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Volvo XC90 D5 Manual - Reading - £1995


Wingz123

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Fuck it I’d sooner be in the XC90 than in a 205 in the event of a bang. Nothing heroic in ferrying everyone around in something with the structural integrity of Weetabix. I realise this sounds selfish but in the event of an accident I’d certainly be concerned with the survival unharmed of my kids. The people in the other car aren’t my top priority.

 

Nobody's suggesting that a Peugeot 205 is a good vehicle to crash. But I am saying that it's a vehicle which encourages you to drive carefully. As for the Volvo. I'm not convinced that driver aids that stop a car getting too close to the one in front are what we need to create safer roads.

 

Anyway to put this into a context here are the stats for London, 2016. Not relevant to everybody - but they are to me. The Volvo probably makes sense to some people, but realistically, driving a car is probably one of the least dangerous things I do.

 

Overall road fatalities: 116

Pedestrian road deaths: 61

Motorcyclist deaths: 33

Car occupant deaths: 10

Cyclist deaths: 8

 

For those of you who regularly drive outside of London, what about this? 2013 national figures cos that's what I found.

 

Car occupant deaths: 785

Alcohol related deaths: 8416

 

I don't think driving a car is really all that dangerous, whatever vehicle you choose. But I agree that this looks a nice car.

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I've had 2 Xc90s. One of which I've got currently which I bought new 8 years ago and have covered 160k in. It's a lovely car and to be honest how Volvo got away with with barely changing it over it's near 13year production life leads credence to the adage if it ain't broke don't fix it. It does mean however that a Mk1 Xc90 does exude quite a lot of old school charm and owes a lot more to Volvos of the mid to late 90s than it does to anything from the post noughties. It's a fair old size and to be honest doesn't drive like a sports car or does it invite you to drive it like a sports car. They are a friendly mile munching machine - that will get you from A to B on long journey in a hassle free manner. This is a very good price for a d5 Xc90 and being a manual should be good for plenty of more miles yet! Good luck with the sale. It shouldn't hang about for long!

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Generally reckoned to be the 4x4 to have, if you must, and want to use it mainly on the road. If I had a trailer which needed towing across wet fields I'd have one of these too. They're cheap to run compared with other 4x4s and 300k miles isn't unheard of. Plus sitting higher than the next man is a decent improvement in safety of you live on M-ways, but if this trend upwards continues then it'll be the guy in his Honda Beat who can see furthest. ;)

 

If it's anywhere near as good as a similarly ancient V70 D5 then it'll be a good buy, glwts.

 

 

 

I am genuinely interested in a proper case being put forward; illustrating how a Peugeot 205... in the round... is a safer car than a Volvo XC90. And, for absolute clarity, I want you to win. I am no Volvo apologiser or proponent of ‘modernz’ - but if you can show me, quite simply, how in an accident (in the purest sense of the phrase) I’m safer in one - I will buy one.

Meantime, in the real world...

 

No offence man.

It did occur to me there's one scenario when something narrow could avoid a collision something wide couldn't. In fact, a cuz remarked on this having had a head on in an X5. "ironic I'd have been able to avoid it in a 2cv". Then I pointed out he wouldn't have been travelling at 75 on the long uphill, so he wouldn't have needed to.

 

If you hit the same pedestrian (he’s not having a lucky day, is he?) in a 205 then his head will be smashed as it hits the bonnet and it buckles, hitting the solid and pointy engine just underneath.

Nice car :)

Yet another case for the old Douvrin Suitcase.

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The radios are basically the HU sets in a custom facia but there are different models.

My XC is the basic S and has a very nice sounding system but it’s not quite in the same league as my old V70 which had the full 11 speaker Dolby pro-logic set up.

Some of the top range models even have a built in minidisc player....they are all Sony units by the way.

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Does anyone have experience using one of these as a tow vehicle? The thought has occurred to have a sideline in the odd bit car transportation. 7.5 tonner upkeep is too much to contend with for us, but I'm just wondering might one of these with a good trailer be up to transporting medium-sized cars about? The price of this sounds absolutely fantastic. Is there much service history?

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