After my recent letter to Nissan about their craptastic 2014 Sentra, I received a telephone call from a gentleman named Gunther Luekenhoff. A public relations officer for an undisclosed automobile company, his employer wanted to smooth the abrasions and offer me a consolation of sorts.
It was a free loaner from a local rental place.
Figuring I would get something as delightful as another prematurely clapped out shitbox, I threw caution to the wind and showed up last Saturday. Walking past several appliance grade automobiles on my way to the office, I was greeted by K.T., a dark haired gentleman in his mid-30s.
“You must be the guy who was mad about his rental car. Gunther said to give you a good car. We have close to thirty cars in stock, but only two are worth a damn; a Lincoln Town Car and a Volvo wagon. Which do you want?” I found my choice rather odd yet invigorating.
It’s always more fun to try a new flavor of ice cream when somebody else is paying for it; besides, I have driven a whole pride of Panthers. Being handed the funky shaped keys, I walked out to the Volvo wagon.
Doing the walk around, I saw this. I did not know Volvo made such a beast, but nobody is perfect. A person could always pop that badge off if desired.
Getting in and adjusting everything, I was quite enthralled with my new surroundings. The seat is soft yet firm–an interesting combination. It is also the first seat in a long time that simultaneously hugged both my back and posterior. The lumbar support was quite robust as whomever had last driven the car had it adjusted to its maximum. It was like having a felt covered fist in the small of my back, an oddly delightful sensation.
Finding the sweet spot of steering wheel and seat was mind-blowingly simple. Even better, the telescopic steering wheel had a back and forth swath of what seemed like 18″ (0.5 meters). I could have tilted the seat back to a horizontal position and still had the wheel next to my sternum.
K.T. had referred to this V50 as being a unicorn of sorts; few of these were imported to the United States with even fewer having cloth covered heated seats.
With newer cars, I have developed a litmus test that tells me whether or not they are worthy of consideration. It is the console test.
While a console does indeed exist, it is as intrusive as the Easter Bunny at Christmas. This low level of intrusion demonstrates a behavior that is woefully absent in a plethora of other contemporary cars; that behavior is called “thought process”.
This Volvo passes the console test with great aplomb. Further, the wood toned radio control and HVAC tower is more of a curtain than a wall as it is possible to store items behind it.
The only concern at this point, due to it being unknown, is legroom for my rapidly growing offspring. As one who was routinely stuffed into the backseat of an ’83 Plymouth Reliant as a tall youngster, I do have great concern about the amount of rear seat room a car possesses. I do not want my progeny getting broken femurs from being too close to the front seat if in a wreck. Perhaps you think this extreme, but we all have priorities.
Another interesting facet of this little buggy is the five-cylinder engine. As one could expect, it was instantaneously 25% better than any four-banger as the inherent four-cylinder buzz bombery has been nullified by that extra piston. Like a six it is quite smooth and delivered is 168 horsepower with charismatic authority. Seemingly lackadaisical when used casually, it pulled like a locomotive when prompted. It was a strong, continuous gain of momentum with no drama and no neck-snapping suddenness.
The engine was an auditory delight. I have recently made comparisons of engine sounds to the uncomplimentary sounds associated with indigestion, nasal stuffiness, and Willie Nelson; this Volvo is simply on a higher plain emitting nothing but smooth and mellow. Listening to this five-cylinder was as delightful–and infectious–as that other melodious crooning of Swedish origin…
…Seventies supergroup ABBA. Maybe the Volvo was saying “take a chance on me”. Its auditory output was also mixed with an undertone of…
…the lower pitched voice of The Muppets’ Swedish Chef character thrown in for good measure (for the unfamiliar, he is seen preparing chicken in a basket here).
Intrigued, I later began to research similar wagons as any purchase will have to pass muster from Mrs. Jason (also known as M.A.R.I.E., the Marital Asset Reallocation and Investment Executive). Having agreement from M.A.R.I.E. is always crucial and does tend to make ones marital life more harmonious.
My ongoing automotive search has been fun if infuriating at times. All I can safely say is that neither Nissan nor Toyota are even on my radar; Volkswagen is quite heavy on my radar, and Volvo is an outlier in the realm of possibility. It should be settled sometime before 2019 or so.
