New Fiesta Beats Volvo XC70 !!!

I watched the BBC Top Gear programme last night. Normally they test supercars, but last night they tested one of Ford's smallest cars, the new Fiesta. It was done a bit tongue in cheek, but overall it was a very interesting piece. The last section of course was typically Top Gear dramatic, they put the little Ford into a what I believe was a British Royal Marine landing craft, and did a beach assault... so Clarkson was sitting in the Fiesta full of Royal Marines and guns and grenades. The landing craft hit the beach and they lowered the ramps. However the landing craft was still in quite deep water the the ramps were steep. Clarkson drove the little Fiesta straight into the sea... even he admitted it was a lot deeper than he thought... the water went straight over the bonnet.. right upto the windscreen..and maybe two or three inches up the windscreen.. it was that deep.. he then continued driving the car.. with marines onboard, through the sea onto and up the beach.. he commented that water was coming in.. but he continued until he reached the beach. Now I don't know if all of this was real.. but if it was done like that.. I find it totally incredible. How did that little Fiesta manage this when my Volvo XC70, totally failed in circumstances which were a lot less challenging????

On the Continent Again..

I saw quite a few more Volvo XC70's when I visited Belgium again last week, new models.

I then was talking to the man who had made my kitchen, as he was running the previous model XC70. He said that this was the last of the proper Volvo's, since the new model was actually built from the Mondeo platform?? Seems like every car is associated to a Mondeo as if it is a bad thing, I thought the Mondeo was very good? Anyway, told him my story about the water, and he was very suprised. He also thought my fuel consumption was very bad too compared to his model - which was also a manual D5.

New Blog

Since I don't have the Volvo XC70 anymore, then no point to write any more posts here.

My new car blog is here:

http://audiavant.blogspot.com/

and this captures my day to day experience with the new Audi A4. I hope this turns out more successfully than the XC70 did.

Goodbye Volvo XC70

So a car I expected to keep for at least 3 years has gone after 9 months.

It was declared a CAT D and I was asked to pick up my personal possesions. Couldn't get the CD out, so need to replace that one.

Made a decision on the next car, Audi Avant 2.0Tdi.

The car is clearly less equipped from a specification point of view than the XC70. However, I simply couldn't justify the difference in cost. My basic calculations is that the Audi will be about £5000 per year less to run than the Volvo. That is too much of a difference, and reality is enough of a gap to run another mid sized car for a year.

So long Volvo, I doubt I will be coming back.

Next Car - Audi or Volkswagen

Still waiting on the insurance for the car, though just seems like I am waiting for somebody senior enough to make the decision.

Anyway, spent some part of the weekend looking at cars.

Visited Audi, as usual it's not very helpful place to go. A bit of a snobby place to be honest and then I couldn't get to drive a car. Also the place is full of cars the regular guy isn't going to buy. There were 2 R8's and then Q7's, S6's.

The A4 Avant looks very nice but I was actually more impressed with the Passat CC. I hadn't realised this car existed until I saw it in the showroom. We were looking at the Passat estate, but this car really looks fantastic. It is a four door coupe with 4 seats. The car looks a bit like a Merc.

So can't make up my mind between an A4 Avant and the Passat CC.

Update on water

Well heard the inevitable news from the garage, that the cost of the repairs make the car classified as a CAT D loss - i.e. roadworthy, but un-economic.

I guess the running chassis can be sold for a decent amount - but a 2nd hand engine and some of the interior - and you have a solid runner again.

Need to think about what's next.

The Volvo ownership hasn't been trouble free.

How long does damage assessment take?

The car was taken to the garage for "damage assessment". This was on Monday morning. By Thursday evening have not had any word from the garage.

Disaster with floods.

Got stuck in a flood and none of the extra gadgets or ground clearance worked !

The past few days in UK has seen some very heavy rain and a lot of flooding. I was caught in a flash flood, with water running off fields. It is a dip in a small farm road which had collected a large pool of water. As was about to get to the end of the flooded area and drive out of the dip, the engine suddenly died on me. With the waters rising I had to get out of the car and recover my things.

AA doesn't recover you from water. Initially they said they would come within an hour. Then they said they were busy and wouldn't come at all until I got the car clear of water - there suggestion was to call the fire brigade. I am sure they had more important things to do than this.

