Wilvo XC70 test drive since 2007

To the very outskirts

Volvo XC70. Price: $ 52,000. On sale: since September 2007
Volvo XC70 in our garage 4 months. During this time, we wound 5,000 km on it, but the lack of snow and frosts did not allow us to conduct real tests. We decided to look for snow and a cold where there are really many of them, at the pole
The day went to the fees. They didn’t take a lot: gasoline money, 10 liters of medical alcohol instead of non -freezing and for a sugar, a full -time set of tools (there was no reason to doubt the reliability of the car) and commemorative things from the house, in case there is an attack of nostalgia on the long journey. They did not dare to score the trunk. Firstly, because they planned to rest directly in the car area of \u200b\u200bthe salon with the seats laid out quite allows us to stretch out of the entire length. And secondly, on the way back they were going to fill the car with souvenirs for the editorial office. In general, they set off lightly on the road.
On the first, civilized section of the path with a length of 1359 km from St. Petersburg to Murmansk, it took us about a day. Nothing particularly remarkable on the M18 highway happened to us. Unless we overtook the spinning resorts a couple of times. Their frets and Volga dragged the strap in the form of trailers, from under the battered covers of which frozen melons, watermelons and other fruits from the south stuck out. Through the glass scurryed by the ogre, it was clear that minus 20 degrees (as so much the thermometer showed in our car) for them, which had been rushing from the frost in distant wanderings in the center of Russia, a serious test. We were quite comfortable and comfortable. The climate control supported the given temperature set in St. Petersburg.
Despite the fact that we changed behind the wheel every five hours, fatigue affected, and we spent the first night already behind Murmansk. Our assumptions were true. Having decomposed the back row of seats, they got a site quite suitable for the night. In addition, the folding back of the front right chair allowed us to sit on the right side of the most tall of us in the royal conditions. After all, from the back door to the torpedo there are about two and a half meters. After spending Morpheus eight hours, we were surprised to find that the windows of the car, in the trunk area, were still frozen from the inside. The condensate landed on them with bizarre patterns: subsequently we used it as a source of clean moisture. The fact is that in the XC70 air entering the salon passes several degrees of cleaning, and therefore the condensate that turns into ice has a fairly clean with the point of view of bacteriology is component. Having taken 10 liters of alcohol with us, we somehow did not think about the water at all, and therefore diluted it for drinking purposes exclusively scraped into the mug with condensate.
I must say that, unlike Moscow and St. Petersburg, which winter did not indulge this year, in the north she was walking in order. Frosts at 25 degrees even chopped the Murmansk port. In this regard, the need was disappeared in our previously agreed loading on one of the icebreakers. According to the assurances of local residents, this year, like many years earlier, to the North Pole was led by a tolerable winter road, which border guards use for their noble purposes. Infrastructure, of course, on this path of 2400 km with a length of 2400 km, but the road is straight as an arrow and even quite even. The decisions were made by itself. It was decided to go by car to the axis, which was actually gleamed by bears, polar explorers and numerous tourists. Estimate that on the road there, with an average consumption of 10 liters, we will need about 500 liters of gasoline, we scored a full tank and 22 more canists, which easily fit in a 560 -liter trunk. So, in preparation for the throw, another day passed.
Going to the route, we went without problems the first 100 km of path, but one of us suddenly remembered that the Earth’s magnetic pole was very different from the geographical one. Not only is it constantly migrating (it shifts 10-40 km in a year), it is also located at a distance of about 430 km to the side. In general, a compass flew out of the window under the peaceful buzz of the windshield, and the navigation system took its place. The straight line on the monitor drawn from point A to point B, and crawling from parallel to the parallel of the shooter became our only landmark in white silence.
Played by Aborigines as an ideal winter road, in fact, was not served by local DRSU for a long time, and therefore the speed in some areas was very different from the planned one. Only once we came across a deer team in which snow was boiled in a huge cauldron, and then huge pits flooded with hot water. With frost of -30, the water froze quickly and enharged the spoiled area. Well, at least, there were few such places, and those pits that met, the suspension of our XC70 swallowed without problems. Seriously knocked down the pace of movement of cracks in the ice. Others reached 3 meters in width, and across them were transferred with bridges with fairly steep entrances angles, clearly designed for army equipment. Some of them were in such a state that at first they seemed impassable. But our volvavot coped easily with them, since the corners of the front and posterior reviews allowed. So one more day on the road passed. About 700 km remained to the pole.
Wild noise and rattle woke us up in the morning. Three hundred meters from our overnight, an icebreaker was walking. The spectacle, I must say, bewitching when this colossus with a displacement of 10,000 tons crawls out of the wormwood, like a walrus, and then presses the ice with its mass. Later, having contacted the captain on the phone (his mobile phone was prudently written on board just above the waterline), we found out that, unlike us, the ship from Murmansk did not leave the day before, but seven days earlier. Hunning our speed, he reached out in a parallel course on his 10 knots, and we, having breakfast Stroganina and Lizunina, which yesterday's road workers treated us, broke further. The last day is not they presented no surprises, and we reached the pole, as planned, by the evening. Imagine our surprise when we saw about ten parked, like buses in Palace Square, icebreakers and tourists scurrying between them. Some of them every now and then ran to a plate driven into the Earth’s axis with the inscription North Pole 90n, photographed and rushed back into their cozy cabins. The pole looked absolutely not majestic. We were frankly disappointed. Five days of journey and such a result! It was not even a desire to get out of the car. But it was necessary to celebrate somehow. The idea was born instantly. Having turned off the stabilization system, we cut five, according to the number of wheels in the car, perfectly even circles in the side sliding around the earth's axis and to the amazed exclamations of those who saw this, retired towards the mainland.
The return trip took a little more time, because on the tip of the locals we drove to the place where the paleontologists unearthed the next mammoth. Having wandered around a petrified skeleton, they bargained a coccyx of a prehistoric animal from a guard and with the help of the same guard, bone was worn out into the trunk. Rarity was taken to St. Petersburg to colleagues surprisingly and in memory of an interesting journey. Yes, we returned home on April 1.
Driving
Equally good both on the asphalt and outside it. Especially pleased with the opportunity to maintain a high pace of movement in icy areas, which on our path this time there were plenty of.
Salon
Supportive and convenient, has a long and fascinating journey.
Comfort
At a high level, even in a car with basic configuration.
Security
High.
Price
Eh, it would be lower ...
Advantages and disadvantages
+ Versatility, comfort, excellent running qualities on the highway, good patency
- freezing of the nozzle nozzle nozzle.
Specifications
Mark and model - Volvo XC70
Dimensions - 4838/1861/1604 mm
Engine - gasoline, 3192 cm3, 2381 hp/6200 min -1
Transmission - automatic, 5 -speed
Dynamics - Max 215 km/h; 8.6 s to 100 km/h
Competitors - Subaru Outback, Audi Allroad
Our opinion
A long trip allowed to evaluate the car both in ordinary and extreme conditions. Volvo XC70 is equally comfortable for both the driver and passengers. But most of all, the car struck us with the capacity of the trunk. The souvenir from the north fit into it easily.
Author: Oleg Kalaushin
Photo: Igor Kuznetsov
 

A source: Magazine 5 wheel [April 2008]