Deutsch

I said I would get around to posting this review several days ago, but with a ton of school work, work, and life in general, I just haven't gotten around to it. On top of that my camera's batteries died after taking one pic of the electroflourecent gauges. Afterwards I went to bed without charging the batteries, got up and rushed-charged the batteries, hoping they'd provide enough juice for a few photos. It didn't work, it seems as if the batteries have a preset number of hours they need to charge before they can go back into the camera and allow the camera to remain operable for a certain amount of time. So I did get a pic in of the eletroflourecent gauges, but not much else. I'll go back to the dealer and take some more pics (this weekend perhaps?).

Last week I had to take my car in for repairs that had to be made to function the one touch feature on my passenger side window, as well as an inoperable sunroof and visor that wouldn't budge. It seems that once you get into a certain type of car that you shouldn't expect major things to go wrong, but stupid things go wrong, and boy is it annoying. So the service manager was kind enough to provide me with a loander car for the duration of my cars stay in service until the time it was ready to be picked up. I imagined I'd get an S40 of some sort, or maybe even perhaps some used car. While waiting to get the loaner car, I was somewhat anticipating what car I'd be getting but at the same time not expecting anything to great. The service manager looks at me and points towards a white on blue cladding XC70 and says, "and that would be for you, it's brand new, enjoy!". Now an XC70 is by no means a Lamborghini Gallardo, or a BMW M6. But for just having bought in a five year old car for servincing, it was nice to be behind the wheel of a brand new car. Looking at it I was pretty stoked; big wheel arches, jacked up ride height, aggresive front and rear facias, and a nicely styled roof rack. On some level I have always found the XC70 to be a highly attractive vehicle, it's aggressive but not overbearing, has just enough style as to not be so femnine as it is masculine and even somewhat sporting. It looks as if it would be great for a little dirt road driving cross country (which is also another name for the XC70). I even say that this car would look sexy with a little mud splattered on it, would give me assurance that I'm putting the car to good use. The out-doorsy styling doesn't end with the exterior, on the inside there's a unique cross stitching on the seats and door trim panels, and even an sunglass holder on the drivers side in place of a hand assist that adds to a sensation of rugedness. I was incredibly suprised how secure I felt in my masculinity even just sitting in the car, not for one second did I think I was sitting in a "mommy' ride. Even cooler are the electroflourecent, metal faced gauges that light up at night in a rather spectacular way, it's almost as if the gauges are illuminated by stars and not so much lights hiding out on the otherside of the inner panel. I'd even go as far to say that it'd be worth it just to spend the night in the car just to stare at the gauges and fall asleep, which would probably be a bad idea, because that means the keys would be in the II position with the battery on all night long.

Driving the XC70, you'd think it would handle like a big boat, not really so. Volvo has fitted a speed sensitive rack that does a great job of making tight parking spaces, a cinch. Not to mention it makes corners a small joy. The XC70 isn't so sporty as it is comftarble and easily managable, you get the feel ing that Volvo truly does care about how the driver and passengers feel while driving/riding in their cars. All controls are intuitively placed, made with the finest materials (a revelation compared to what they used for my car - pathetic). The 2.5 liter five cylinder feels it's finest with the increased torque rating over the old 2.4 liter turbo, torque (all 236 lb ft of it) comes smoothly and quickly when passing slower traffic on the way to and fro traveling by highway, never once did the car feel short on power. The suspension (as in the greatest of Volvo tradition) is sprung softly but effectively. Going over pot holes and broken city streets, the car didn't bounce around, but maintained a solid composure all the while. This is the ideal car for a days worth of driving in any direction, especially considering you'll never get lost with the digital compass in the rear view mirror.

At one point over the 48 hr period, I took the car on a drive up PCH to Zuma beach (where along the way I spotted an E70 X5, and earlier on further inland an E92 M3) and parked it along the side of the street along the sandy border of the beach. Looking back as i walked towards the ocean, sand vaguely covering the tires of the XC70, I saw in that moment the true beauty of not only the XC70 (but also especially the XC70) but Volvo's in general. These cars are built for adding to life and experinecing the best of it, not to complicate it. From smooth torquey turbo charged engines, to the quirky pen holders, and fatigue-free othepedically designed seats, these cars provide the best value and compromise for their occupants with the greatest of build intregrity and safety features. One of the the best moments of my life was watching the golden sunset over the pacific sitting on the inside of the rear with the tailgate up over head. Volvo for life.



Other notes:

The particular vehicle I drove was stickered at $43,025. Hardly cheap, but not all that bad either. Would I pay this price? No, probably not, because this particular car had some features I probably wouldn't opt. for on my own such as the climate package ($675), and some features in the Permium package I wasn't so fond of either, that came in as the most costly opition at $2,995. Other than that, it's totally worth it. Would I buy one? A slightly more involving copy... yes. Hopefully the next generation car due out next year will yeild more driver oriented suspension and chassis tuninig. Would make for a nice college graduation present.. sure. All is not lost for Volvo snd I afterall.

Curb Zone

 

zetableh

I'm actually looking into one of these for my Aunt. She's got a TrailBlazer EXT and wants to keep the size and AWD, but the gas is killing her. I thought one of the XC70s would be perfect for her, new OR used (probably because of price)

Deutsch

I averaged about 16.3 mpg. That's with a lot of mixied driving. When I got the car it had 12 miles on it, when I was done that number was 145. The Haldex AWD system works fabulously, soon as you touch the gas pedal all four wheel light up with acceleration, but when braking all the power immedeately gets transfered to the front wheels. This helps out a bit with fuel ecoonomy as well.

Giannis

nice review. I am trying to pursuade my dad on getting one, or an Allroad Quattro.

Centurion

during the summer I had the chance to wheel around in my friend's father's V70 06. It is quite a nice decent car but Volvo's biggest problem is steering. Volvo improves the handling on their cars but have somehow refused to improve the steering feel.

Deutsch

Can anyone tell me how to upload quicktime movies onto this site? I thought I put my cam on pic mode but I ended up recording the interior.

Curb Zone