So I needed the help of a friendly farmer to tow the car out of the water. The electric hand brake had decided to activate and couldn't be released - so luckily the tractor had enough power to pull the car the few metres - and didn't break the tow hook in doing so.

With the car out of the water, the AA would then tow the car home (not to a garage because they were closed). All types of warning signs came on the screen..

So now left with a wet soggy interior and. The warning signs have disappeared apart from low battery - but the car is not happy about starting.

Have tried to dry out the interior as best as I can until I wait for the garage to pick up the car.

Very frustrating. When I look at how deep the water was. It was relatively shallow, about at the level of the silver/plastic strip below the bumper.

I have seen much smaller less powerful cars negotiate roads deeper than that.

The only thing I can think is that one corner dipped into a pot hole which upset the electrics - cutting the engine for a second - which lost me the momentum. Then I was stuck.

Many thanks to the friendly farmer.

Tyre Wear

I just had to replace the front tyres on my other car, a Ford Focus. Incredibly this 1.6 Zetec has 205 series tyres.. the engine doesn't have enough power to pull the skin off a bowl of rice pudding.. so why does it need such big tyres I don't know. The tyres had done 35,000 miles - which isn't too bad. £100 each to replace after discount. One of the rears also needed replacing as a puncture repair had failed. With tracking done, the total bill was £312.

The Pirelli Scorpions on the XC70 are holding up well. Since I have rotated the tyres at 18,000 miles I think I can get the whole set past 30,000 miles. However that's going to be a big bill since the Scorpions are £180-200 each.

21000 Miles and a bit dirty

Went to 21,000miles now..

I saw a silver XC70 today, I have to say that looks very nice. I was never sure about light colours with all of the black plastic trim around the wheels and bumpers, but it looks pretty good. My black car is looking pretty grim. Have been hinting to my son that it could do with a good clean. However I can see myself doing it.. again.

My estimate of mileage for year 1 is going to be 28-30,000. So quite glad to see the price of fuel coming down. When diesel was £1.30 + per litre, the UK government allowed business mileage rate barely covered the cost. At 35mpg this is 16.7 p per mile, and 17p is allowed to be claimed for the XC70. Given the fuel consumption recorded is probably wrong, I doubt I was breaking even. Now at £1.20+ per litre, cost per mile is around 15p.

Panel Fit

The quality of some features on the car is perhaps the most disappointing aspect of my ownership experience. I just started to notice that the panel fit on the bumpers isn't identical from side to side. When I was filling the car up with diesel, I noticed there was a ridge between the bumper and the rear wing. Nothing big, but a definite ridge. However on the other side, there is no ridge. Similarly, when I was checking the tyre pressures, I noticed that the front bumper panel was slightly proud of the front wing. Again nothing big, but a defect none the less.

Activity this week, well the car went past 20,000 miles. Put the tyre pressures from 2.4 bar to 2.6 bar. I suspect the garage had reduced the pressure when they move the wheels around. 2.6 bar is the eco setting in the manual. Average fuel consumption in the past 1000miles had been stuck around 35mpg.

I am interested to hear from people with the same car, if they are getting worse or better fuel consumption. However I suspect most people will have the automatic, so it won't be truly comparable.

Volvo's in Finland

Just got back from 10 days in Finland. Unfortunately the rental car wasn't an XC70, or any Volvo for that matter. The budget only stretched to a Nissan Note.. which isn't an exceptional car, other than having an incredibly small fuel tank. I guess it is one of the new breed of small, light economy focused cars - it did do nearly 50 to the gallon, but when it only has a 40litre tank - and distances in Finland are pretty huge - and petrol stations far apart.. I did get quite worried at one point I would be having a long walk through the forest.

Anyway - spotted quite a few new V70's during the trip, and one XC70, which I got a picture of and will post soon. The XC70 was a metallic red, towing and also with a nice colour coded roof box as far as I recall. However all of the models I saw had the smaller wheels on. The XC70 looked rather strange on the smaller wheels, like a regular estate car. I saw quite a few of the older XC70 Cross Country Volvo's. Finland has far far fewer cars than the UK, but I saw as many Volvo's there in a week as I see in a month. Obviously very keen on the Swedish brand, despite the rivalry that can exist between the countries.

People who play with car settings

I am the main driver of the car, and I am not a person who fiddles around too much with the settings. Once I am happy with the seat position, the radio level.. it remains pretty much un-touched.

