2005 Volvo V50 from Norway - Comments

The passenger-seat belt-waring sensor was over-sensitive.

The electronics seems not too fond of long periods of -10C to -20C degrees. It sometimes (but not often) generate error-messages when everything is perfectly fine.

The 1,6-litre diesel-engine is simply excellent. Very low consumption combined with it being quick, quite powerful and responsive.

The handling is great. It can be driven seriously fast on almost any road surface without it ever becoming scary.

I bought the Audio High Performance stereo with a bigger amp, 6 CD-changer and 8 speakers. It is highly recommended. It sounds great both on CD and radio-listening.

The car is practical, thus not a very large estate, comfortable, well thought thru, handles brilliantly and performs a lot more than you would expect with a 1,6 under the hood.

After owning the car for nearly 20 months, I must say that I'm still very well satisfied with the V50. The electronic mishaps turned out to be a connector located in both front doors, my local dealer (which BTW offers excellent service) replaced them and problem solved permanently.

First: it's strong points:

1) Really good brakes, i love them!

2) It sticks to the road like a Mitsu lancer. Love that too.

3) Really nice place to be in when you're in a traffic jam.

Now, for it's lesser characteristics:

Back to 3: it's nice in a jam. It isn't outside jams: it's underpowered. I hate the 1.6D in the Volvo V50. It completely ruins the car. There is absolutely no power in the low revs, and as the revs go up, the noise grows, but power stays disappointing. You really have to keep it above 2000 RPM if you wish to have some power. And even then, I don't feel safe overtaking with this car. It feels like the engine could lose power at any moment. The V50 1.6D isn't exactly slow, but it sure as hell isn't fast either, and it's not nearly enough for a 29000€ car. It might even be the slowest +28000€ car in the market today.

Also, GO FOR THE STEREO UPGRADE. The standard stereo sucks. Really. Badly. I leave it off. It annoys me. It should be arrested and put in jail, for how it treats Beethoven et al.

Also, there are some wind-noise issues above 100 km/h. (shouldn't be in a premium car). I sometimes have passengers checking if the windows are properly closed while cruising on the motorway. In a 29000€ volvo! Shame!

The car would be very nice to drive if it wasn't seriously underpowered. There is still one nig point of concern: the ride is hard. With a 1.6D... Why? It's not sporty -nor fast- at all, so could it at least be more comfortable?

I feel that the V50 is really wasted with a 1.6D. It's a waste of steel and aluminium. It's a (bad) joke. And, to add to its underpoweredness, it always enables the airco when i start up the engine. I always have to put if off. I hate that.

When the airco is engaged, the engine rattles loud enough to be heard (and to be annoying). Also, with the airco engaged, you can feel the clutch pedal vibrating. In a premium brand car. Annoying and irritating it is.

You don't get that much space either. For a volvo stationwagon, it's plain ridiculous. The glove compartment is hardly big enough to contain a pair of gloves (but it's quite spacey for as an ashtray).

Go for (at least) the 2.0D. (Or even better; for the same money you have a really nice skoda octavia with more kit, and a 1.9 TDI, which does have some grunt in the low revs and allows for a lazy drivingstyle.)