A gentleman called in today asking Click n’ Clack if the Volvo V70R would be a good way to spice up his ride while keeping a family bent.
In my opinion, Tom & Ray correctly steered him away from this car but should have pointed out the next step down from Volvo - the V70 2.5T (2007 and earlier). While not the 300hp, tire burning racer the V70R is, the V70 2.5T has a light pressure turbo that gives plenty of kick (and runs on regular gas!).
Plus, equipped with the rear facing 3rd row seat, it remains a very useful family vehicle.
There are a lot of more powerful small trucks - how about a 6 cyl. Nissan truck or a small SUV with the hottest engine combination?
Sticking with Volvo, what about the XC70 (the AWD cross over almost SUV). Now I know a wagon hardly conjures up images of hair-raising oversteer on switchbacks, unless of course if you have ever seen or driven Audi’s monster RS4 or RS6, the XC70 T6 may be a lively yet suitable replacement for the 4 Runner (large interior room, optional tow hitch, ample ground clearance, turbo-charged engine, one of those driver selectable ‘geartronic’ auto transmissions, etc. And with the new styling regime they look a bit more sporty then before too. I am not sure if I am trying to sell others or myself on this one.
As it turns out, all the Volvo V70s, including the R, can tow 3300 lb. He should buy the Volvo of his dreams and tow the wood with that. If his combined wood/trailer weight is more than 3300 lb, he can either take lighter loads, or get an aluminum trailer.
Life is too short to be spending hours in cars we don’t like.
Andy,
As a very happy owner of a V70R I believe Tom and Ray are way off base on this one. I installed a trailer hitch and can easily tow two cubic yards of mulch around town with our utility trailer.
There were two comments made in the call. Your wife did not want to drive a manual. Mine is the 6 speed automatic with the manual option, which is very responsive and good fun within the limits of a large car (other cars we have are Miatas). This tranny was available in the 2004-2007 models. Another comment was the ride quality, but the 4C suspension works very well and there are many tire options, from all season to max performance. I can switch over to the Comfort setting when I carry the dogs, and the Advanced when it’s just me.
Finally, check out V70R.com for other input and ocassional links to good used ones.
Happy Driving!
This guy needs an Acura RDX. Really fun to drive, but plenty of room for a small family.
Clearly what this gentleman needs to do is keep his truck for the hauling chores, let his wife keep her Accord, and buy an inexpensive “fun” car. I recommend an early to mid '90s Mazda Miata. Cheap to buy and maintain, cheap to insure, good mileage, relatively safe, and can give him all the “fun” driving he’ll ever want. And his wife will probably love it - either to drive it herself or for their occasional “dates”.
If four seats are required, look for an older Subaru WRX, for similar cheap thrills.
The Miata is a great idea, another thought along that line would be to rent a Mustang from Hertz for those weekends when you something more fun to drive. Hertz has lots of them, they don’t cost that much for a weekend, you don’t have to store it all winter and it’s not cluttering up the driveway all week when you wouldn’t have time to drive it anyway.
My steptfather has a 2005 V70 non-turbo that replaced an older V70 with the 2.3L Turbo. I can tell you that 2005 with the N/A 2.4L is a dog. It’s neither smooth, quiet or powerful. My mother has a 2004 C70 with the 2.4L low pressure turbo. It’s tolerable, but not what I would consider fast. I have driven an S60R with the high pressure turbo, it was much quicker than the low pressure 2.4L.
Fortunately Volvo has finally replaced the wheezey five cylinders with smoother and more powerful inline 6s and V8s in some of their newer vehicles.
Hi everyone,
up until last year I owned a V70 D5 Diesel. It had an overall momentum of 400 Newtons all across the rpm-range. So it never felt like it was lacking any power. I?m located in Germany, so the only “bad” thing, if you will, is, that 140mph was all you could reach on the highway. Also you had to get yourself new tires a little more often. The R-Version seems a little overpriced anyway.