I am always amazed how other people react when they drive my car. My wife changes all of the settings, obviously the seat (but the car has memory - so problem solved) - the radio tuning, the air con settings and so on..

Radio I can accept, because this is taste. But why oh why do people fiddle around with the airco??

The driver from the garage did this. The car is black, it has black leather seats - so in summer - if parked in the sun, it gets hot. However - the air co is powerful, the seats are ventilated.. within seconds the car is becoming cool. My setting is auto with temp at 22C.. which means the fan doesn't go crazy.. but still pumps cold air into the interior..

So the guy has got the fan on full.. the air co on LO.. ?? what does this do apart from making a load of noise so you can't hear the radio?

Don't touch my controls !!!

Washer Bottle Leak fix

Washer bottle now fixed via Volvo dealer. Getting the car picked up from the office is a lot easier - and given they valet the car each time.. not too ticked off it keeps going wrong

How Popular is the new V70 & XC70

Having driven more than 18,000 miles in the last 7 months in my volvo XC70, I am actually surprised how few of the new V70 and XC70 that you see on the roads. It is literally a handful.

However, when I was in Germany and then Austria during the weekend, I saw a few more. I actually saw a black XC70 (German plate), I thought was identical to mine - however it wasn't the sport model. I also saw a nice black V70 with privacy glass and on a dutch plate. Always D5 models.

Service Details and what 90ps feels like

Well not much to report other than the service was completed as planned - the book was stamped and it's good for another 18,000 miles or one year.. which with the current rate will mean around Feb next year.

Unfortunately - the washer leak was not able to be fixed in this visit. I suspected that would be the case, since they probably wouldn't have the spare part. Apparently it is a pipe leading out of the washer bottle has split and needs replacement. Strange that it has broken after such a short time. So booked in for next week.

Tyres were rotated around the car - so will see how that works out in overall wear.

Dropped the car off at Purple Parking at Heathrow and went to the Alps for the weekend. Purple parking works out quite well as it was the cheapest listed on the internet and seems very secure place. However a good 15-20minutes from the airport.

At munich I was offered a Renault Modus or an Opel Astra. I took the Astra, a 1.4 petrol. On the motorway the car ran OK, if a bit high reving. As we were heading towards Solvenia direction, we were on the A10 - when the traffic came to a halt. We managed to communicate with a lorry driver who explained there was a 20km traffic jam - heading into the tunnels. So plan B, and rather than the tunnels, we headed up into the mountains. In the Volvo it would have been a perfect situation, we were often following caravans or vans and you needed a punchy bit of torque to get past on the twisty roads. The 1.4 Asta, breathing hard.. was pathetic.. I had to rev the engine to the red line in 2nd gear otherwise 3rd gear wouldn't pick up.. and at some points I had to rev the engine to the limit of it's life in 1st gear to get it past a tractor.. I am sure the tractor could have gone faster up the hill. The handling of the Astra was however very sharp - just needed a good turbo diesel under the bonnet. We did maybe 500miles in 2 days with 10 hours of driving. Perhaps next time the Renault Modus :)

Prior to Service

More by luck than judgement - the mileage on the car will be at almost exactly 18,000 as it goes for service. Had a long run today - and checked the consumption to see if it will be different after the service. Managed 38mpg average on the computer. I had recently pumped up the tyres.. and this seems to be a big factor if the car will get to 38 or stay around 36.

Front Parking Sensors

Not sure if I have posted this one before. The front parking sensors are always active -unless you press a button on the dash. The rear ones only become active in reverse gear (and also if the button hasn't been touched). The button resets if the ignition is off/on. There is a danger you switch off the sensors for the front -and forget that the total system is off. A few close calls with that so far.

The reason to post is the sort of false alarms you get with the front sensors. I notice the front sensors are activated by other vehicles in traffic. I am not sure if it is air wave - or water spray - because the vehicles don't seem to come that close. Strangely the vehicles that seem to cause the most problem are motorbikes (maybe they are closer) and then trucks/buses. Cars don't tend to set off the sensors. If you are in queue - the sensor can be pinging away as a series of trucks drive by.

Vehicle Messages

So now I have 2 vehicle messages each time I switch on the engine.

Fill washer bottle and now it's book maintenance. Well I know the washer bottle is empty, it leaks.. and already booked the service for next week. So need another 10 days of messages.

