Volvo V50 wagon

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Handsomedan

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#173749 4-Jun-2015 13:24

Hi all.

I'm in the market for a new car and am looking at a Volvo V50 wagon.

Not that interested in hearing that I shouldn't buy Euro etc, as I have had plenty of Euro cars in the past...

What I'd like to know is:

Have you (or someone close) owned one?
What are your general thoughts?
Pitfalls of ownership?
Pluses, minuses, etc

What appeals is that you appear to get a lot of car for your money (MY 2005-2009, generally around $10-15k for lowish m,ileage, leather etc).

Does anyone have experience of the T5 turbo, as opposed to the more common 2.4 5cyl?

Cheers

HD

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CitizenErased

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#1317422 4-Jun-2015 15:18

No personal experience, but other Volvo owners have commented that the dealer network in NZ is very small and parts cost a fortune. If you're happy to import parts yourself, perhaps not an issue.

mdooher

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#1317425 4-Jun-2015 15:24

I have driven them and found the 2.4 to be underpowered for the weight of the car.

It certainly feels safe, but much of that feel comes from the momentum of the body weight. The Turbo feels better to me, but you might not mind that sort of feel.

If you like the V50 take a BMW E91 wagon for a spin to get some sort of comparison. perhaps try a merc as well

pluses:
safe
better handling than a jap car

minuses
parts do cost a fortune
feels like a granddads car
the momentum takes some getting used to
underpowered

Matthew

Swanny

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#1317447 4-Jun-2015 16:29

We had a V70 as a 'company' car in Sweden. Must have been the 2.4 5 cylinder. It was probably an early 2000s model.

My mate used to joke 0 to 100kph in... safety. It was slow - lower gears just made more noise. It was comfortable and once up to speed .

Recently was shopping with a friend for a car (she drove the V70 for a while) and some of the used Volvo's looked nice and you certainly do appear to get a lot for your money. We were too euro-bills risk-averse and she ended up with a Corolla :)

MikeB4

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#1317448 4-Jun-2015 16:33

Volvo... Safe but expensive and wont win races except the V8 Super car version and the one that raced in the Wellington street race a few years back driven by Robbie Francevic.

scuwp

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#1317498 4-Jun-2015 18:59

Sister in law owned one. Was happy the day she brought it, and the day she sold it, in between, not so much. Expensive to run/repair, and spent a large % of it's life in the shop.

Lazy is such an ugly word, I prefer to call it selective participation

MikeB4

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#1317506 4-Jun-2015 19:22

scuwp: Sister in law owned one. Was happy the day she brought it, and the day she sold it, in between, not so much. Expensive to run/repair, and spent a large % of it's life in the shop.

That unfortunately the experience with a lot of the Euro boxes. They extract good power from small capacity engines, put good equipment levels in their vehicles they miss out putting in reliability.

Handsomedan

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#1317781 5-Jun-2015 10:29

MikeB4:
scuwp: Sister in law owned one. Was happy the day she brought it, and the day she sold it, in between, not so much. Expensive to run/repair, and spent a large % of it's life in the shop.

That unfortunately the experience with a lot of the Euro boxes. They extract good power from small capacity engines, put good equipment levels in their vehicles they miss out putting in reliability.

I've heard this re the VW 1.4TSi - good power from a small unit, great levels of comfort and refinement...until something goes wrong - which apparently is usually sooner, rather than later.

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Handsomedan

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#1317800 5-Jun-2015 10:33

Swanny: We had a V70 as a 'company' car in Sweden. Must have been the 2.4 5 cylinder. It was probably an early 2000s model.

My mate used to joke 0 to 100kph in... safety. It was slow - lower gears just made more noise. It was comfortable and once up to speed .

Recently was shopping with a friend for a car (she drove the V70 for a while) and some of the used Volvo's looked nice and you certainly do appear to get a lot for your money. We were too euro-bills risk-averse and she ended up with a Corolla :)

I've seen a couple of later model V70's for sale...nice looking, well-specced, one is NZ new (2009) and they are all (too) great value. One is a 6 cyl 3.2, which would have a bit more poke, but I'd imagine would be thirsty as it's a pretty heavy looking vehicle.

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MikeB4

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#1317803 5-Jun-2015 10:36

Handsomedan:
MikeB4:
scuwp: Sister in law owned one. Was happy the day she brought it, and the day she sold it, in between, not so much. Expensive to run/repair, and spent a large % of it's life in the shop.

That unfortunately the experience with a lot of the Euro boxes. They extract good power from small capacity engines, put good equipment levels in their vehicles they miss out putting in reliability.

I've heard this re the VW 1.4TSi - good power from a small unit, great levels of comfort and refinement...until something goes wrong - which apparently is usually sooner, rather than later.

you need to research the price of 'consumable' parts like brake pads etc on Europeans, they can be very expensive to buy and expensive to get someone to install. Many models require higher octane fuel so day to day
running costs can be high.

Handsomedan

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#1317808 5-Jun-2015 10:42

MikeB4:
Handsomedan:
MikeB4:
scuwp: Sister in law owned one. Was happy the day she brought it, and the day she sold it, in between, not so much. Expensive to run/repair, and spent a large % of it's life in the shop.

That unfortunately the experience with a lot of the Euro boxes. They extract good power from small capacity engines, put good equipment levels in their vehicles they miss out putting in reliability.

I've heard this re the VW 1.4TSi - good power from a small unit, great levels of comfort and refinement...until something goes wrong - which apparently is usually sooner, rather than later.

you need to research the price of 'consumable' parts like brake pads etc on Europeans, they can be very expensive to buy and expensive to get someone to install. Many models require higher octane fuel so day to day
running costs can be high.

Running costs on a day to day basis don't phase me much as my mileage is minimal.

I'm after comfort and quality, while not paying through the nose for things like servicing. I know of plenty of "inexpensive" Euro mechanics (as I have owned Audi's, VW's etc in the past), so don't really worry there, but the idea of paying too much for basic parts such as brakepads and spark plugs really irks me...so I tend to do the research on that side early on.

My understanding is that the V50 was JV with Ford and a lot of parts are interchangeable with the Focus of the same model year.

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porche20002

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#1319019 8-Jun-2015 05:22

We've got a 2001 model V40 2.0T Sport model if you want to compare.

Bought new from dealer. Still driving it but have yet to hit 100,000km! The best part about this car as a kid was the booster seats in the back. They loved em'. That and also about 8 airbags for a car from 2001!

In terms of parts, it does cost a small fortune when things go bad. I actually made friends with the dealer because I've come back so many times (especially in the last 3 years). He's actually started to offer me a discount now. Had a few things go recently such as the temperature sensor which blew the coolant tank (on a side note when I mean temp. sensor, it's literally a piece of wax with a spring so when the engine gets hot enough, the spring releases opening the valve for coolant to flow in!), undercarriage plastic, gear lever connector cable, wheel ball bearing and possibly a cam belt. All that doesn't come cheap sadly (couple thousand).

But all in all, we've had it for so long its hard to let it go. Such a great car and wasn't too slow either! Can't really comment on the V50 but this was the predecessor to it.

Hope this helps!

Sidestep

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#1319039 8-Jun-2015 07:15

porche20002: (on a side note when I mean temp. sensor, it's literally a piece of wax with a spring so when the engine gets hot enough, the spring releases opening the valve for coolant to flow in!)

That's actually a "Thermostat"

A simple, effectice piece of tech that hasn't changed much in nearly 100 years, cause it does what it's supposed to.

They do fail after 15 plus years, Volvo or any other brand.