Great, I just wasted an hour on Swedish Chef videos.
In New Zealand these cars are purchasable near new for quite cheap prices.. the ‘yuppie’ people seem to prefer being seen in Beemers, Mercs, and Audis, and the impoverished ones go for VW and Skoda, so Volvos go begging.
In fact there were so few buyers for the new C30 when it was released here back in ’08 that the importer has now pulled the plug on them just after the facelift version came out (the hatchback that Top Gear named as ‘the best looking hatchback you can buy’. Jeremy fired one around the track ahead of the most potent current crop of hot euro hatches ..it whipped them all ..however, it was not a production model but rather a ‘factory special’ to show just what the T5 engine is capable of with enough boost.. .. ..
Taking advantage of the situation i am now in possession of a second C30 T5 which i bought from the agent for about 60% of the ‘new’ price as a pre-registered ‘demonstrator’ with pretty much zero kms use.. .. .. what a buy !
These cars are amazing …straight from the box 6.7 seconds to 100kms ..and there is a genuine Volvo software application that can be downloaded in a few seconds ..that turns the engine into something A M A Z I N G for power (along the lines of the pretty bright sky blue C30 T5 Jeremy was flicking around the track
Mine needs more kays on it before this can be done… some running-in ..then we’ll see .. 🙂
In fact there were so few buyers for the new C30 when it was released here back in ’08 that the importer has now pulled the plug on them
I like 2 door hatchbacks, drove them for 34 years. I looked at the C30 at the auto show every year, but never felt the love. Too small hatch, too high liftover, too poor rear quarter visibility. Just couldn’t see the value or utility over a Golf.
Are those the world’s largest tail lamps?
They look bigger than the CTS Wagon’s taillights.
“Volkswagen is quite heavy on my radar, and Volvo is an outlier in the realm of possibility”
IMHO, isn’t a Volvo really just a better VW anyway, even more so than Audi for a long term car?
Likely so. Volvo is an outlier in my thought process as initial cost is a factor to me and I found a used ’10 Volvo V50 wagon in St. Louis for about the same price as a new Jetta TDI. That being the case, it doesn’t seem right to make a direct comparison, much like directly comparing this Volvo to a Town Car.
Volvo is an outlier in my thought process as initial cost is a factor to me and I found a used ’10 Volvo V50 wagon in St. Louis for about the same price as a new Jetta TDI.
I checked out a new Volvo wagon before buying the Jetta. Unlike this V50, the new one has terrible visibility to the rear quarters. imho, the TDI is wildly overpriced. The 5 banger does quite well, though also has a nasal sound to it. I’d stay far far away from VeeDub’s new 1.8T until they get the bugs worked out.
It should be settled sometime before 2019 or so.
Yup, that should be just about right.
I agree on the price of the Jetta (and Passat, for that matter). Further, the used ’12 and ’13 models I find have asking prices nearly the same as new prices. That is one reason – of many – on why I haven’t yet pulled a trigger.
I agree on the price of the Jetta (and Passat, for that matter). Further, the used ’12 and ’13 models I find have asking prices nearly the same as new prices.
Yup. Used prices are nutz. May as well buy new and get the new car warranty and no worries about neglected maintenance. Bought my Jetta wagon last January. Wanted fabric upholstry so got the base S trim w/automatic. (none around here with gas engine and manual) VeeDub was putting money on the hood, both “dealer assistance” and a $500 coupon from the Detroit auto show. Ended up with a black S auto/with the heavy rubber mats as well as carpeted mats, cargo area mat and body side molding installed for $20,700
Only beef I have is the seat. I have been fiddling with backrest angle and lumbar support for 4 months and not found a setting that isn’t painful after a couple hours. Just the opposite of my Ford, which felt like a lumpy concrete block when I first got in, but felt fine after about 10 minutes.
I love the red pinstripe. I think the car looks better than its competition at VW.
Hmmmmm – somewhere where your only choice is a Volvo V50 Brougham and a Town Car – Reminds me of someone familiar. I’m sure I’ll think of it soon . . . . .