Checked tyre pressures today. Down a little bit from the 2.7 bar. However the reduction was equivalent side to side.. but front to back was -0.2 for the front and -0.1 for the back.. so there must be something to do with the fronts working harder that makes them lose more pressure.

at the seaside

First Planned Maintenance Is Due Soon

With close to 17,000 miles on the clock, the car is close to needing it's first planned garage visit.

For fixing faults it has been to my local Volvo garage, but each time I need to get a replacement car and there isn't fuel in those and just generally takes a load of time. Talking to a colleague at the office who also has a Volvo, have found out another dealer can pick the car up and return it as part of the service.

So the car is booked in for the 18,000mile service, a week from now. I expect to do the 1000miles within the week - so should be spot on the mark.

They should fix the leaking water washer system, and I also think it would be a good idea to rotate the tyres around the car. The fronts are now starting to show signs of more wear than the rears. Because the tyres are so chunky, it is initially hard to see the wear - the paint is still on some parts of the tread. However after 16,000 miles, you can now see the difference between front and rear.

Having said this, seems much better than the Audi allroad which eats a set of tyres in 15,000 miles. I guess that is a downside of constant 4 x 4 mode.

I also wonder if the suspension setting has an impact on tyre wear, I guess comfort setting is best.

The dealer also offered to "de-bug" the air conditioning as part of the service. Never heard of this before and considering the car is only 7 months old, feels hardly necessary.

Hill Descent Control

After more than 6months of ownership, I finally got around to using the Hill Descent Control feature on the car.

It is a little button you press on the lower central dash that engages a mode where the braking is automatically controlled by the car - to keep you at a constant low speed down a hill, allowing you to take care of the steering and not worrying about braking etc.

We were at a Safari park - and some steep hills on the route. Wanted to drive slowly down these slopes so we could see the animals, so decided to try the hill control.

Engaged first gear and pressed the button - speed builds up and then suddenly the brakes engaged - a bit violently at first in my opinion. Reminded me a little bit of the feeling of ABS taking control of the braking. Once the car has got a steady speed - the brakes seem to be coming on and off pretty fast - that you don't notice any particular judder.

So first time out - worked pretty well. I wonder how much of this is really a novelty versus a really useful feature.

The latest fault on my XC70

It's a bit frustrating. Literally the moment you post something good about the car - it develops another small and irritating fault.

Last week I noticed a patch of water on the drive, underneath the right hand side of the engine bay. Given it had been hot weather and the AC had been on, I assumed it was the condenser draining water. However the patch didn't seem to go away despite the warm weather...looked under the bonnet and all the coolant levels were correct.

Then the "washer level" warning light came on. Well not unexpected, since it was a while since it was filled. My wife actually filled it up - she was suprised how much water was needed. Anyway, it was done and should last at least another month. So much to my surprise the warning light came on again after just a few days - and I had hardly used the washer. So again I have filled it up and wait to see how many days it will last. Then it will be back to the Volvo dealer again.

Comfortable Cruiser - 15,000 Miles now completed

Past few days I have had to cover 800miles across Europe - which clicked the car to 15,000miles within 6 months of ownership.

Despite the few niggles the car has had in this time - when you are on this sort of journey - you really feel the right decision was made to buy this car.

The Volvo XC70 really comes into it's own as a super cruiser - it's quiet - very comfortable and feels powerful enough for keeping a steady speed on the autoroutes and autobhans. All of the navigation system works perfectly and seamlessly across Europe - as long as you don't need to type the address in you can use just the UK DVD. I like how it welcomes you into each country as you cross the border.

I also had to pass down some really rutted farm tracks to view some property - the ruts were filled with water - and when you are in the XC70 you don't have the same level of trepidation that you would in a typical estate car. The only thing you need to remember is to turn off the front parking sensors as the water splashes keep setting them off.

The average fuel consumption for this trip was 37miles per gallon. If I had kept to UK speed limit of 70 - I think it would have been closer to 40... you notice the next 10-20mph on the motorway really starts to use some heavy fuel.

Whilst I was in Belgium, I was speaking to an owner of an Audi A6 2.7Tdi Quattro. automatic This was the saloon model. He bought his Audi at a similar time to me after coming from a Volvo S80 - so we have both switched marques. He said he was generally happy with the Audi but it was pretty heavy on fuel - he drives quite quickly so was seeing perhaps 31-32mpg - however considering his car is permanent 4 wheel drive and automatic - and the speed he drives.. not bad. He also preferred the Volvo interior and said it was better than the A6. The A6 is however a bit dated now I think.

