Freedom Road Tests of Volvo V70 & XC70

The volvo UK website had a page advertising the Freedom test drive. I had previously visited a dealership and they were unable to provide a test drive - in fact they could only show me an XC70 that was in storage as Volvo was holding the cars until the launch.

The Freedom drive was near Warwick at the end of September.

I booked 2 cars, a V70 T6 and an XC70 D5. It was the XC70 D5 that I was interested in - but I wanted to make the comparison for both the engine and the chassis.

Both the cars I drove were automatic models (unfortunately) and were heavily equipped.

The Volvo V70 T6 was the first car to test - on mixed roads for about 30 minutes.

The car was obviously quick, considering the power - but didn't feel sportscar speed or nimble. Maybe because the sound and ride was damped. However the steering feel was very strange. Around the dead ahead position, there was no feel, and you felt yourself constantly making small adjustments to the wheel position - there was no weight. It felt there was something wrong with the caster setting on the front wheels or the power steering was not sorted. It was bad enough for me to not consider the car.

The active damping system didn't seem to have a significant difference between settings. Maybe because of the speed or the roads - but the sport setting didn't seem particularly sporting..nor the comfort very soft either.

Then I drove the Volvo D5 XC70. This was a lux model but had many of the sport options, including the larger 18inch wheels - and the adaptative speed control steering.

The car was obviously slower than the V70 T6 - but the XC70 D5 seemed to have plenty of torque to give good acceleration - despite the mushmatic gearbox.

What was a major improvement was the steering feel at speed. I can only think the adaptive speed control power steering helps with the feel. This made such a difference. All of the other interior and options seemed to be replicas of the the V70.

So on this basis of around 1hr of driving Volvo's around Warwickshire - I chose the Volvo XC70 D5 as the the clear winner.