I might only be "young" at 24, but I think I made the right choice in buying a Volvo. I've only been driving for 7 years, but in that time I've owned (or co-owned) 6 cars! That's one a year, bearing in mind I didn't drive for the 1 year I "went" to University.
I stated off with a Citroen AX (good starter car), and drove that around for a year. I Then went and bought a brand new Vauxhall Corsa on finance (big mistake). To try and get rid of the negative equity, I thought it would be a good idea to buy another new car, a Ford Fiesta ST, on finance! I soon managed to shake off this car, and the accompanying debt! The other cars, a Mitsubishi Shogun and a Ford Fiesta, are mentioned below.


Back in 2007, my partner and I began running a wildlife charity in SE London. Our ambulance was the partner's car, a 2004 Ford Fiesta. Not the most practical of cars to be using! So, in 2009, I thought it would be a good idea to buy a Mitsubishi Shogun off of Ebay! Oh, how silly that was. I was the winning bidder, hadn't seen the car before hand, and had to trek across the breadth of London to pick it up. £700 it cost me. What a bargain! A large, Japanese car, at a "good" price, what more could I want? Well, 12 months and £1000 in repair bills later, I wanted something different...

So, without consulting the other half (big mistake) I bought myself a Volvo V70 D5 SE.

For those of you that don't know, the Volvo is that Swedish car company that make cars for old people who like pipes and slippers. The V70 is the largest of the estates that they do (V standing for versatility), and the D5 is the high performance diesel engine.It's supposed to be the diesel equivalent of the T5 (the fast petrol version), but it's not in the same league really. The SE means it is the "luxury" model, which includes electric leather seats, climate control, cruise control and a snazzy radio. The extras that it didn't come with it were heated seats, sat nav, in-car telephone and other, minor things. So, for the grand sum of £8000, I parted with some cash and took ownership of the V70. It had done 106,000 miles. A lot some might say, but Volvo owners will tell you that "it's hardly worn in yet". The only signs that it had done this mileage was the drivers seat, the steering wheel, and the gear knob. Oh, and the heavily kerbed wheels. Everything else was immaculate.


Now let me give you some boring "boy racer" stats. It's a 2.4 litre, 5 cylinder diesel engine, pushing out 163bhp. However, in late 2004, early 2005, the engine was upgraded to 180ish bhp. It has a top speed of 135ish (apparently) and will do 0-60mph in about 8.5 seconds. Average fuel consumption is said to be around the 45mpg mark. Not long after I bought the car, I plugged in a diesel tuning chip, from Diesel Tuning UK (DTUK). This now means that my car is, and I have had it tested, pushing out 201bhp! Quite a nice improvement for getting onto motorways quickly, and over-taking tractors!


Well, what can I say about the car in my opinion? I love it. It might be a big, heavy, family car, but I needed a large car to use as a personal car, and to carry rescue equipment with me. I've now done 118,000 miles in it, and it's still going strong. The seats are comfortable, the ride is excellent, and nothing feels "cheap". The fuel consumption is amazing. I know the mpg read-out is off slightly due to the tuning box, but on a recent journey to Wales, I clocked up 50mpg! It costs about £75-80 to fill the tank up to the brim, and then on normal town driving, I can get about 600 miles out of it. Calculations show that this is about 35mpg, but I am a bit lead-footed. The only downside, considering that it's supposed to be a big, family estate, is that the boot is surprisingly small!
My dad's Hyundai Santa Fé can fit considerably bigger things in it.


So, to sum up this "review", I would give this car 8.5 out of 10.


In future, I think I will stick with Volvo. But I would be tempted to go for the AWD (All Wheel Drive) version for those snowy months!

The current version now comes with 205bhp, so I think that's the one to go for.



Andy Callaghan