Is this worth it or?

Cliffhanger

Cliffhanger

Cliffhanger

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Joined
4 Sep 2018
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81
Location
Black Country
Thinking of swapping car soon.

Currently drive a Focus Focus Estate 1.5 Auto Ecoboost.

Bit crap on fuel.... 30 mpg around town and 35-40 on longer runs

Always had a soft spot for the old Volvos either an XC70 or S80.

Seen this S80 on Autortader.....

62 plate, 2.4D5 with <50k miles on clock.

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XC70s seem to have a different price bracket.

Nothing cheaper than £15k with less than 50k on clock.... shame

Perhaps I should hold out with my current car or perhaps buy another Ford hybrid or something more reliable...... Lexus/Toyota.

Also I'm 6ft4 so need to be comfortable as my Sciatica flares up a lot....

Not a mechanic and have everything done via local garage.....

Do roughly 10k miles a year. Mainly town driving morning and night and every weekend a 30-40 mile country drive.....


Any Help would be most appreciated....
 
Cliffhanger said:
Currently drive a Focus Focus Estate 1.5 Auto Ecoboost.
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Based on the engine at least a 2014 model?

Cliffhanger said:
Bit crap on fuel.... 30 mpg around town and 35-40 on longer runs
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Shouldn't be too bad, but even if you bought something substantially more fuel efficient, it would take a long time for the savings to recoup the purchase cost of changing car.

Cliffhanger said:
Always had a soft spot for the old Volvos either an XC70 or S80.
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If that's the case then buy one because you want one, don't try and "man maths" to justify it.

Cliffhanger said:
62 plate, 2.4D5 with <50k miles on clock.
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I wouldn't buy a car that old with that low a mileage.


Cliffhanger said:
Nothing cheaper than £15k with less than 50k on clock.... shame
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Unless you're looking at <5 year old cars, then I wouldn't be setting such an arbitrary mileage limit. (And even then a high mileage, younger car can still often be in better condition)

Cliffhanger said:
Perhaps I should hold out with my current car or perhaps buy another Ford hybrid or something more reliable...... Lexus/Toyota.
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I wouldn't be considering Ford hybrid if you require reliability.
 
I had a ‘65 Ford Mondeo estate with that engine and averaged around 40mpg, so I imagine you should get higher MPG than that?

The deciding factor for me would be the mileage and reliability. The engine in mine failed at 82,000 despite regular servicing. It developed a crack in the cylinder head which I noticed due to dropping coolant. If you’re getting the itch to swap, I’d get shot now before you’re suffers a similar fate! If you read online mines not an isolated case…
 
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Cliffhanger said:
Seen this S80 on Autortader.....

62 plate, 2.4D5 with <50k miles on clock.

Auto Trader UK - New and Used Cars For Sale

Find your next car with Auto Trader UK, the official #1 site to buy and sell new and used cars. Over 400,000 cars online. Simple, easy, quick!
www.autotrader.co.uk www.autotrader.co.uk


Any Help would be most appreciated....
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The passenger side front door looks to be a different colour/has been resprayed
 
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A lot of Volvos have or had Ford engines in.

Mine does, it's dead handy though because it uses the same oil and oil filter as the mrs Fiesta which makes getting service parts easier.
 
Armageus said:
Based on the engine at least a 2014 model?


Shouldn't be too bad, but even if you bought something substantially more fuel efficient, it would take a long time for the savings to recoup the purchase cost of changing car.


If that's the case then buy one because you want one, don't try and "man maths" to justify it.


I wouldn't buy a car that old with that low a mileage.



Unless you're looking at <5 year old cars, then I wouldn't be setting such an arbitrary mileage limit. (And even then a high mileage, younger car can still often be in better condition)


I wouldn't be considering Ford hybrid if you require reliability.
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So u reckon a high mileage s60/s90 might be a better choice with its 2.0d engine or is the s80 a better model.
 
Cliffhanger said:
So u reckon a high mileage s60/s90 might be a better choice with its 2.0d engine or is the s80 a better model.
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I got an older 13 plate S60, 1.6t and it's had the polestar map so 180bhp, although I wouldn't consider it a fast car, it's ok.

It gets pretty good MPG for what it is though, 40 on average, 45 on the motorway/long trips, I've seen 55mpg once coming back home on the A1, but I was the only one on the car, probably had the wind behind.

Why I'm very dubious about a lot of modern hybrid cars, all those extra moving parts, weight, things to wear out or go wrong, for really, not much better mpg.
 
I went down a similar path, I had a 2012 1.6tdci Focus Titanium estate which was on 125k miles and needing a lot of work (albeit consumables) for its next MOT so, as it was during COVID and We buy any car wouldn't even touch a vehicle until the transaction was completed (I.e. they bought it on sight alone) I sold it for £1850 (I'd only paid £2250 24 months and 30k miles previously!!) I wanted a cheap reliable replacement so opted for a 04 plate V70 D5 manual which incidentally had 168k on the clock.

It was very much better built than the Focus, vastly more comfortable and returned mid 40's mpg despite predominantly shorter journeys.

