Volvo S60??

younggalway

hi all, just looking at changing my car at the moment, i have a budget of around 9k an was looking for a diesel saloon, and maybe a bit of luxury, i am in two minds whether to go for something practical like a passat (06-ish) or else this volvo s60 ive gone to see http://www.carzone.ie/search/Volvo/S60/S60-D5-4/201104200974030/advert?channel=CARS&featuredListingClickThru=true. I really like the volvo, its a pleasure to drive and the power is phenomenal. But after speaking to another salesman today, he has said:
1) The car will start to cause problems after 100k km
2) Parts are awful expensive

My head is telling me to stick with a passat but im sick to the teeth of driving boring common cars, for the first time ever when driving the volvo with my foot down i had a smile on my face

id appreciate some advice, maybe from some volvo owners??

colm_mcm

I wouldn't get a passat and bank on reliability or small bills.

Tragedy

The s60 is extremely reliable, to find out about known flaws - there's a UK volvo owners club with an S60 section and a checklist for viewing any used car, will give you a good guide to what can and often does go wrong with them.

If I was you I'd go for automatic, and I wouldn't pay €10k for one.

coylemj

I owned a 2003 S60 from 05 to 07 and never had any problems though I wasn't anywhere near 100K kms.

One thing I would point out and you will not hear it from a Volvo salesman or for that matter from a private seller trying to offload a Volvo - in my 2003 S60 the factory radio has no mute terminal for an aftermarket phone kit so unless the car has a Volvo factory fitted car kit, you will not be able to get the radio to mute on an incoming phone call. If that is an issue for you then you need to be aware of it, not alone is it difficult to hear an incoming call when the radio is on, you have to manually mute the radio or switch it off when accepting an incoming call. I swore that until Volvo fixed this I would never buy another model, it's a disgraceful restraint of trade as far as I'm concerned.

chiefwiggum

i had a 2003 s60 2.0T...best car i ever had..never any problems with but was very very thirsty(reason i gt rid of and it broke my heart to do it) power was great but the comfort is why you buy a volvo...ive often driven a 400mile round trip in it and when you get out you would thin k you were only driving 30 mins... the seats ARE that comfortable
i wouldnt pay that money for a 2005 nowhere near actually

i'd love another one......

VolvoMan

That '05 is a pre-facelift model ('01-04), so it was probably sitting around for about a year when new. That said, it looks a nice car and has all the right spec (Winter Pack, 17" alloys, leather). I'd say 7k would be a reasonable price for it.

The D5 engine was fantastic in this generation of Volvo cars (known as 'P2') and was praised for its refinement at the time. I wouldn't say automatic is absolutely necessary as it's not that big a car (these were only Audi A4 sized) and the torquey diesel engine won't mean you'll be changing gear very much anyway.

Tragedy

Automatic for me =
No clutch changes
Less wheelspin(serious problem in the D5, can spin the front wheels in 4th in the wet)
Easier city driving

griffin100

I've a 2003 D5 with 180,000 miles on the clock. I've put about 110k of those miles on. Fantastic car - fast and comfortable. Defo get the auto with leather and the winter pack.

What's gone wrong? Cat went at 100k and was expensive to fix. Suspension bushes (?) need replacing every so often but that was the same with my previous S40's. Light bulbs can be a problem.

I get about 40mpg on a mix of rural and city driving.

Best bit? Some d1ckhead in a Navara T-boned my wife at about 80kmh about 2 years ago (his fault) and my kids barely felt the impact despite €9k worth of damage being done.

Unfortunately my car has been in with a main dealer for 2 weeks to try and fix an intermittent power loss. They can't work out the problem - I think it's the fuel pressure sensor which can be a problem on 2003 S60's but the dealer says no - but that's a subject for a mew thread.