That crossed my mind, also. Isn’t life chocked full of weird coincidences?
“K.T.” And an insurance company freebie briefcase on the rear seat. I think I’m warming up to take a wild guess here. So where did you drive this V50?
My old stomping grounds of Hannibal is right at half-way between Jefferson City and the Quad Cities. This was a jaunt around town and along the river.
I had never driven a Volvo before; I was quite impressed with it.
Ive been driven in a Volvo recently very nice I must admit but Ive also been a passenger in my Citroen while my license had a holiday its much better, smooth supremely comfortable and quiet and I own that one.
K.T…Kind of like, “Bond. James.”
Jason, I.m pretty sure you’ve been slightly misled; Volvo never used the “brougham” nomenclature on ANY model, whether wagon or sedan. Yes, the first Bertone coupe sported a vinyl roof, but no product from Gothenburg ever carried that label. Just look at it – is that the type of Scandinavian font you’d expect from Volvo? It’s much more rococco
(and tasteless) than the Swedes would ever choose – some misguided soul probably pried it off a Panther product and slapped it on the tailgate for effect.
The script came from a Cadillac.
The car belongs to Tom Klockau who also writes for this site. He and I met a while back at a car show and he let take it for a test drive. The few lead-in paragraphs are a (misguided?) faux situation that when written sounded much better than “yeah, he let me drive his car.” I am looking to adjust my vehicle fleet and the drive was to give me a taste of something different than anything I have experienced to date and to expand my horizons; this was the first Volvo I have driven and only the second car of European origin. The driving impressions are what I thought at the time and still do.
this was the first Volvo I have driven and only the second car of European origin
That’s rather remarkable. It’s easy to forget how powerful regional differences are. I bet it would be fairly easy to find folks here and in CA who have never driven an American car.
FWIW, that Volvo you drove has a Mitsubishi platform, and is not considered to be a “true Volvo” by some. So maybe you’re still on your first European-origin car? 🙂
How many Japanese cars have you driven? You might want to try a 2014 Honda Accord; folks speak quite highly of it. It’s loosely related to our Acura TSX, which I love more as time goes on.
Nope. The gen1 S40 was based on the Mitsubishi Carisma. The gen2’s platform was shared with the Euro Ford Focus and Mazda 3.
Jeez; yes. I’ve been out in the sun too long. But it still isn’t a “true Volvo”. Well for that matter, I guess maybe none of the more recent ones are?
I like my car, but I think the RWD 960/S90 was the last true Volvo. The current S80 comes close though. It may even still be available with the 3.2L straight six.
Also, primary development of the gen2 S40/V50 platform was by Volvo, and the engines and transmissions are Volvo. When Ford bought Volvo in early ’99, they almost immediately began decontenting the cars. My father had a black V70R with real wood trim; starting with the 2000 MY all S70s and V70s got fake wood, even though they were in their final year. Early S60s and S80s had a lot of problems, especially electrical, but the current models are pretty solid. I would not recommend a 1999-2003 Volvo of any type, however. The closest you can get to one of these in 2014 is a Euro Focus wagon, but of course it isn’t imported to the States. Too bad, as it’s really sharp.
When the time comes to replace the wagon, I will be looking at CPO S80s with the non-turbo straight six or perhaps a Lincoln MKZ or MKS.
The Mazda DNA is a positive in my book. That schnoz would be hard to look at every day, though.
You have a good point about regional differences. The last few weeks I have intentionally been looking around to gauge how many “foreign” cars there are. I’m seeing a bunch of Jetta’s and Passat’s; Camry’s and Accord’s are seen but contemporary Malibu’s are more plentiful. Half-ton pickups still reign supreme. I spent the weekend in Kansas City and had the opportunity to walk through a parking lot at an amusement park – full of half-tons, Ford Focii, Malibu’s, VW’s, Chrysler minivans, and a few miscellaneous Toyota’s and Hondas.
Last fall, I walked around the parking lot of the Whole Foods in Overland Park, Kansas, expecting to see some iron I don’t normally see. Wrong. Twenty year old Cadillac’s, Subarus, and a Lincoln Mark LT. I should have written it up.
