1999 Volvo S70 T5 from UK and Ireland - Comments

I would first like to point out that this car was only 3 years old when bought on the approved used scheme from a Volvo main dealer. It had only one previous owner and a full service history and the mileage was far from excessive for it's age.

At around 61,000 miles, I noticed a hesitancy and surging from the engine when cruising at steady speeds on light to medium throttle openings. The car was booked in for a check-up, but before the date, the problem worsened into a sudden dramatic loss of power and violent hunting from the engine. I took it straight back to the dealer (I had only had it 2 months), who upgraded the engine management software.

The problem re-occurred around 4 months later and a further visit to the dealer was required.

Around 6 months later it started to happen again, so after a final visit to the dealer, I sold the car as the warranty period was about to end and I was disillusioned with the car.

The cabin heater fan regulator also failed at around 65,000 miles, requiring replacement and the tail-light bulbs blew with annoying regularity.

The alloy wheels were also beginning to corrode, in spite of being regularly cleaned.

I bought this car as a supposed step upmarket in quality and performance. I sold it after a year, disappointed and disillusioned. This is why;

I owned a powerful (170 bhp) 'hot hatch' and wanted something that would be more refined and comfortable, but still give exciting performance.

Comfort-wise, it was spot on; I doubt if I have ever sat in more comfortable car seats, and an 1800 mile holiday to Scotland proved it to be a relaxing long distance car.

It was not, however, as spacious as I'd hoped for such a big car. The boot was fantastic, but in the cabin, it was necessary to move the front seats forward if anyone wanted to travel in the back, this in a car supposedly the next size up from the Vectra/Mondeo class.

I was also amazed that a car costing 26k new did not come with a standard fit CD player (i intended to fit a multi-changer, so it didn't stop me buying), and that with so much power it did not have traction control.

The biggest disappointment for me, though, was the way the car drove. It just did not feel like a 240 bhp car. Head to head on a deserted dual carriageway against a friend's 170 bhp hot hatch, it was only slightly quicker through the gears. Even allowing for it's size and weight, a 70 bhp power advantage should have been more convincing.

The overall impression was that it just did not punch as hard as 240 bhp would suggest it should, and the power tailed off noticeably after 5000 rpm, even though it would rev to 6500.

Worse still was the chassis. How could a car with this much power be set up so softly? The grip was very poor, especially at the front. It rolled far too much and under-steered with very little provocation. A bumpy road would easily upset it's composure and the steering felt slow witted and had no feel. I did not feel I could trust the car during spirited driving (which is surely the intention of giving it that much power?).

On the plus side the brakes were utterly superb, the best I have ever experienced, and I found straight line traction to be surprisingly good given the lack of traction control.

While fuel economy was not exactly frugal, it was not that bad given the power.

Insurance was predictably expensive, but servicing costs were appalling.

I found the dealer service to be poor, and one particular incident left me fuming.

All in all, it was a big let down to experience the problems that I did on a well maintained 'quality' brand car, when my previous 3 cars (all Hondas) gave me faultless reliability combined with a good dealer experience.

To cap it off, when I sold it I discovered the abysmal depreciation it had suffered, the supposed avoidance of which was another reason for purchasing a more 'upmarket' brand.

I would not buy another Volvo.

I purchased my 1999 S70 Volvo new. Have always had problems with the air conditioner. It freezes up and you have to let it defreeze before it can be used again. This problem starts at about 40 minutes of being on the road, so forget any trips in this car. The dealer can't locate the problem, but blames it on the way I use the air conditioner! Also, the material has come apart from the body in the back doors. Dealer told me that the front door panels will eventually do it to. Cost to fix...$1,000 and can't guarantee for more than 12 months. Will I ever buy a Volvo again... no way. I am not one for trading cars. I like to keep them forever, but not sure how long the interior will last on this Volvo. I do not recommend the S70 Volvo due to poor workmanship.

How come then that my Volvo S70 2.5 (1998 and 125,000 miles) has a perfect interior? In fact there is not one little bit of trim lifting. I am fortunate enough to regularly drive newer bigger - far more expensive - cars and cannot find one to match teh quality of my S70!!!

Maybe you are responding to the first comment above, but if you look again at my original review, my over-riding concerns were with the chassis, the general reliability, poor equipment levels for the price, appalling depreciation and poor treatment from my local dealer.

My sister and her husband have had 3 Volvos and have liked them all, but they have experienced problems with each of them, including their current one, an XC90 which was bough brand new.

I bought my S70 based on their recommendations, but would not choose to buy another after what I experienced.

It was my first experience of owning a Volvo and when it proved to be such a let down, why would I sink my hard-earned cash into another?

