v70r

[thejimrose]

i have considered one off and on for a while now. always loved the look of
the car, and the performance / usability. BUT it's got a few major achilles
heelsessess. spend a few minutes trolling the volvo forums and you'll see
the cars are not known for reliability, there are a lot of failure prone
parts. the biggie is the 'angle gear' which is a volvo bit that sends drive
to the haldex. the haldex controllers can also fail. haldex has inherent
issues in that the car is essentialy fwd until slip is detected then it
switches on - far less ideal than a torsen full time - fwiw. the angle gear
is major surgery and seems to be a few k bucks to fix. the suspension is
electrically controlled w/ 3 damper settings [cool] and designed by ohlins
and built by monroe [weird] and worked great in the one i drove. BUT it's
also failure prone, very expensive, and there's no way to convert to
standard springs / shocks [doesnt seem plausible but thats what ipd told
me]. the car also has the WORST turning radius of any car ive ever driven.
it feel like front tires have about 30* of angle to them lock to lock. it's
like a 18' long go kart. 6 point turns much?

i drove a totally stock, well maintained 06 or so, had about 50k and the
guy wanted like 17k dollars - about 1 year ago. it's a nice car gong down
the road, has a solid road feel, reminded me of a urs4 in how it felt.
which is funny that it kind of felt 'old' even though it was newish. made
some calls to indy volvo guys, talked to a dealer tech, and IPD and i
decided to walk away. the car just didnt work well enough to justify the
downsides.

all that said it's really good looking, fast, handled well, is awd, and the
cargo space is like a small condo. interior is nicely done, if busy and a
little goofy. seats were ok.. in general the quality of the interior was a
few notches down from audi which IMO is the gold standard. the blue dials
in the gauge cluster is gorgeous.

alternatively i fantasize about a 6 speed allroad converted to coilovers
and painted 1 color. exhaust and ecu and you've got an awd highway stormer.
but the c5 chassis and 2.7t both have a loooooong list of failure prone
bits. 4.2 is way simpler but a gas pig and the chain drive issues are
terrifying [$5k timing chain job]. which brings me back to the v70.. =)


> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> From: Greg Johnson <gregsj2 at gmail.com>
> To: quattro at audifans.com
> Cc:
> Date: Sun, 22 Jan 2012 08:52:34 -0800
> Subject: Volvo V70 R (NAC)
> I've been contemplating a 2005 - 2007, Volvo V70 R Wagon as a more modern
> interpretation of the 5-cylinder turbo quattro Avant.  Any experiences? Any
> input?  Any issues?
>
> Thanks in advance for your collective wisdom.
>
> Greg J
>
>