A recent drive through the Honda dealer here revealed about 75% of the cars on the lot were used, with well over half of those being American.
You have me digging in my memory banks here, but non American cars have been sporadic. There has been the Sentra and Corolla recently covered here as well as a co-workers 2010 Camry. A few months ago was a Jetta TDI; in the early ’90s I drove a Mazda B2000 pickup, a Nissan Sentra, and a Subaru hatchback of some early ’80s vintage.
The only non-American cars ever in my extended family was a ’75ish Corona that rusted faster than my parents ’73 Torino; the same aunt and uncle later had a Nissan Altima that was problematic and quickly went away for a Buick.
My grandfather, now 90, almost got rid of his ’88 Dynasty the day after he purchased it when I stated the V6 was of Mistubishi origin.
When my aunt and uncle had the Corona, I remember asking my father, now 70, if he had ever thought about a Toyota. His response was that if he was going to spend money, it was going to be for something substantial and durable. His words held true as he put 123,000 mechanically trouble free miles on the Torino with nowhere near that being accumulated on his sisters Corona.
The closest I have ever come to purchasing a “foreign” vehicle is getting mad with a Briggs and Stratton engine and buying a Troy-bilt mower with a Honda engine.
With our need for a different vehicle becoming more pronounced all the time, I am being very open minded about what to purchase. I am taking my time as, like you, I don’t like buying vehicles with any frequency!
The upside of hanging around here is that I am considering more variety than perhaps I would be otherwise. For various reasons, GM and Chrysler aren’t contenders with me. That’s the beauty of the free market – one can purchase what they deem to be best for them and I am thankful for the variety.
It always blows my mind that pickup trucks-as-regular cars are such a phenomenon in most of the country. To see a pickup truck without a commercial registration isn’t uncommon for me, but they’re an extreme minority. There is only 1 person who has one in my neighborhood (a ~2003 F-250 with a suspension lift) and he has to park it half up on the strip of grass between the sidewalk and street in order to prevent it from blocking traffic. I guess I’m living a sheltered existence… I’ve never been anywhere west of the Hudson River that wasn’t Jersey, Philly, Buffalo or California. I get confused when I see a Ford Fusion without the “HYBRID” badge on the doors.
There was a time when Japanese and European cars were way better in most ways than their American counterparts, but I think the lines have now blurred, for the moment anyway. I went to the NY Auto Show a few weeks back and the stuff from GM and Ford seemed every bit as nice, if not occasionally nicer, than the Hondas, Toyotas and VWs. Maybe I’m just getting blinded by that auto show glitz and the desire to root for the hometown team, but I catch myself thinking the same thing when I see them on the street.
My parents owned nothing but American cars (except for one disastrous VW Passat – that they irrationally loved the shit out of), and I’ve gone through tons of both foreign and domestic rides. I’ve always had the best luck and best experiences with Japanese vehicles, but I really don’t know if they have that same distinct edge that they did 10 years ago at this point. If only you had been willing to expand your horizons in 1992 😛
On the other hand – oh my god I would go nuts if I had never owned anything but GM, Ford or Chrysler!! It’s worth trying something else just for the hell of it! There’s so many great cars out there and they’re all a unique experience!
When I was growing up, everyone seemed to be hot for the blonde. I always preferred the redhead.
These where heavily on my pick for a newish car. I’m a Volvo guy and have been for a long time. The only thing that stopped me was having no credit between my wife and I. We make decent money and all but never had credit for anything. Being an old Volvo lover didn’t really help the matter over the years as instead of trying to finance a new car I would just buy an older Volvo from my savings and drive it till the wheels fell off time after time. Well now that has come back to bite me in the ass and I (with no credit) settled on a fully loaded 08 Pontiac g5. It is a decent commuter for my wife and has something (for now) that has been the gain of my existence with all the volvoes I’ve (in fact all the cars) ever had… It has functioning a/c.. So I’ll live with it until I can get my v50 or a newish s60.
Is the pinstripe new? I don’t remember that, but it’s reminding me of the Sunbeam Rapier H120 Roger Carr posted the other day – looks great!
