Euroncap

What a great site, I just found the Euroncap site -

http://www.euroncap.com/home.aspx

Have a look at the tests, the videos are brilliant and really brings it home on what can happen in a big crash. They now have pole tests which is pretty horific for head injuries. I was looking at the Ford Focus and noticed that the airbags were powerful enough to break the windscreen.

The car lives on - RJ57EJE, but be careful

Just in case you end up buying a used Volvo XC70, just check the registration isn't RJ57EJE.

This is my old car which was swamped in flood water and became a CAT D write off.

It looks like it is now being recycled through the Volvo dealerships.. it's for sale at £23,000.. so I don't know how it was repaired since the cost was estimated at £16-17000 plus VAT..

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.