That is a good response, and I would largely agree with your views. The S70 in my mind is a great car and at 125,000 has not one thing wrong with it (including no blown bulbs!) and I trust it wholley. However, I brought it knowing it was a bargain. Because - it was a saloon. In the UK, a Volvo has to be an estate. The estate will still depreciate - like all cars - but not as much as the saloon, because there is more demand. Also, the 850 / S70 / V70 are largly very reliable cars. Hence one of the reasons that the Police use them. Every car has the potential to go wrong - no car is fault free. But something is drawing your family back to them - it's because no one can make a car that inspires so much confidence (in most cases!). The package of immense safety (far better than anything the Japanese can make - is family safety important?), massive comfort and the knowledge that with regular servicing, the car will go on forever. This is proved by how many 20 year old Volvos are still on the road. In the case of the 70 range - great sounding engines!!!

Thanks for your comments.

I'm glad your S70 has taken you to a big mileage with no problems, you must have a good one. I agree that generally Volvos have a reputation for reliability and quality which is why I bought one.

Yes my sister and her husband have gone back for more and are now on their 3rd, but my parents drive Hondas and my other sister and her husband have a BMW and a Honda.

Good point you make about the saloon depreciating faster than the estate, but even so, I expected the value of a semi-premium brand car to hold up better (part of my reason for investing in one).

I would have to disagree with you on safety though. Yes Volvos have traditionally been seen as among the safest cars on the road, but for the last few years, the situation has changed.

They are still very safe, I'm not disputing that, but many other manufacturers have caught up and in some cases overtaken Volvo.

I do strongly dispute your assertion that Japanese cars aren't safe though! Of course my family's safety is of the utmost importance to me.

If you have a look at the Euro NCAP website (in case you don't know this is the most highly respected independent vehicle crash testing organisation), you will see that most of the French cars (which I would not touch with a bargepole!) of equivalent size are rated at 5 stars (the maximum). The Toyota Avensis is also a 5 star car, the Honda Accord 4 stars. The Volvo S70 and S80 are both also rated at 4 stars - very safe, but no longer the best.

I guess from your comments that yours is not a T5 (maybe I'm wrong)? If I'd had a lesser engined version, it wouldn't have overwhelmed the chassis to such an extent and my expectations would have been lower. But I'm sorry, if Volvo pitch it as a sports saloon with 240bhp, customers are going to expect a chassis to match.

I'm not a Volvo hater, I love cars in general and because of that and as a private customer spending my own money I have high expectations. Hopefully you can understand that at the time, I had never owned a Volvo previously and had come from owning 3 Hondas before that which had been faultlessly reliable, my experience of Volvo ownership was a letdown.

I'm not saying they are bad cars and I know there are many satisfied Volvo owners out there (yourself included). It's just my personal experience of owning one was not good.

A combination of some disappointments with the car itself, unreliability, and poor treatment from the dealer has understandably put me off.

If you take a look at the various satisfaction / reliability surveys you will understand why I have gone back to Honda.

The JD Power survey ranks Honda 2nd overall and Volvo 9th for customer satisfaction, and Honda topped their last reliability survey.

The Top Gear survey ranked Honda 3rd overall, Volvo 12th. These are the views of thousands of members of the public.

I am now on my 5th Honda. None have been bought new and all have been 100% reliable. I'm not saying they are the best cars in the world (far from it), but as an all round ownership proposition, they are fantastic.

I invite you to have a sit inside the latest Accord in 'Executive' trim if you don't think they match up to Volvo for quality - easily they do!

I'm pleased for you that you love yours, but for me it's once bitten, twice shy!!

I owned a Honda Accord 2001 1.8SE model - I hated this car - hated it! The interior trim felt flimsy and rattled. the seats were awful and the stereo complete rubbish. It also felt light on the road, was noisy and the steering and brakes did not inspire confidence. It just felt cheap and rubbishy although it was mechanically faultless. I had german cars prior to this. I have had a Volvo S60 company car for the past two years and, NCAP ratings aside, I can assure you which car I would rather have an accident in! I suspect there would be many out there with the same inclination! Euro NCAP tests, while very helpful, test cars in very narrow scenarios and many would argue they do not reflect real accident scenarios. Volvo spend large amounts of cash, as does MB, testing cars in 'real life' accident scenarios and examining post accident cars. To suggest that a Renault Laguna is a safer car in an accident than an MB E class or a Volvo S60 is something I have difficulty comprehending - just drive and look at the two cars! Incidentally the S60, 55,000 miles on has been utterly reliable (small central locking problem aside) and comfort wise, well I have never had a car as good. I feels so solid, reassuring and confidence inspiring. It is very well made and the stereo system is fantastic. I never thought I would be a convert to Volvo, but there you go!