It’s such a bummer that Volvo no longer makes these. I thought they were really knocking it out of the park from the first generation S80 through the S60 to this and the C30. And of course all of those cars were pretty much a gigantic bust in the U.S. Or at the very least, they represented a severe downward trend in sales. The new S60 is a nice looking car, just not as nice as its predecessor.
Jason – I’m glad you finally got to drive a halfway decent automobile from this century. Now if you could only stop trying to sit indian-style in the driver’s seat and get over this console phobia… and next time you see K.T., tell him he still needs to learn how to drive a car with a proper transmission. It’s so easy, even a caveman could do it!
I put the pinstripes on Labor Day weekend 2010. That was also around the time it got “Broughamed.” A friend used to professionally pinstripe cars and he gave me some pointers.
Didn’t remember… with all the Lincoln Love, it’s been awhile since we saw this car on here! White with a little red is almost always a winner.
If I had ordered my wagon new instead of getting a one year old CPO, I would have picked bright red! The little bit of red on it is a nod to that. And it really dressed it up!
Oh, and my uncle did try to teach me how to drive a stick in my aunt’s ’97 A4. It did not go very well, though I did succeed in getting it into 2nd without stalling at least twice!
I love that red color Volvo uses, in fact I was never really such a “red” fan in general until I started taking notice of it. Looks good on everything from 940s to S40s.
I’m also now obsessed with the blue on the Polestar cars. I guess it’s a sort-of CC Effect (since it’s Volvo week), but I’ve now seen two of them – a C30 a few months back and an S60 just yesterday – both looked incredible.
Happy wife, happy life. Easy.
If you want a unicorn, the other day on a used car lot I came across a V50 with cloth seats and…a manual transmission! I’ll have to find the name of the place so I can post the listing.
Tom,
What do you make of the recently-released 2015 Volvos with the new Drive-E engine? Do you think the company is now going in a good direction?
My parents are planning to purchase a new S80 T5 next year and they want the Drive-E. They like their Volvos big and “executive-class.” My dad thinks the S80s are the last of the “good” Volvos.
One thing I don’t like is how nearly every model has a turbo now. It’s great to offer a turbo, but I don’t want one due to turbo troubles with both my 940 and S70. My next Volvo will probably be a late-model normally aspirated S80 3.2–if I can find one.
A good friend of mine owns one of the first 2007 S80 3.2s that came to the U.S. It currently has 126k relatively trouble-free miles as of last weekend.
I also know someone in my Volvo club who has 149k on her ’08 3.2 but she has had some issues with it.
Being of Swedish decent, plus my love of the muppet show, I love this article because you took Volvo’s ‘temperature’ if you will. A report on what they are good at currently. Back seats being a problem for the tall!
Thank you!
I think both the second gen S40 and V50 are extremely well designed cars, and have the design language of the very talented Peter Horbury, prior Volvo VP of Design (now VP of Design for parent company Geely). As was mentioned, they share the P2 platform with the Euro Focus and Mazda 3 – that platform also underpins the current V40 that unfortunately is not imported to the US.
Their only shortcoming is the lack of both rear seat and trunk/rear area – not a lot of space.
As a current Volvo owner and fan, I would just offer the following advice that I pass on to anyone considering a used Volvo – only purchase it if it comes with a complete set of maintenance records. With the exception of the late 90s and early 2000s when subpar electrical wiring and components were used, they are as reliable as a Toyota, Subaru or Honda if the factory maintenance schedule was scrupulously followed. No maintenance records and you can’t be sure it was serviced properly, and if in fact it wasn’t, you can expect expensive mechanical and electrical headaches.
My favorite Swedish Chef bit:
Kind of a shame they never worked a Volvo into the bit.
“Ve mak-a dah pancake. Take-a da cake, da pan, und da buahrd….”
A typical Muppet chicken is tossed into camera range
“Nö, nö da buahrd!” (getting out the cutting board)
Cut to exterior shot of a ’70s 145 in some period color starting up-
“…get da bil, en SQUISHA da cake med da bil…”
Back inside with the flattened cake-
“Pancake!”