Well, could be. I took the Volvo to meet my BMW man this afternoon, and - tempting fate and subject still to quite a lot of things - I could be ten or so days away from making the change.
So I took a longish way home - for one thing, the S60 has a good 200 miles' worth in the tank - and made a point of reminding myself why we've stuck with it for so long. The seats are still wonderfully comfortable, the HU-803 can still play AC/DC or Schubert with equal style - heaps better than the unit in the LEC. And the five cylinders still make that splendid ringing howl above 3,000 rpm.
Those were three of the things I bought it for, the fourth being its flexibility and willingness to accelerate in (almost) any gear. It still can - it dispatched a dawdling Golf very pleasingly - and it was nice to be thinking about gears again after weeks of mostly trundling around in the LEC. Just as well; its successor looks like being a manual too.
So why change? Because it's getting old. The suspension feels a little baggy and the gearchange is occasionally obstructive. Either could probably be improved with a few affordable parts. Less easily remedied is the turbo, whose variable vanes get sticky and will occasionally generate an error and force the car into low-boost mode until it's restarted. I can manage that but a permanent fix is a four-digit new turbo.
And finally, I'm ready for a change at last. It's been great, and will have cost us about £13,000 to own and repair in the ten-and-a-half years since I bought it from my former employer's lease company. And it's seen us through the lean times of the first five Cameron years and an expensive relocation. But now we can afford to change it, and I think I've found something that could be just as comfortable and potentially even more fun. We'll see.
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Still miss my S60. Hard to put my finger on one particular thing (seats and stereo aside), but just such a satisfying, painless car to own, and to sink into at the end of a long day.
With regard to the overboost / VNT issue, our Golf started doing this towards the end of last year, logging the good old Charge Pressure Control: Positive Deviation. On the advice of our VW tech mate, I took it out, got the engine well up to temperature, and then gave it an absolute thrashing. The clag and rubbish that came out the back the first few times spoke volumes.
It seems to have done the trick, as it's been about 5 months since the last time it happened. SWMBO is also under firm instruction to give it a bootful every so often.
I take it you've explored the Italian tune up option.
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>> Well, could be. I took the Volvo to meet my BMW man this afternoon, and
>> - tempting fate and subject still to quite a lot of things - I could
>> be ten or so days away from making the change.
>>
Don't be! It's a good change!
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I had a good long test drive a few weeks ago in a V60 (not changing cars just yet but it's fun to look around). Generally very impressed - this was a D4 - except for one thing which sounds trivial but might not be if you live with a car day to day.
There was no footrest for one's left foot, and the floor didn't slope enough for my foot to rest on it. Is that also true of your S60, WdB? Possibly being tall you don't have the problem anyway. But I found my left foot starting to ache after an hour or so.
This test car was a manual but I imagine it would be the same in an auto.
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>> There was no footrest for one's left foot,
Funny, never felt the need for one of those. But then I tend to slump sideways in the seat like a third world taxi driver. I've sometimes had cars with sticky clutch pedals which needed to be shoved up with one's long-suffering left shoe-toe.
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One thing I've always appreciated about my S60 is that it has plenty of size-13 room around the pedals and a good rest for the left hoof. The wheelarch makes a good rest for the right foot when using the cruise control, too.
The recent Volvos I test-drove were both automatics but I did have a new, manual S60 as a loan car a few years ago and found the same thing as you; the manual V40 is the same, and while I've tried in the showroom and found I can rest my foot flat on the floor, I'd much rather have a wedge for it. The BMW has one, as does the Golf GTI - which even has a purpose-made right footrest too; a very impressive footwell.
Volvo's new diesel engines are impressive, but the manual S60 has a poor electric parking brake that - at one busy junction I use often enough for it it matter - makes the car practically undrivable. The V40 - and the BMW - have stuck with a handle, which is fine by me.
For DP: yes, there is a technique for freeing the turbo that involves a boot (warm, of course) from 40 to 60ish in fourth. This, apparently, takes the vanes through their full range of travel. Once it's done, the engine does seem to rev happily right to the red line - and I still like the sound when it does - but the opportunity to do either doesn't always arise, and I'm left with the nagging doubt whether it'll respond if I want to overtake something. That's the main reason for changing now.
No deal yet on the BMW - working till all hours this week and haven't had time to pick up the phone - but I hope we'll make it happen quite soon now.
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>> There was no footrest for one's left foot, and the floor didn't slope enough for
>> my foot to rest on it. Is that also true of your S60, WdB?
All current S & V 60s have a left foot rest with the exception of RHD manuals.
I went from an S60 with a rest to one without, can't say I missed it when I drove that car over 700 miles in a day from time to time. I've only got small size 9s to accommodate though.
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Can't say I've ever found them of any use. Might well be a body shape thing.
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V40 has one. Not quite the same specific foot design as any BMW I've owned...sort of a shaped thing. Works well enough
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Isn't your V40 an auto, though, RP? As Gmac comments, Volvo's omission seems to have been to leave enough space in the RHD design for both a clutch pedal and a footrest.
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It goes a bit deeper than that WDB. These RHD cars seem to be a bit of an afterthought.
The switchgear around the light switch is completely hidden which is easily seen in a left hooker, the switch has been taken from the left to right unchanged where in your car everything was reversed.
I really look forward to the all new S60 whenever it comes.
I really do like Volvo cars, my previous S60 being similar to yours I kept for 7 years which was a record for me. I bought the new one based on my previous experience which was, in hindsight, a mistake.
Last edited by: gmac on Sun 24 May 15 at 17:05
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One last time (?) - DP
