Bye Bye Merc, Hello Volvo....

[Charles Morgan]

I should have taken the maintenance contract, a very expensive mistake on my part which I shall not repeat. Volvo really do take the proverbial though - my neighbour took his V70 in for service and was told it needed about £4500 of work, which he obviously didn't believe. The local Bosch garage reckoned over half of that was entirely un-ncessary and with genuine Volvo parts the bill for what was immediately required was more like £800. To cite one example, Volvo quoted £75 for a cabin filter, but the Bosch garage sourced the same one from Volvo for under £20. That's when Volvo lost two cars of his to service and that of his daughter in law.

 

[Yugguy]

To be fair all dealers are the same. Merc quote 50 quid to change a 15 quid air filter.

 

[davidjpowell]

My mpg is now climbing. The average has gone up to 42.9 from 41 within a thousand miles. Not having the trip computer that David does, I estimate today I got over 50mpg on a run with lots of heavy M25 traffic. However, my second service (again like David no pads) came to a frankly unacceptable £430 from the dealers who charge through the nose for filters and oil. This is when being the lessee sucks.

That's steep. I thought £360 was a lot (and dealer apologised!).

ETA - Volvo do a service plan that you can join in at any time. Might shelter you from some rough dealer prices..

https://securewww.volvocars.com/uk/own/maintenance/service-and-maintenance/volvo-service-plans#

 

[Beetnik]

Just short of £600 for my last service.
Including:

• New pads (front only)
• Change brake fluid
• Change coolant

I wasn't overly impressed...

 

[flango]

Always bought my volvos with 3 year unlimited maintenance plan Guaranteed no extra costs for 3 years. Even tyres brakes absolutely everything. Have done the same with the Golf I've just bought do it at the time of purchase and you can really get them down on price.

 

[Charles Morgan]

Average mpg now at 47.3 after another 2500 miles (been very heavy driving this month).

Last trip brim to brim was 57mpg. For a car with the same performance as my petrol 02 4.4 V8 Range Rover, the contrast in economy is considerable. I think the engine / autobox combination on this car is just flat out fantastic.

 

[crockers]

I paid £500 for the 5 year service plan.

Sent from my iPhone using MBClub UK

 

[davidjpowell]

This week I've had a Discovery Sport in Ireland for 3 days, and an X-trail in the UK for 24 hours

Disco was a nice car, but slower than the Volvo. I'd have one, but worry that it would become boring quickly. Also quite low at the front I thought.

X-trail.. This had done 6k and felt knackered. Plastics were cheap and it was noisy. All the toys, but missed the point. no thanks.

 

[Deleted member 6183]

Always bought my volvos with 3 year unlimited maintenance plan Guaranteed no extra costs for 3 years. Even tyres brakes absolutely everything. Have done the same with the Golf I've just bought do it at the time of purchase and you can really get them down on price.

OK.

You have bigged this Golf up so my interest is piqued.

Where can I get one?
How much does it cost?
Are there any lease deals?
How much does the service pack cost?
Where can I read an independent review of it?
What is the exact model?

It could be my next car.

 

[davidjpowell]

A 1,700 mile week this one. Yorkshire to Inverness, to Essex, to Kent back to Yorkshire...

Car's a nats breath from 50k. Still performing very well. Surprisingly good off road as it's only 2 wheel drive.

Fuel Consumption is holding up.

 

[HB]

Nice machine but I just don't get why people buy these as 2wd.

 

[merc85]

Used to get that from my Mapped 320 cdi

 

[davidjpowell]

Nice machine but I just don't get why people buy these as 2wd.

For my work I often head a little off road. The extra height helps with that. I don't normally need 4wd, and if I do I use the wife's car. So I save the extra cost of 4wd, and the extra fuel consumption that it uses.

I did actually slip and slide down a track in Scotland, hoping that I would not have to go back the way I came. Unfortunately I did! The car was actually fairly nimble and struggled very little. You'd be surprised at what it can do.

 

[davidjpowell]

Time to update my diary.

had it for close to 2yr 6 month. A record I think. I'm actually quite bored, but have to stick with it for another 6 months....

72,000 miles. Just had a biggish and hopefully last service. Running totals.

On third set of front tyres. Replaced rear pads once. Original rear tyres which are stepped - 3 to 4.6mm left on them, and original front pads, which have plenty of meat.

Long term Mpg 47.6 - which I think is from when I collected the car.

I'm quite happy with it all things considered.

 

[John]

I'm actually quite bored

...because it does everything well, it's a depressing drive...?

 

[markjay]

...because it does everything well, it's a depressing drive...?

Because it's not RWD

 

[davidjpowell]

...because it does everything well, it's a depressing drive...?

Not depressing. Just 72k behind the same dash...

 

[davidjpowell]

I'm in my final 2 weeks with the Volvo... Been a good car - let itself down at the last moment needing an EGR cooler, which Volvo did under warranty goodwill (I passed max warranty miles a year ago).

Still on the original rear tyres at 84k - although annoyingly I am having to change one due to uneven wear. I really wanted to hand it back with original tyres! Still on original front brake pads too.

It's replacement has arrived

 

[John]

I'm in my final 2 weeks with the Volvo... Been a good car - let itself down at the last moment needing an EGR cooler, which Volvo did under warranty goodwill (I passed max warranty miles a year ago).

My IT Director has a 15 plate and it has been back 3 times with EGR issues.

Van looks nice.

Can't really comment more than that other than I love the driving position and would happily drive a manual Transit all day - I love them!

 

[davidjpowell]

Mine's an Auto Transit - 170 Sport....

They do have issues with the EGR on the D4 engine. They think the only reason that they have not seen mine for it before is because of my high mileage.