, incidentally, in the excellent sports hall of the Blue Coat School, being coached in the art of coaching.)
In any case, I can't see us buying either kind of Volvo new, given that we'll be trading in my 52 S60 and can probably top that up with cash to the upper teens. There are lots of recent - presumably ex-hire - D3 V70s in that bracket, though, so unless there are stunning discounts to be had, I think that's where we'll be looking. I'm thinking that a Superb would have to be an Elegance, because the S is spartan and the SE is upholstered in Alcantara, which is horrible stuff, and that puts its pricing pretty close to V70 levels - certainly not £10,000 less.
I chatted to the Volvo salesman about the Superb, because I remain amazed that something so close to the same length as the V70, with much the same engine and transmission options (including 4WD) can have so much more room for people and be a better luggage carrier as a four-seater. He seemed to know very little about it, which is odd, because I can see a lot of practicality-first types like me seeing the Superb as a strong competitor to the V70.
The ultimate seating capacity isn't critical to us this time round - we could keep this next a five or six years before the boys outgrow the back seat of a V70. And part of me isn't ready to go back to four cylinders yet.
Last edited by: WillDeBeest on Sun 29 Jan 12 at 21:27
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>> He seemed to know very little about it,
When I've gone into car dealerships (most of them) over the last say 13 years they have known little about their own cars. Don't expect them to know about other marques too :-)
I've gone in to look at cars and then someone asks if they can help. You have a few questions which you can probably get answers to yourself but ask anyone. They often do not have a clue. Admittedly by the time I might have gone in I've read a brochure and maybe reviews... but knowledge in car sales in poor.
And this is probably why I'd be a poor car salesman. I'd want to know requirements and then map them onto a solution (the car). I'd be the same in the tech department of JLP.... although I'd quite like that.
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A proven sales technique is to take the high ground and not even talk about your perceived competitors, let alone criticise them and invite counter-criticism.
I reckon Volvo also probably rely on the shaky notion that many would-be Volvo buyers are not even considering anything so humble as a Skoda. We petrolheads know that's a very outdated view, but do thousands of antique-dealing, safety conscious middle England traditional Volvo purchasers?!
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>> ... but knowledge in car sales in
>> poor.
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I worked with a sales guy in another field who would shrug when asked questions - but in fact knew a lot about the product. He just didn't want to waste time chewing the fat with potential customers.
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Volvo XC60 - Anyone got any experience of the XC60? - Dave
