Wilvo V70 test drive since 2007

Safe prestige in universal packaging

Based on the Minsk car dealership, the latest Volvo V70 universal seemed very interesting in all respects by the car. True, it turned out to be impossible to get the only living copy to the drive to the auto show, and after the exhibition of the dealer showroom, the shuttlecock was orphaned for one car, which we wanted to at least compare in absentia with the V70. Of course, we are talking about the S80 sedan, with which almost all motorists compare the station wagon. We will consider this a good tradition, not a bad fashion. And in fact, it is very difficult to resist comparison. Many details of the Volvo V70 are distinguished by a sedan.
 
Seventy looks excellent. For the station wagon, the appearance of the V70 can generally be considered outstanding. There are little cargo -passenger models with such a balanced design. At the same time, I don’t really want to think about the freight capabilities of the V70. Not because you doubt the car’s abilities for transporting large-sized objects, but simply an expensive appearance of the car would like to associate with some sophisticated type of rest, and not with dragging luggage. Even more distracts from traditional attempts to evaluate the volume of the luggage compartment with the help of the known jutus standards family resemblance to the flagship S80. We would not want to remember the annoying analogies in the descriptions of radiator grilles, rear lights and salons. We remembered the respectability of both models and solid dimensions more. Moreover, due to the long glasses of the luggage compartment, the V70 does not visually lose the eighties, if not more. The openwork, lightly -sophisticated disks of the non -huts of dimension, which would be unscrupulous, would look at some inexpensive sedan, and for Volvo - just right. The branded silver metallic is also very suitable for the car.
 
Next begins details that can upset the imagination of the driver of the average foreign car, but very appropriate in a car worth three and a half thousand U. e. Here, say, a metal plate on the front threshold with the inscription Volvo. Usually these can be found on different Jaguar, Porsche and other Emki. Or a radio with a CD and a Dolby Pro Logic sound processor, which provides excellent sound; The benefit of multi -caliber speakers are shoved throughout the cabin. The front panel in terms of the number of buttons, perhaps, is inferior to the Volvo 850 aircraft salon, but there is no talk of any simplicity. Some ergonomic solutions simply conquer. For example, a halo of LEDs is located above the rotating handle of the ventilation regulator - even with lateral vision you can notice how many provisions the regulator is turned. A hook for bags or a posterior armrest that lays out like a Chinese puzzle! With regular operation, such things play a much more noticeable role than the behavior of the machine in extreme modes. The only remark is that the instrument shield migrated with the S80. In principle, it is not bad, but what prevented the transplantation of divisions from transplantation? The readability of devices from this would certainly increase.
 
The cargo department has its own pleasant unexpectedness. Well, how would you react to the velor coating, you can imagine, but most other tricks would be a real surprise: containers under the floor, different pockets ... Even the holder of the safety net turned out to be collapsible! And instead of a traditional sheet of a nondescript fiberboard, decorating the back of the flooring of ordinary machines, a sheet of high -quality and tone of the upholstery of plywood is almost a centimeter thick on the Volvo V70. Such a thing will last a long time. The transformation of the rear seat (completely or partially) simplifies folding head restraints. It is time to reveal the secret of such comfort - the V70 was designed initially as a station wagon.
 
In the driver's place, you feel the price of the car and taking care of the driver. Services of the pillows and backs, as well as adjustments in height of the seat, are itself. But since their number is quite large, and someone else can use the machine, the memory is provided for three provisions. Sensations behind the wheel are impressions of the exterior. Ahead is a huge hood cover, giving a subconscious increase in the feeling of its own safety. A look back, and there ... Mom is dear! What are we testing: just a passenger car or a passenger car with a semi -trailer? Despite a good visibility (thanks to the large rear window), you will always remember about the dimensions of the car. It is for the better. Such species cool too hot heads. True, the car does not oblige to drive calmly at all.
 
Under the hood of our V70, a five -cylinder in a line engine with a low -pressure turbine worked. Turbines are traditionally for Volvo, but a boost of low pressure appeared not so long ago. Briefly: such a solution gives not only a high value of the torque, but also oh-oh-very gentle torque curve. Its language does not turn to name it and the curve: the impressive 285 Nm develops in the widest range from 1800 to 5000 rpm. It is noteworthy that low -pressure turbines are more often used when the layout does not allow additional cylinders. But after all, on the S80, the Volvians proved that they can put across the motor compartment in a sencery six, so this would certainly be possible on a one -platform V70. This means that the resource of the five -cylinder is quite comparable to a similar indicator of the six, which, of course, pleases. At the beginning of the acceleration, the engine thinks a little, but already through mythical fractions of the second begins to pour out such a stream of Newtonometers that only holding on (acceleration to a hundred takes less than 8 seconds). After two thousand from under the hood, a quiet turbine swire is heard, and under a pleasant pressing in the back of the seat, the car begins to scale the space. It seems: well, this turn is still far away, and did not have time to look at the convenient rear -view mirrors - the break in the road was already in front of you, as if he looked at him at first, and a little later - through a magnifying glass. On the speedometer (let employees of the traffic police perceive it as a joke) - cool in 100.
 