Emergency Stop - Hazard Warning Lights

One of the features on this car is to flash the hazard warning lights in the event of an emergency braking - sort of makes sense I suppose.

However - so far I have never managed to activate this feature in the correct scenario - so when braking heavily on the motorway for an incident.. they didn't flash.. so obviously not braking hard enough.

But then - I have managed to activate the lights in what I would consider normal driving. The first time it was when I missed a braking point for a turning I wanted to make - so since nothing was behind me.. it was 5:30am - I hit the brake pedal pretty hard.. but not ABS hard.. and suddenly the hazard warning came on. Fair enough, it was quite aggressive braking.. but not what I was thinking was an emergency stop.

The more recent time was really strange. I was coming towards a T - junction and again was needing to brake reasonably hard to slow down the car - but well within the cars capability and road conditions. I then heard the turning signal and thought I had caught the stick - then realised the hazard lights had come on. This was incredible?.. so what level of deceleration is required to make the emergency stop... well it is not clear to me.

I-Pod battery

I keep wondering why when using the I-pod in the car, it always seems to forget where it is in the track and revert back to the first song on the machine.



I think I have tracked it down to the battery not being charged in the car. When you remove the I-pod from the car, it has a low battery symbol. So obviously it becomes discharged when not in use. I don't know why the connector is not live? I am using the car everyday, so no reason for it to discharge overnight.

Safety Information on Dashboard of XC70

Found a strange situation yesterday.

Children got into the back seats.. and the right hand side LCD display on the dashboard gives a message that both rear seat belts have been activated. I am not sure why I need to know this, surely it should tell me if they were not activated? Anyway, the message remains on the screen. Now it's a bright sunny day, and I don't notice anything else - but my wife mentions that the interior light is still on.. well I thought it was still on the timer.. but it remains lit. No other information is being provided by the car. I then cancel the seat belt message - and then pops up a message that a door is open at the back. Obviously it was not fully open, just not properly shut. So this is a bit of flaw in the safety of the car - you could drive off not knowing the door is open - simply because the seat belt message takes precident over the door message. How ridiculous is that !

Volvo XC70 Long Term Road Test

I will be updating my website www.carfun.org where I have more information on my long term road test for the VOLVO XC70.

www.carfun.org

Fuel Consumption Update on volvo XC70

Mileage is now close to 12,000 in my Volvo XC70 D5 Sport - currently averaging more than 2000 miles per month.

The fuel consumption is getting slightly better as the engine gets older. The best I can get on a long motorway run is very close to 40mpg.. previously this type of run when the car was new was around 38mpg. Similarly the general driving around consumption - has gone from around 33mpg to 35mpg. It's good to see this improvement - but it's still not as good as I had hoped.

I continue to run the tyres with 2.7 bar pressure.

Next time around - I am seriously considering something like the BMW 5 series with a 2.0D engine. The power is very similar to the volvo, but the overall consumption is a lot better and therefore a big difference in taxation from the benefit in kind.

Tailgate squeaks at 10,000 miles.

Starting to get a bit frustrated with Volvo build quality.

The overall finish of the car is high quality from a design point of view - but it is the build quality that gives me concern.

We have already had the problem with the CD player not working from day 1.. then there was a problem with a squeaky gearbox -

and now the squeaking tailgate.

The noise started perhaps 3 or 4 weeks ago. Just very noticeable only at slow speeds as you go over a bump that might twist the car - a clunking noise is heard. I thought something was loose in the luggage area and thought nothing of it. However it got worse and worse.. till finally I couldn't stand it anymore. I thought about going to Volvo dealer to investigate - but that takes time and my energy + nerves.. so decided to experiment and see if I could solve it.

I drove slowly around a cobbled carpark with the tailgate first closed and then open to compare the difference. There was no noise when the tailgate was open. Therefore the problem must be with the tailgate - maybe it was not properly closing. Now recall this car has an automatic closing tailgate - so closing it is the cars responsibility and not mine.

I got a can of WD40 and squirted it into the locking mechanism of the tailgate. Then opened and closed the tailgate automatically perhaps 5 or 6 times. Something was different in the noise of closing. In the past.. even from when the car was new, it always seem to close in two actions. The tailgate would close down.. then a 2nd noise as if the latch was being made.. you could actually see the tailgate move slightly in the 2nd phase of closing. After spraying with WD40, the tailgate just closes in one motion and one noise.. there is no 2nd phase.

