Is It Worth Buying An Old Volvo V70? - Honest Owner's Review

I've owned my Volvo V70 for about 3 months now and here's what I really think of it.

[Broomehall]

I've been in the trade professionaly for over 40 years and truly lost count of the amount of these I've owned and sold, in a nutshell, all the early, and by early I'm talking as far back as the 850 Estates in 1993 onwards, right up to around the mid 2000's were as reliable as is possible for a motor vehicle, the 2.0 was, and is bulletproof if looked after, capable of huge mileage 2.4 petrol is a little heavy on fuel but again seriously reliable, Diesels were almost unbeatable in this class of estate, certainly up there with the best from Mercedes, BMW, Audi etc: .... As far as gear boxes are concerned, all early manual and Auto's again pretty much bulletproof, but once you get to the " Geartronic" era things started to go seriously down hill, it was known as " Feartronic" in the trade because it was very hit and miss on the reliability scale, I stopped dealing in V70's from around 2010 onwards because in my opinion I'd had the best years from them, I'm not saying they were all bad after this, but you have to remember I was selling them, which is a whole different ballgame to owning one as your everyday car, too many problems for me, so rather than get a bad reputation I simply stopped dealing in those with Geartronic and the later boxes altogether ! but as I say, if looked after early ones will just run and run and run, you will most likely wear out before they do.

[jackmccormick]

You’re the first person in a while that has captivated me with old fashioned journalism. No fancy editing or elusive banter. Just genuine facts and genuine opinions. You know what you’re doing and that’s awesome dude! 👊

[MySmello]

I have a V70 d5 163 and it's been brilliant. Just got back from a 2000 mile journey to France and back and never missed a beat. Amazing cars.

[geoffowens]

A beautiful Swedish barge. Definitely an iconic car you have done a Great job looks. Brill

[vladavasiljev]

S60 2.0t from 2008...the best value for money ever and my biggest surprise. A class better than bmw320, merc180 and a4 I used to have. The most comfortable seats ever, amazing build quality, supreme stereo, excellent reliability and durability. That's why volvo broke down as a company - because they manufactured too good cars which last 20 years and run 700k km without any problem. Globalisation needs cheap, disposable chinese plastic cars with soulless dull design and big cheap tablets in the middle to distract your attention that you are fooled by modern trade trends.

[mrraddish]

What do you mean old? That v70 is like brand new compared to my 745 and is made 86 😂

[spainter]

I've had a couple of S60 P2's and still run a 2.0T 2008 one but totally agree with storage space and rear legroom, it's a bit rubbish for a large car. The upside is the premium stereo is pretty fanastic, probably the best factory stereo I've heard in this era. I'd like to change it but it offers so much for such little money, you've got to spend a lot to better it! I also love the 5 cylinder sound and most of the next generation petrol engines moved to 4 cylinder 😢

[sagotremi]

Hello, Very good video. I love the V70s of this generation, I have four at home.
I take the liberty of writing to you, because you may not have noticed it, few people know it, but it is possible to fold down the backrest of the front passenger seat, to further increase the loading capacity of the luggage compartment.
It suffices to move the seat back as far as possible, then raise the small triggers located at the bottom of each side of the backrest, to release the latter and push it forward. This gives you a significant loading length, especially if you also remove the seat from the rear seat.
Have a good trip behind the wheel of your Magnifique V70,

Remi

[wiltshiresmallholder]

Something worth mentioning is that the 163hp D5’s are also common rail. They just don’t have the DPF. The non common rail diesels used in the very early v70 P2’s were the Volkswagen 2.5 TDI.

[bavers]

Nice video I love the old Volvos. It’s worth opening your oil cap with the engine running and listening for a popping/metallic drumming sound. This would indicate your vacuum engine mount has gone. Very common issue. Looking forward to more videos on the V70.

[pickering]

Great video, had an S70 2.5 10v now got a V70 D5 185, great car, super comfortable, excellent stereo. And you are so right about the turning circle, getting a P2 round a tight car park is an art form in itself 🤣

[krakkin]

You can also lay the passenger seat forward so you can put extra long items in. Took me a while to notice too haha

[Griswold]

I have a 2004 Volvo V70 2.5t in the same color. Bought it brand new now i have it at 169k miles

[highlandaecfan]

Really good video, mine's a normal looking 2004 P2 D5 but came with Haldex AWD and 6 speed manual gearbox with very long legs for the motorway, it's 163HP (common rail) but
stomps along superbly !

[mediavillawebdesignmedia]

I drove one of these from Cumbria to South Spain and back and I actually enjoyed every minute of it... except the ferry... that wasn't great.

[steveb]

I pretty much agree with your assessment. I'm on my second V70 P2. The first in the UK was (is) a 2.4 normally aspirated with about 141 bhp but could pull like a good un, manual box. I'm now the owner of a 2004 2.5T automatic, in the USA. Manual boxes are very very rare and I think restricted to the few R's that were imported. This one has about 200 bhp or so on tap with a light pressure turbo. The space in the back is very good and although other vehicles (SUVs and the like) might have more cubic space, the space in the V70 is practical. We brought a fridge back from the shop and it fitted perfectly. You couldn't get that in an SUV. You showed it but didn't mention the 12V power supply in the back, if you get a V70 and it hasn't got one, they're easy to source second hand, you just need the resister that fits in the opposite side next to the fusebox, it has the wiring loom in already. Might be worth going through the bits like that for another video? Downsides of a V70? Ride a bit bumpy on poor surfaces, turbo lag is the normal thing, suspension could be stronger than it is. Not a downside per se, but change the oil and filter every 5000 miles, no excuses. It will reward you in the long run. Oh, and the Volvo BS about auto transmission oil being there for a 'lifetime', is just that, BS. One last thing, the timing belt MUST be changed after 80000 miles, some say but don't take the chance. It also includes the tensioner, and you may as well do the water pump at the same time, because you'll be having to do it all again later anyway. And unless you're confident and able DO NOT do it yourself, you'll have a LOT of hurt if you get the thing on wrong and you'll be facing a destroyed engine. It isn't cheap though to get a mechanic do it, but cheaper than a new engine.

[VincentWilliams]

I'm picking up my XC70 tomorrow 04/23/2021 and I'm super excited.

[jjt]

The wooden steering wheel will look very classy!

[ItsDanLatham]

Love this review and love the V70. I considered one of these before picking up my Saab, ultimately it came down to what was the better deal at the time. If I was after another cheap beater this would definitely be top of my list.

[Rowanbows]

You should have shown how to flatten the frontseat, then you can transport almost 4m inside. There are two pins you pull underneath the frontseat to flatten it. I still drive a v70 from 2003, very comfortable extremly spacey, easy to repair