Calling Volvo owners-what are they like?

[Pawslikepaddington]

We do a lot of outdoor activities, including bike riding away from home, and I'm currently driving a Suzuki Alto - a cinquicento (sp?) by Suzuki basically, and hate it! I want something I can stick a roof box and bike rack on with confidence, and the first thing that came to mind was a V40 or similar. Are they any good? Thank you x

I must admit to driving one - although where I live probably need a 4 x 4!

They are great - good solid family cars. We transport our 3 kids around no problem and still plenty of room in boot for luggage.

We have put a bike rack on the roof before - never put a box on.

Grab a diesel - great fuel economy and reasonable on insurance too.

Ooh. I have a V40! Its 10 years old and I really love it!

Not had any big/expensive problems with it in the 4 years we have had it. Admittedly DH is a mechanic and does any repairs for free (obviously) but there have not been many TBH.

He replaced the suspension bushes a few months back (the ride was a little firm) which was a little time consuming but no big deal.

Having previously been used to smaller cheap cars the cost of consumables (tyres, exhausts etc) is a bit on the high side, well, compared to what I was used to anyway.

Loads of space inside, decent boot size (though not the biggest in its class), v comfy seats and seatbelts, tows v well, goes well - mine has the 2.0 litre turbocharged engine and a lovely smooth gearbox.

Being quite an old car (quite new for me though!) it didn't have Isofix but DH found that Volvo sold Isofix as a part and fitted it before DS was born, a bloody wonderful invention!

I recently drove a VW Passat Estate (53 plate I think) which felt wonderfully well built and had tons of space inside. Might be worth a look.

You lovely lovelies! Because I have no man to advise me (although IME they know as much as women anyway!) I feel like I'm in shark infested waters trying to buy a second hand car! !

We've had one Volvo.

I know people who swear by them, but ours was a total lemon and the dealers were worse than useless. It cost a small fortune to maintain and 4 different dealers "fixed" the idling problems, before an independent mechanic looked at it and said that the distributor cap looked like it hadn't been cleaned for years.

One main dealer charged me 35 quid to look at the stereo and told me that it was crackly because the cables were dodgy. They didn't do anything about it just told me to take it to an audio specialist! It turned out that the cables were fine and it was the stereo that was the problem.

Buy a Honda. They are as reliable as Volvo, if not more so and the dealers aren't a bunch of incompetent
sharks.

Rant over.

yes V40 is the utter dogs' bollocks

regular service every 6 months and you'll be passing it on to your kids to learn to drive in

it is the best car I have EVER had
but then we are a volvo family, previously had 240s and dh has a 1967 Amazon