More importantly, out on the road.. the squeaks have gone. It's like having a new car again.

I really wonder if the locking mechanism had never really been properly lubricated from day 1 of manufacture.

This comes back to my point about "build" quality versus "design" quality.

8000 miles

Have now driven well past the 8000 mile territory.

Next week will bring the Volvo for the first time out of the UK and should put it past 9000miles.

Hopefully the gearchange squeak can be sorted out before we go abroad with the car.

Gear change squeak

Made a quick visit to the Volvo dealer today, to check out this squeak on my XC70 manual gearbox. The squeak comes from a front to back motion on the box..

The mechanic removed the gaiter around the gear lever.. to reveal the gearlinkage.

He confirmed the noise, and said this was a plastic on plastic noise. He said it was almost impossible to locate the position of the noise without removing a lot of the dash.

He then tried to get at the problem from the footwell panel - and squirted some dry lube into the linkage area. However this didn't solve the problem, if anything it felt worse.

He also checked under the bonnet, where the cable/linkage passes through the bulkhead of the car.

Didn't find anything.

Unfortunately, if I want this fixed, the car has to go to the dealer for the day. However I need to get it done, as it is getting on my nerves.

But it means another day off the road for the car.. it's now it's 3rd time at the dealership in less than 4months.

7000 mile barrier

Well the 7000mile barrier flew past this month, already close to 8000miles.

The engine feels looser, and fuel consumption is around 34 to 35mpg.

The only small issue that has developed is the gear shift is making a squeak when pushed forward into 1st, 3rd, 5th gear.. a bit annoyning.

XC70 Performance

What is the performance of the XC70.

With a car of 1860kg, it's hard to see how to design such a big car to perform. The D5 engine has plenty of torque and with a manual gear box it can shuffle along quite nicely. You do need to rev the engine and the D5 doesn't have an unpleasant noise.. a bit more gruff than purring.

The car can apparently get to 60mph in under 9 seconds - which is normally brisk enough in most circumstances. It can roll along to 130mph - not a speed I would particularly want to run at in this car - but respectable enough. The car can easily run at 90mph without too much difficulty and this is something you need to be careful when on the motorway.

So the car can move well enough for a big family estate. But how well does it stop?

The car is equipped of course with disc brakes all round, ventilated. The handbrake is an electric activated system on the rear discs. The brakes have a decent feel and are progressive - you don't have that on off switch that you tend to get on the VAG cars like an Audi. For everyday driving the brakes bring the car to a smooth halt. However as you start to build up some speed on country roads, you start to notice the bulk of the car. This is particularly the case when you make start to go downhill. You need to press the pedal particularly hard and you can get a sense the deceleration isn't enough..you press harder to almost the point of the ABS being activated.

Volvo XC70 Website

Have now linked this blog from the following web address.

www.carfun.org

4WD System on Volvo XC70

It is not really clear to me how the XC70 4WD system actually works. Apparently there is an electronic clutch between front and back wheels. However does this work only when starting off or is it something constantly checking for slip at the front wheels?

Does the anti skid light come on when the 4WD system is engaged.

If you have any technical information please right here.

Some nice pictures of an XC70

Some winter pics of the Volvo XC70

VOLVO XC70 Cold Weather

Recently had a lot of heavy frost and since the car is parked outside without any protection from buildings or walls - it was always frosted up on the front screen. With diesel engines taking time to warm up - the screen takes a while to defrost. It's not clear to me if this engine is equipped with an electric pre-heater for these conditions. Anybody know?

The rear window doesn't seem to pick up a frost - I wonder if it is because it is such a vertical angle and with the spoiler overhanging it it is somehow shielded from frost ?

Tried to use a product which apparently reduces the frost on the screen.. the idea being you pretreat the screen and then in the morning, it simply wipes off with the wiper blades.

However.. come the morning and -3 Deg C.. all I have is a windscreen which seems even more frozen than normal. All I have is the additional nice ice patterns!

The product recommended that I should use the wash wipe function.. to just wipe away the ice!!

My recommendation.. don't buy it.

Some chance because the wash wipe was frozen.. at -3Deg C.... I thought these would be heated and I had put screen wash deicer into the tank. However because the wash wipe is also linked to the headlamp cleaning - these actually came on also. When I got out of the car, I had managed to cover my headlamps in a set of ice !

