Volvo V70 2.5 T Review: Do you remember...

It doesn’t have a proper handbrake, which pretty much ruins it for the driving enthusiast, and the suspension’s best friend would definitely be the highway, because it gets a little too soft when presented with the twisties. It behaves better than the old one, but not that much a margin, given that this is the new V70.

Perhaps the most amazing thing about the Volvo is it’s ability to cruise at very high speeds in extreme comfort. Volvo has come a long way with this, almost reaching Lexus levels of refinement.

Volvo have pretty much changed. While the old 145/245 series of cars had a very, very long 27-year lifespan, the V70 undergoes a mid-life facelift every few years or so, giving Volvo the opportunity to further fine tune and refine an already excellent product.

It represents itself to be a far more logical choice in the local market, with it’s punchy turbo and good power-train in city traffic. It gets the job done, and in almost equal amounts of luxury as the XC variant. Sure it doesn’t have the blind spot indicators, radar guided cruise control and four wheel drive, but over the course of the few days that we had it, we never did feel deprived, not even once, of the fact that we were in a V70, instead of the latter Volvo.

It must be said though, that the $168,000 price tag also puts it squarely in between the $160,888 Saab 9-5 2.0 turbo wagon, while the 2.3’s performance envelope and level of luxury, not to mention a price tag of nearly $190,000, cannot keep up with the Volvo.

The only other car that offers the Volvo a serious run for the money, would perhaps be the $168,000 Volkswagen Passat Variant 3.2 V6 FSI 4Motion, which has lethal amounts of boot space, performance, and annual road tax figures.

Credits: Text and Photos by Amery Reuben