Kept that a couple of years it was utterly reliable and needed little for its MOT's and took it back to the dealer I bought it from - a Volvo specialist in Shrewsbury who incidentally won't touch older automatic Volvos as he thought them a case of not if but when they fail) I bought an 06 D5 V70 manual which was on around 175k miles, I still have it now and it's clicked over 207k miles this morning...

The later car - as this one will - had a DPF which gave no end of problems as I do predominantly shorter journeys, modern diesels need to be used for longer journeys, they are not suitable for short trips imo - if you search the forum you'll see how I eventually resolved the DPF problem - ahem - and the cars been fine since....

In short, I would be wary of the auto although at that mileage I would say get the gearbox serviced ie new fluid and filter, make sure the timing and auxiliary belts are changed along with the water pump and you should have a comfortable reliable and well built car.

The 5 cylinder D5 is an extremely reliable and durable engine, I certainly wouldn't worry about much much higher mileage than the car you've seen and I'd say your paying a considerable premium for its low mileage, a much higher mileage car should be considerably cheaper although I would worry about the automatic transmission hence me having two manual ones in succession, I'd prefer an auto but am quite happy with the manual to be fair, it's a nice 'box to use.

After a long line of older "e" series BMW 3,5 and 7 Series I am a convert to Volvo undoubtedly, the ownership experience has imo been better, they are at least as well built, arguably more reliable - certainly lacking the stupid nigglly faults all my BMW's had like heating and ventilation controls going haywire due to a faulty resistor or air con problems which again I had on my BMW's yet not on the Volvos.

The thing I like the most about my car given its 18 years and 207k miles is everything still works as it should and it feels like it would quite happily manage that mileage again with relative ease.
 
marinersfan said:
If you're thinking hybrid - Toyota.
I've had my 2.0 Corolla coming up 3 years and it's been perfect. Low - mid 50s mpg without much effort.
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Yes I do like the Corollas... have had multiple Toyotas in the past and found them to be pretty bulletproof.... just would like a comfy something for a while.... always had to squash myself in small cars.. bought time I had a big comfy saloon or something.
 
Cliffhanger said:
Yes I do like the Corollas... have had multiple Toyotas in the past and found them to be pretty bulletproof.... just would like a comfy something for a while.... always had to squash myself in small cars.. bought time I had a big comfy saloon or something.
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Mine is a GR estate. Plenty big enough for us, and does the wafting about pretty well.
 
Cliffhanger said:
Not sure if I'd want another petrol or not, doubt if the 2.0 petrol of that size car would be efficient.
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While I understand your hesitation there, have you actually looked at cost differences for you? You say mostly town driving, which really isn't ideal for a diesel, modern or not. And even worse if they are short journeys where the engine doesn't really get a chance to warm up. I wouldn't expect any of these larger diesel cars to get much more than around 40 mpg average with your use. Whereas a similar petrol may be around the low 30's. Couple that with (at least locally here) a considerably lower price for petrol than diesel (around 5-6p per litre). Then there probably isn't a huge difference in cost here.

I just used a calculator, assuming 32mpg in petrol at 1.299 (I average that in my Golf R so I'd imagine you should be able to do significantly better than that in reality) and 40 mpg in diesel (I averaged around that in both my 335d and 530d, ok, they are bigger engined cars, but even a smaller engine in a big car will struggle to get much more than this, especially if mostly town driving) at 1.359 over 10k is only £300 per year (based on todays prices local to me).

Then if your diesel isn't euro6, so generally newer than 2015, it isn't LEZ compliant. Which means it might be cheaper to buy, because it can't go into cities. Might not matter to you, but it might when it comes time to sell and it's worth almost nothing as they roll out LEZ zones everywhere, so maybe even bigger town centres.

The headline efficiency figure isn't everything. Worth looking at what it might actually cost you going forward. £300 a year isn't nothing, sure. But a new DPF will wipe out 3 years worth of savings. As would a clutch, or injectors or any number of things more likely to go / more expensive to replace on a diesel.

(I do still have 2 diesels out of 3 cars here though. But my Caravelle would have been a petrol if it was an option).
 
Looks like there maybe a change of plans now.

Spoke to my mom and dad and she is getting rid of her 2021 countryman.... so that's the wife's car sorted.

Will have to sell the Focus to help pay for it.

That leaves me with her car a Mini 3d hatch..... (manual diesel)

No need for us both to have bigger vehicles hence why I would rather get rid of the focus and sell the mini hatch (for me) and get something small, automatic and efficient.

Maybe even electric..... or hybrid I guess.

I've have small cars most of my life, with only the focus being the exception.

Hence why I wanted a nice relaxing Volvo saloon.

I had an MX5 RF a few years ago, that pretty much what ***** up my back and the Sciatica flareups.....

I thought I did 10k a year but (excel cockup) it looks like more like 6k a year at the most...

I only drive to work and back and that is mainly town driving... need more than two seats cos of the seats...

Problem is why my frame is that I need something with plenty of legroom and headroom so most cars wont fit me.

There is a hell of a lot more room in the Mini than the Focus.....
 
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