So back into the garage to find some real deicer..

Luckily by this time, the heated seats had kicked in.

I like to keep the cabin at 22C and never play with the dials even in cold weather, and then adjust using the seat thermostat.. 3 to start with..then knocking it down to the 1 setting.

Volvo XC70 Re-Moveable Tow - Bar

One of the optional extras specified on the car was the detachable tow bar.

Decided to try and fit it today.

The tow bar ball is stored in the boot next to the spare wheel, so easy to access and store.

The location of the towbar is protected by a plastic cover, which hides the electrical socket and the place where the towbar connects to the car.

The plastic cover is removed quite easily.

Fitting the towbar is a bit fiddly, the instructions are not that clear an it's not so obvious if the towbar has secured itself correctly. It took a few minutes of playing around with before I felt satisfied that the towbar was in a secure enough location. However, even then it doesn't give you a 100% sense of security. I thought there may be something with a locking pin to prevent any failures.

Volvo XC70 Sport - Steering Force Adjustment

One of the features of the Volvo XC70 Sport, is the steering force needed to turn the steering wheel can be adjusted by the driver.

The force has 3 levels. This is selected from the master menu on the dashboard.

I found out a strange thing the other day. The manual says that the steering force level can only be changed when the car is stationary. What happens is that as soon as you are moving, you can't select steering force in the menu - it sort of blanks it out.

I don't know why, but I just decided to play with this feature and found out something different to what the manual says.

If you select steering force in the menu when the car is stationary, but then leave that part of the menu open as you drive, you can actually change the steering force level as you drive. So I don't understand this, if you can do this - why blank the menu at a higher level to prevent you changing the force level? The software obviously has a bug or they can't write it in a way to prevent you doing this?

Anyway, my observation of steering force, is that the lowest setting is just too low, the highest setting reminds me of a BMW level of force.. the middle level closer to an Audi. I tend to leave it on the middle setting for now.

Would you leave your Laptop in your XC70

After having a laptop stolen from the boot(trunk) of my previous car, an Audi A4 Avant, I am particularly nervous about leaving electronic devices in the car.

The audi didn't really have a secure location to put things, I had hidden the laptop in the boot and had pulled the parcel shelf cover across it. However it seems thieves can tell if there is something in the car, via bluetooth or whatever system. They then broke a rear quarter light and just pulled out the laptop from it's hidden location.

With the Volvo XC70, it does actually have a sort of secret location underneath the load area floor. This is large enough to store a lap top and a few valuables. This hatch can only be opened if you have the back door fully opened. The door sits over the hatch. It means that just breaking a window doesn't get the thief any further.

However despite this security feature, I still find it very hard to leave a laptop in a car.

What do you do? Leave the laptop in the security place, or just never leave anything valuable in the car?

Rear load area cover - Volvo XC70

The load area can be concealed using a horizontal blind.. that rolls up on a ratchet system.

The piece is supported into two slots on either side of the car.

To remove it, there are two switches to disengage and lift it up. The cover isn't very heavy and is removed in a few seconds. It reminds me very much of the system used in a Ford Mondeo estate that I recently was using. It is also much lighter and easier to use than the cover you might find on the Audi Avants. On the A4, the piece is incredibly heavy and slides out from the side doors.. it almost requires 2 people to do it. It is isn't any more solid and certainly does not protect the car anymore.

Volvo XC70 Rear Seats

One thing I had never really checked was the rear centre seat configuration.

The seats are designed so that they split into 3 sections.. the 2 side sections being of equal size and then the centre section is a bit smaller.

When you fold them down, normally the passenger side section folds down on its own.. and then the other side brings the centre piece down with it.

However the centre part can be brought down individually.

The centre part has a headrest, but in normal conditions it is tucked neatly into the seat and gives then a good visibility rearward for the driver.

What thing that seems to be missing then is there is no centre armrest for the rear seat passengers. It looks like it should have..but there isn't. All you can do is fold the centre part of the seat down..giving a sort of flat table effect with a huge hole access to the boot.

So, the seat flexibility is good in some respects, bad in another way.

Volvo XC70 Gearbox Click

Solved the problem on the gearbox click.

apparently it is the solenoid disengaging to allow reverse gear to be selected at slow speed. It locks off the gate as soon as forward speed is above a dangerous level.

