Post by Big Blue on Jan 5, 2019 22:55:11 GMT
The last Volvo I drove was a 440 back in the '90s. I hit a pothole in Wandsworth once and destroyed the steering to the extent that the wheel wouldn't self centre. It had a wallowing ride, understeered so hard it was impossible to apex any turn and torque steer was the kind that could cause a head on following a barely enthusiastic exit from a side street. Horrible probably best describes it.
So on to this one. It is a measure of the car that I didn't bother with any photos until the day of departure. It fulfils the modern car remit of being "some car". Everything works, it doesn't make you look like a twat, probably not a car the Joneses want to keep up with but is no less well equipped, built or capable than their Audi / BMW / Merc.
It was white, like lots of cars these days for some reason:
It just managed to swallow the two cases after I'd lifted the floor up but at the expense of rearward vision. The rear floor flap is a nice design in that it folds up in half against the rear seat, but of course that takes up a bit of space lengthways which is a modern car feature that continues to wind me up more than you can imagine: just make the fucking boot bigger and leave it being bigger! Overall I reckon the boot is not big enough compared to a 1 series or an A3 Sportback. I have no idea if the volume is bigger but in terms of getting two unbendable suitcases in it it's not as big.
Rear seat space is, however, much better. There was room for the girls to have a dance about. I think I could sit behind myself driving, which is a good sign at 6'2".
The equipment levels were as expected (heated seats, bluetooth, electric windows, aircon) and as mentioned before build quality that feels like it would last for a decade or two. What was disappointing was no nav and no Apple connectivity, meaning on the drive into the mountains for snow-related activities I needed to use the iPhone with talking directions over the bluetooth music.
When I collected the car the centre display screen was set to blank out after 10s which annoyed the shit out of me. I had to hunt through 800million menus to change it: this menu diving is something that the new interior architecture systems all have in common and why the more common controls remain on buttons that by pass the selection routing. You can't have hire cars that can't just be driven off and most car users (that may not necessarily like cars) wouldn't put up with it either. The dash is very Volvo.
All the controls fell easily to hand and the aircon did its job as it should; the heated seats were so hot at maximum setting that cooking en-route is a possible option if the passenger seat is empty - however for a Swedish car this is expected (although I noted from that train crash news at New Year that Sweden wasn't as cold as it could be this winter). One major criticism is that it has a lot of room but the rising rear window-line makes it feel like a cave inside: it's very dark in there.
So what's it like to drive? Competent is the nicest thing. Steering feel is not bad or good; the gear change is normal, the clutch was a bit difficult to get on the bite point for a TLGP and the driving position is adjustable every which way but Clint Eastwood. The engine is not the worst I've ever had and almost felt a bit petrol-y for a diesel. It didn't want for power, as proven to the complete nobhead that followed me out of Sväty Peter, the next village to W2.0s, up my arse in the 50 zone then tried to pass me before we reached the end of village sign. He was alongside me when we passed the sign and then I accelerated to 90 (the limit) and he appeared in my rear view mirrors once again. The rest of the road to Komarno is open road and guess what: he never got close to me and I didn't break the limit meaning that if the (probably Hungarian) twat had passed me he would have held me up.
The cruise was simple and easy to use, and the car cruised at motorway speeds without any issues at all. On the way back from the mountains some utter gimboid cut across my bows on the motorway - leaving his lane by a large margin. The brakes and winter tyres are very good indeed, as was vehicle stability.
One interesting element of design I saw that I would not have otherwise noticed if it hadn't been for the P1800 "is it or isn't it" shot on another thread by simonp. There is an upswept coachline that harks back to the very coachline I said meant the picture wasn't a P1800 until JohnC shot me down in flames. Kind of hard to get a shot of it but I tried and I had honestly never seen it before in my life.
Economy. The dash said 53.7mpg when I filled up in Fischamend (when I was pissing around with the computer I changed the units); miles travelled to fuel pumped came in at 50.5mpg on my calculator. Given that Fischamend is 7 minutes from VIE airport I could forgive some element of not-fullness leading to this difference and the car is so fuel efficient that a previous user could have filled up even further away. Either way 50mpg in mixed journeys over 572 miles is epic in my book, especially when yesterday I went to Sainsbury's in the Gorilla and managed 8.9mpg for the round trip (with no traffic).
Lastly the black panel dash. In the summer I had one of the current Golfs with black panel dash and bemoaned the lack of invention in its displays. This Volvo has stepped it up a bit (and I bet if there was Nav it would have some kind of directional info in there) with three options.
Eco (tells you if you have a right foot like a baboon with a dial on the left and some rev data on the right, with a circular speedo)
Performance (the rev counter is the dial with your speed in the middle. Like dressing your wife up in sexy underwear it doesn't make performance any more exciting)
Elegant (not sure what's elegant about not being able to see half the information, unless we're back to wife similes and taking her to dinner in a £1,000 dress to hide the fact of the matter....)
