What’s it like?
The Volvo V70 is a ‘bridging’ model for the Scandinavian firm, spanning the period between its gloriously boxy old estates of the 1980 and ’90s – think the 900-series of cars, like the 940 and 960 – and the curvier, modern era, with the recently departed V90 wagon. Volvo built three generations of the V70 in total, during which time it got progressively less square in appearance, until this Mk3 (built from 2007 to 2016) showed the new direction Volvo’s designers were heading in.
Yet the third-gen V70 remained a large, practical estate, more so than its premium rivals such as the Audi A6 Avant, BMW 5 Series Touring, Jaguar XF Sportbrake and Mercedes E-Class Estate – all of which tended to sacrifice boot space for the exterior aesthetics of a sloping upper tailgate. V70s are not easy to track down on the used market, but here’s how to find a good one if you’re after a slice of Swedish goodness.
Which model to go for?
During the service life of this V70, Volvo was moving from its old four-, five- and six-cylinder engines to a newer, cleaner ‘DRIVe’ format based heavily on efficient four-cylinder units. So, if you choose an earlier V70 Mk3, you’re likely to get the big-capacity engines which can be a little thirsty, especially the charismatic five-cylinder options which the company did in both petrol and diesel forms.
Following its facelift in 2012, the V70 started to adopt badging which continues in Volvo’s ranges today, so the petrol cars were called T4, T5 and T6, depending on their power rating and cylinder count, while the diesels ran D2-D5, where most were four-cylinder engines with the exception of the five-cylinder D5.
The most-common find on the Irish used market, though, is going to be the D4. This was originally powered by a 2.4-litre five-cylinder with 163hp, with a 2.0-litre four-cylinder replacement delivering 181hp being phased in from 2014 onwards. Some of the low-powered D2 models might be drifting about the second-hand scene, as well, as this initially used a 115hp 1.6-litre diesel four-cylinder engine, replaced right at the end of the V70’s life (2015 and 2016 only) by a detuned 2.0-litre four-cylinder with 120hp.
For those looking for a lifestyle estate, Volvo did an XC70 crossover version of this V70, but they’re as thin on the ground as the regular V70.
Does anything go wrong?
The main issues with this generation of Volvo V70 were occasional jerkiness from the Geartronic automatic transmission, excessive wear of front suspension components like balljoints, control arms and anti-roll-bar bushes, and less-common turbo failures on the bigger petrol and diesel engines. Any V70 you buy now, even the newest, is going to be at least ten years old, so make sure you get one with a solid history and evidence of regular maintenance.
There were eight recalls for this generation of the V70, pertaining to air bubbles in the engine’s coolant system; reduced strength of the tensile steel in the safety-belt fixings; carbon deposits building up in the engine intake; insufficient cooling in the exhaust-gas-recirculation system; cracked fuel hoses; an engine control module potentially cutting the engine out while driving; inadvertent release of the handbrake; and the wiper-arm mechanism possibly chafing against the brake-booster vacuum line.