Phase 3 cars....are they any better than the w**ky Phase 2s to live with?

I have owned my P3 V70 Auto for a year now.
Its my first Volvo and I bought it as I needed an estate for work. I had a Vectra 1.8 petrol which was big enough but a massive money pit.
I was recommended to Volvo by my Brother in law who has driven many of them in the course of his job as a paramedic driver training instructor in Scotland.
I managed to find a 2008 one owner plus demo at my local dealer Doves in Croydon.
It had full history by them and had only done 33000 miles. It had been serviced every year.
Its a D5 2.4 SE Auto and is a great car. Its my first diesel and has taken a bit of getting used to(engine noise and vibration at idle).
It is not as economical as hoped but will achieve 40 on a run as long as you stay under 70.
On a run from Edinburgh to Croydon about 400miles I tend to get about 36/37 at up to 80mph.
Its a heavy car but is very comfortable and nicely equipped and I often do that run nonstop.
Its powerful and copes well in traffic and does about 29mpg.
The only problem Ive had was a knocking in the steering which resulted in a new rack, pump, reservoir and flush of all pipework and full steering realignment. Caused by a small piece of the pinion breaking. Doves assured me it was a one off and were brilliant in persuading the Volvo used warranty people that all these parts were needed due to complete contamination of the steering oil with metal. oh and at a cost to them off £3000.00.
I have worn a new front set of Pirellis out in 11000mls.
Just been serviced at Doves with no issues.
Hopefully no more issues just enjoyable fuss free driving as I generally keep cars for some years.
I have a 2001 C class merc 320 V6 petrol saloon which I love driving. It has some mods and I prefer the drive to the Volvo but then I cant get a washing machine in the back like I did the other day!
The Volvo is the best estate ive owned and Ive had a few namely Rover, VectraB and Omega V6.
Highly recommended.

Can't tell the difference between the P2 and the P3 cars(as i came out of the 855R(well known here,"the grey one")but the leap is enourmous as it should be going to the P3 :duck:

It's been a while since i've been here but now driving( allready 5 yrs and counting) a V70T6.:firedevil

The T6 is not so much a fast car as it is a very comfy cruiser wich if you want it to can pick up speed very easy(thanks to it's torqy engine)mine has been Polestared so it's around the 6 sec mark(about 6.5)so not too bad for a 1900 kgs beast.overtaking is well very easy since there's allways enough on tap.Auto isn't the fastest but i can live with it(and if you want a bit better response just shove it into Sport.)

In the 5 years of owning this "puppy" there have been no surprises other then the normal things so would say it's a very reliable car,still very happy with it(problem will be what to get next,since it's all 4-cyl now)

Maybe in a year or 2 looking into the V60 Polestar(since we don't need such a big car anymore and the V90 will be even bigger)

gr ,walter

I've been driving my 2009 V70 R design for 2 years now. Done 60+k miles and other than service items, I've only had to replace a single bulb, the starter motor and a rear trailing arm bush.

It's the 2.0d - slightly underpowered but will be getting chipped at some point (176 is do-able without further mods). returns 50-60mpg (all motorway driving for me).

I've had Ph1 & 2's, 850's and XC90's and other than the 2012 XC90 we had, it's better than all of them. Sumptious drive, good economy and reliability too. Well specced and fun to drive. Would have another in a heartbeat.

I drove the range of 2017 p3's in Gothenburg around the demo track, I'm glad I did as I didn't like any of the diesels d2, d3, d4, weren't very good and incredibly noisy, the d5 was better and the d6 hybrid was actually quite good.

However the t5 (2.0) was a corker of an engine even though it gets some stick from Volvo purists, I drove the 240bhp xc60 (really liked this) and the t6 xc90 twin charged (liked this also just felt it lacked a bit of torque), also had a go in the v60 t6 (6 pot) which was the nicest I drove that day (only slightly though)

We recently bought a xc90 d5 and the engine feels a bit more refined that the later d5, I'll be going petrol t5 / t6 xc60 for the p3 we buy, as the xc90 does the donkey work.

I love my P3 had a P2 & 1 a few years ago I just like Volvos I guess :o
One good thing about Fords input is the ease of changing the headlight bulbs no more scraped knuckles and trying to squeeze big hands into small spaces!!

I have 120k miles on my 05 V70R. Outside of normal maintenance the only mechanical issue was a leaking steering rack replaced under warranty. What I have noticed about my 16 V60 P* is that it had some QA issues: paint run and improperly installed trim on the inside of the lift gate. Volvo continues to remove small features like the ticket clip on the wind screen and jacket button on the passenger headrest. Overall the P2 feels built to a higher quality, inside and out.


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Originally Posted by Jma3

Volvo continues to remove small features like the ticket clip on the wind screen

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Probably not such a bad move IMO. I removed the ticket clip on my Ph2 as it was just, and only just, loose enough to rattle over bumps. It was so annoying I ripped the bloody thing off. Never actually used to hold tickets anyway.

Always interesting to read others opinions but, for me, the phase 3 are much better cars. I've been in a few of the phase 3 s80s and v70s recently and i found them quieter, more comfortable and better handling.

I really like them and if they'd have made one with enough power, that was inside my budget, i'd have probably got one.

The third gen (phase) S60 is an absolute joy to drive. Outside my Volvo history I have driven a variety of cars, some claimed to be 'sporty yet comfortable' - none of them are a patch on the S60. Having test driven the phase 4 cars (S90/V90) now, I'd say a lot of lessons were learned by Volvo when developing the 3th gen S60 - sharper, more agile, better handling throughout the range, better throttle response etc. I am comparing my S60 D5 Polestar with a tuned 2nd gen S60 T5 owned by a relative who absolutely adores that car - even he admitted that mine wasn't just better to drive, it was faster and more composed.

To illustrate - there is a sequence on my daily commute where there are three fast corners in sequence, right, left, right. I took him along there in my (unmodded) S60 at 50mph throughout the corners, demonstrating it is possible (and legal, limit is 50) although a bit hair-raising and challenged him to do the same in his, he argued he didn't know the corners, so let me drive his darling dearest. I couldn't get it through over 40mph and that was pushing it to the limit, this is a car with similar bhp to mine and amended suspension.