If you read my original review and the comments that follow, and to which I've replied, you are kind of missing the point.

My review was based on THAT CAR, it was not a critique of Volvo in general. That's the idea of this site, for owners to report on their cars; this seems to be turning into an argument about who thinks which make is better.

The point is, a number of people report on their experiences of a particular car, 'x' amount are happy, 'y' amount are not. This allows others to build an informed picture of a potential purchase based on the real experiences of others.

The point is not to get into a pub debate about which manufacturer is better! I could happily get into that debate with you, but it would likely go on for ever and I'm supposed to be working, but...!!

Shame you had a bad Accord, mine have been great, very happy with them.

Yes it will feel cheaper inside than a Merc/Audi/BMW - that's obvious - it competes in a different market sector at a different price bracket.

Yes, Volvo make great seats and good sound systems and generally have appealing interiors. I've said as much in my original review and since.

Yes Euro NCAP test to specific criteria - those of the most common type of accident! If you disregard the results based on how a car LOOKS (!) as you say above, or how it FEELS, I may be wasting my breath here.

I did NOT say Volvo's aren't safe, just no longer head and shoulders above the rest as they used to be. And that Japanese cars (certain ones) are just as safe.

It's a bit of a blinkered view to say that you wouldn't trust the safety results produced by experts regarding French cars based on the fact you think they LOOK less crashworthy than another car - judging a book by it's cover?

By the way, I would not buy a French car in a million years, probably for exactly the same reasons as you, but my reasons would be nothing to do with safety.

Look at any customer satisfaction / reliability survey over the last few years and the picture is always the same - Japanese brands at or near the top.

VW and Audi - I see far too many on the hard shoulder. Merc - STORM of negativity over the last few years around build quality, reliabilty, customer service.

BMW - very nice.

You seem to have had a different experience with yours, but overall I've found MY Hondas faultlessly reliable, comfortable, well built, safe (I was hit while stationary in one hard enough to write it off and I was not hurt), entertaining to drive.

Not the best cars out there, but very good, and as an OVERALL ownership experience FOR ME, brilliant.

The opposite seems true for you with Honda/Volvo, which is exactly why you should understand the nature of my review. The only time I've owned a Volvo, while it had good points, the OVERALL experience was enough to put me off another one, as has been the case with your Honda.

It comes down to what your own personal experience of a car/brand has been - that will form the basis of your judgement.

I have had my S70 T5 for eight years now and have nothing bad to say at all. It is a pleasure to drive and own. The only major replacements have been the oxygen sensors (and I have the sneaking suspicion it was due to a fuel system cleaner that was not safe for O2 sensors--and this was well before a maufacturer ever printed anything on their product label as pertaining to that end) and the throttle body (which on a high compression turbo with a demanding driver should come as no surprise).

The interior is worn inasmuch as the rubber on all switches has worn, not ripped off. Which would tell me the quality of the switches is outstanding. However, the leather driver's seat is showing some age.

The latest low-end repair is the electric antenna. I use the stereo well as the sound is great (after the speakers got broken in) and this is at a little over 80,000 miles.

This has been a great car and a great buy at $31,000 back in 2000.

The comments I want to make relate mostly to safety.

I had a MAJOR smash in a Peugoet 309 GLD (Diesel) and it performed very well. Police on the scene said in any other make we would have likely lost our legs as the engine would be touching the front seat and it's that safety that justifies the police driving the make (and volvo) and I'm sure they see enough smashes!

I have also had two major crashes in my first car that was a Volvo 440 - older model. In one of those I was doing more than 50 mph and had no seatbelt, coming to a complete stop - not even whip lash! I was fine in both cases. 20 years on, I have only driven Volvo and that's all I'll drive. So you can keep your statistics! One of my cars is a 740 and has 5 stars which is better than some of the newest cars of any make.

Well I'm glad you came through two accidents without harm, but your view is very narrow.

It's not 'statistics' that are referred to, it's the results of real owners surveyed, ACTUAL data based on crashes, reliability etc, and scientifically gathered information on crash performances carried out under controlled conditions.

I don't know where you're getting the '5 stars' from for your 740. The NCAP tests do not cover cars that old.

Yes Volvo's are very safe cars, no-one is arguing against that, but they are not way ahead of every other make like they used to be. Most (not all) modern makes of car are very safe these days, they have to be as the market demands it.

I've also got no doubt that Peugeots and other French made cars are also safe. The reason I would not but a French car in a million years is because of their history in recent years of poor build quality and awful reliability.

Plenty of info out there to be easily found.

This is probably a waste of words though. Driving without a seatbelt in this day and age??? That speaks for itself.