In summary: a very competent family car. Fulfils all the criteria: well made, well equipped, decent brand name, nice shape, moves forwards when asked. I've very nearly fallen asleep writing this which tells you all you need to know.
I'd never buy one. But it is better than a 440.
So on to this one. It is a measure of the car that I didn't bother with any photos until the day of departure. It fulfils the modern car remit of being "some car". Everything works, it doesn't make you look like a twat, probably not a car the Joneses want to keep up with but is no less well equipped, built or capable than their Audi / BMW / Merc.
It was white, like lots of cars these days for some reason:
It just managed to swallow the two cases after I'd lifted the floor up but at the expense of rearward vision. The rear floor flap is a nice design in that it folds up in half against the rear seat, but of course that takes up a bit of space lengthways which is a modern car feature that continues to wind me up more than you can imagine: just make the fucking boot bigger and leave it being bigger! Overall I reckon the boot is not big enough compared to a 1 series or an A3 Sportback. I have no idea if the volume is bigger but in terms of getting two unbendable suitcases in it it's not as big.
Rear seat space is, however, much better. There was room for the girls to have a dance about. I think I could sit behind myself driving, which is a good sign at 6'2".
The equipment levels were as expected (heated seats, bluetooth, electric windows, aircon) and as mentioned before build quality that feels like it would last for a decade or two. What was disappointing was no nav and no Apple connectivity, meaning on the drive into the mountains for snow-related activities I needed to use the iPhone with talking directions over the bluetooth music.
When I collected the car the centre display screen was set to blank out after 10s which annoyed the shit out of me. I had to hunt through 800million menus to change it: this menu diving is something that the new interior architecture systems all have in common and why the more common controls remain on buttons that by pass the selection routing. You can't have hire cars that can't just be driven off and most car users (that may not necessarily like cars) wouldn't put up with it either. The dash is very Volvo.
All the controls fell easily to hand and the aircon did its job as it should; the heated seats were so hot at maximum setting that cooking en-route is a possible option if the passenger seat is empty - however for a Swedish car this is expected (although I noted from that train crash news at New Year that Sweden wasn't as cold as it could be this winter). One major criticism is that it has a lot of room but the rising rear window-line makes it feel like a cave inside: it's very dark in there.
So what's it like to drive? Competent is the nicest thing. Steering feel is not bad or good; the gear change is normal, the clutch was a bit difficult to get on the bite point for a TLGP and the driving position is adjustable every which way but Clint Eastwood. The engine is not the worst I've ever had and almost felt a bit petrol-y for a diesel. It didn't want for power, as proven to the complete nobhead that followed me out of Sväty Peter, the next village to W2.0s, up my arse in the 50 zone then tried to pass me before we reached the end of village sign. He was alongside me when we passed the sign and then I accelerated to 90 (the limit) and he appeared in my rear view mirrors once again. The rest of the road to Komarno is open road and guess what: he never got close to me and I didn't break the limit meaning that if the (probably Hungarian) twat had passed me he would have held me up.
The cruise was simple and easy to use, and the car cruised at motorway speeds without any issues at all. On the way back from the mountains some utter gimboid cut across my bows on the motorway - leaving his lane by a large margin. The brakes and winter tyres are very good indeed, as was vehicle stability.
One interesting element of design I saw that I would not have otherwise noticed if it hadn't been for the P1800 "is it or isn't it" shot on another thread by simonp. There is an upswept coachline that harks back to the very coachline I said meant the picture wasn't a P1800 until JohnC shot me down in flames. Kind of hard to get a shot of it but I tried and I had honestly never seen it before in my life.
Economy. The dash said 53.7mpg when I filled up in Fischamend (when I was pissing around with the computer I changed the units); miles travelled to fuel pumped came in at 50.5mpg on my calculator. Given that Fischamend is 7 minutes from VIE airport I could forgive some element of not-fullness leading to this difference and the car is so fuel efficient that a previous user could have filled up even further away. Either way 50mpg in mixed journeys over 572 miles is epic in my book, especially when yesterday I went to Sainsbury's in the Gorilla and managed 8.9mpg for the round trip (with no traffic).
Lastly the black panel dash. In the summer I had one of the current Golfs with black panel dash and bemoaned the lack of invention in its displays. This Volvo has stepped it up a bit (and I bet if there was Nav it would have some kind of directional info in there) with three options.
Eco (tells you if you have a right foot like a baboon with a dial on the left and some rev data on the right, with a circular speedo)
Performance (the rev counter is the dial with your speed in the middle. Like dressing your wife up in sexy underwear it doesn't make performance any more exciting)
Elegant (not sure what's elegant about not being able to see half the information, unless we're back to wife similes and taking her to dinner in a £1,000 dress to hide the fact of the matter....)
In summary: a very competent family car. Fulfils all the criteria: well made, well equipped, decent brand name, nice shape, moves forwards when asked. I've very nearly fallen asleep writing this which tells you all you need to know.
I'd never buy one. But it is better than a 440.