Glad that was explained to me.

Volvo XC70 Sound System is back..

So having had the car for around 6hours - the dealer calls saying the car is ready.

Arriving at the dealership I see my car on the forecourt, nicely cleaned.. which is a good start.

They then say it is fixed and they have recovered the system information.

Starting the car, it seems they have managed to get the phone settings - however all of the navigation data is gone.. which is unfortunate.

Oh hum.. I wonder how to save that for next time.

So now we are back to square one..

So to fix the CD player has actually taken 3 trips to the dealer, and more than 7 hours of time.

Today they also completed the 3000mile quality check, no comments on this.

VOLVO Door Mirrors (Part 2)

OK - I didn't read the manual for the door mirrors, and now I have.

Apparently the heated rear window button activates the door mirror heaters, they don't come on automatically themselves. However you can have the heater rear window coming on automatically at low temperatures - however because the Volvo dealer had reset and cancelled all the settings in the car - this feature had been switched off.

I now realise that all of the settings and features I had made in the menu had been cancelled, steering adjustment and graphic equaliser settings. This is a pain. So does this mean that each time the car goes into the dealer - we might lose all of the car information?

Volvo XC70 Heated Door Mirrors

Another thing I have noticed is that the door mirrors don't demist.

My understanding was that the door mirrors were heated and therefore would demist automatically in cold damp weather.

So far I have not seen this happening, or it has happened so slowly I have not noticed.

This will be another thing on the list to check when the car is returned for the sound system to be checked out again.

Security in Bad Weather Volvo XC70

I guess it is days such as this - that I really appreciate this Volvo XC70.

It was pouring with rain, turing to sleet and snow.. strong winds, standing water.

At no time during the journey did the car miss a beat.. it didn't feel at all in danger of losing it's balance or grip..

The bulk of the car and the 4WD system is certainly a stable platform for bad weather driving.

Dealer Frustration with Volvo XC70

Well prehaps my first really negative post about this car.

My impressions of the local dealership hadn't been that great.. nice enough people, but I wondered about the attitude and capability. Today they demonstrated what I was sensing.

The car was supposed to be there for 1hour for the CD player changing, as it was faulty.

This was done.

However - the software of the sound system would not reload. Resulting in almost total loss of the sound system in the car and associated devices.

So when the car arrived.

Sound system worked apart from the CD player.

Now the CD player still does not work, the Radio does not work, the phone does not work, the parking sensors also don't work. (But the iPod does.. if you can understand that !!).

The dealer apologised of course.. but the excuse was a lame one. It is a new model car and we don't have the experience with it. They then said they had to download software from Sweden but they couldn't manage this either.. somebody in Sweden was asleep, I don't know.

However net result, I had to drive away and make an appointment for another visit.

What was dangerous was that they had wiped the seat and mirror position memory.. and didn't tell me the parking sensors were out. So when reversing I was close to hitting something.

Also they wiped the entire contents of the navigation system, so all of the stored locations has gone.

Not a great start to Volvo ownership.

VOLVO XC70 CD Player

No news from volvo on my CD player. The faulty player was reported on Dec 27th, as of today, nobody at Volvo has contacted me about the part being in stock.

Not a brilliant service.. since the CD player was not working when the car was supplied.

Volvo XC70 Manual - Pedal Position

One thing I can't change on my volvo is the pedal position.. can you see how close the clutch pedal is to the bulk head and also the steering system. If you have size 11 shoes - it touches the end of the system

iPod on the Volvo XC70

From the picture you can see where the iPod is stored and how it connects to the car. This is the central storage location under the centre arm rest. I keep the remote control for navigation in here. Not wires don't let you store the iPod very neatly, but at least you can keep the protective cover on it - I use a silicone cover. On my last Audi, you needed to put the Audi into a docking station and had to remove the cover.

There is another spare wire, I assume this is for generic mp3 players.

For some reason the iPod is not remembering the last track played and is reloading to the start when switching on. Not sure why it does this now.

have a look at my XC70 dedicated website www.carfun.org

Volvo XC70 - 2000 Miles

Well 2000 miles are now completed.

Overall the XC70 has lived up to expectations.

The positives are:

Performance
space and functionality of the interior
seat comfort
navigation system

The niggles are:

CD Player does not work
Pedal position - no place for the left foot
Lumbar adjustment is difficult
High fuel consumption