We tend to the full program. Four discs of the brake system (front - ventilated) transform extra kilometers into heat and dissipate it into the environment. ABS also worked, however, before writing these lines, we even argued. This intervention was so brief and invisible. For the purity of the experiment, we then trampled the brake pedal several times, achieving the desired chattering of the working system. Honestly, blocking the tires V70 oh how difficult it is! But if at least under one wheel there is a little noticeable handful of sand and there are slippers, then the scrupulous in relation to the safety of the V70 this nuisance neutralizes instantly and almost imperceptibly.
 
Controllability. Hm. It is quite difficult to talk about this parameter. In principle, we did not find any frightening or annoying moments. But a fairly short riding part of the dough did not allow the car to skip the car in full somewhere at the training ground. But what managed to feel on the site. For its class, the Volvo V70 demonstrates excellent obedience to the driver’s teams. In steep turns (I wonder if anyone will cut seventy?) The driver will most likely have time to come to the aid of electronics, rather than he will have a desire to write a trajectory using a steering wheel or gas. Thanks to low -profile tires, the machine perfectly performs the driver’s commands, but ... one glance in the rear view mirrors - and I want to go into the turn as if the car really dangles on the tail. The anfilad of the racks and head restraints is better than any Mercedes yellow triangles on the front panel from road tricks. But actually, from the Old Testament Volovian thoughtfulness V70 did not inherit anything. The machine is quite capable of adequately fulfill any requirement of the driver, but does not start. We found another explanation for this. Of course, most ordinary new cars will not be available to most journalists for a long time, but the Volvo V70 is not at all to try on for themselves. I would like to grow up or get an inheritance from a rich relative.
 
And what about the famous Volvo chip - safety? It is very pleasant that, having received new qualities in the form of excellent running properties and first-class design, the machine is still able to help out its passengers in the event of a road conflict. In Sweden itself, Volvo experts investigate almost all the incidents in which the company's cars are involved. Needless to say, real clashes are able to significantly expand the database about the behavior of machines for accidents and help to take the necessary measures to make operational changes to the design of the cars. Huge human and material resources have been involved in the security studies on Volvo, and each development undergoes careful control.
 
Sometimes such attention is even annoying. During a short trip to the passenger seat of one of us not fastened with a seat belt, we delved into perplexedly for three minutes: what is it so disgusting?. But it was only necessary to look into the salon of the rear view to notice a characteristic icon, flashing diode and the inscription: fasten the belts. In principle, this is not a new solution. Many manufacturers have similar reminders, but we do not recall such a brilliant location of the indicator and such an obsessive pican. You don’t want to endure, but you have to obey the rules everywhere and always. After all, the safety pillow algorithm is calculated for fastened passengers. The Volvo V70, by the way, has its own cunning. Depending on the strength of the collision, special sensors dose the degree of opening of the pillows, protecting the riders from excessive overloads. Lovers to smoke behind the wheel, such a thing should taste: imagine what a person who is drawn in a cigar at the time of a sudden collision feels.
 
The standard equipment of the car includes both the proprietary Volovian system of protection against side collisions - SIPS, and the anti -wings - Tracs, not to mention such a banal one as ABS.
 
The station wagon market in Europe is developing very dynamically. And Volvo plays a significant role on it. Since 1990, the company has pulled itself a whole third of the European market cake. This is despite the fact that in the sector of other bodies, the Swedes did not dream of such volumes. It was for nothing that the neighbors from Trolhattan could not stand it and were able to construct their own station wagon at the Saab 9-5 base. Well, this is so, by the way. And behind the ocean, Volvo generally controls half the market of imported cargo -passenger cars. Probably, most seventy will go to Europe there and in Europe.
 
Looking through the lists of basic equipment of the Volvo S80 and Volvo V70, it is easy to notice them almost complete (in any case, we came across just such) identity. Prices are also very close, but the eighties in the showroom are no longer there, and the V70 is still. What brings sad thoughts. New cars are always sold at high prices: there is sure to be a fanatic who will want to be not like everyone else. And the realization of the plan of this person can be prevented perhaps a persistent prejudice. It seems that people with money for such a car have similar thoughts. And no matter how much the advantages of a universal body proved to them, they will still think that the sedan is more prestigious and liquid. In past years, a large number of cars went into garages of various ministries and departments. We are weakly imagining the rank of binding for responsible service in the station wagon. But not all the Volvo potential customers work in state institutions! I really want to believe that when choosing cargo -passenger models, an active vacation will sooner or later win the need to carry boards, then expensive station wagons will cease to be disgraced. In the meantime, we will reassure ourselves that our buyers simply decided to wait for a full -wheel drive modification, which, of course, is more suitable for domestic roads.
 
Pavel Kozlovsky
 

Source: Auto -Gazeta / N 19 (278) dated 31.05.00