It was not easy to get a test drive of the new Vovlo V70 R AWD but yesterday we finally got the chance.
This is the best Volvo that they ever made!
The gearbox and clutch is excellent, the engine is quite nice but suffers from turbolag in some cases and the brakes seem to do their job.
In the car we drove there was a strange noise from the gearbox in some gears. Not sure if that was special to our car or 'default' from the factory.
I'd like to go (a lot) lower with the seats, but that's a problem in all modern cars, even the Audi A8!
I've heard that race seats will do the job for the really hardcored.
The quality of the car seems to be fine, like a well built V70 with some luxury details.
In any case we took the V70R for a spin in the heavy traffic on the highway. A lot of low gear full speed acceleration followed by braking. Forget ECO-Driving!
Below 2.500 rpm you can expect turbolag but at around 4.000 rpm it's fine. The sound from the straight 5 is quite nice and it pushed to car forward quite quickly.
We then tried some smaller twistier roads to get a feeling of the new Öhlins chassis. Inside the car there are 3 buttons 'Comfort', 'Sport' and 'Advanced.'
We used 'Advanced' most of the time since that will give the best performance.
The V70R uses the Haldex clutch for its AWD. This gives more of a FWD-feeling. We're a little bit surprised that the V70R lost grip so early and the ESP setting is sometimes a little bit oversensitive, but it is still possible to drive very fast in this car.
My personal taste says I'd prefer a much more stiffer/lower ride than the 'Advanced' mode offers. But it's an excellent option to be able to switch between the different settings. At least as long as you don't have to pay for it when it brakes down.
The brakes are supposed to be very good on the new V70R so I was surprised initially by the lack of feel and brake performance.
However I was told by the sales person (who volunteered as a passanger in the back) that the car just came back from cleaning.
And he was right - the brakes are quite good. It's just that I'm used to my Movits, and they have a much better feeling.
So the conclusion is that the V70R is the best car Volvo made so far. However the V70R it is not a S/RS or M-killer.
The Volvo V70R with its turbocharged 300 hp straight 5.
And the Volvo S60R that uses the same engine and chassis.
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