VOLVO S80 T6 SE 4dr [Geartronic] (1998)

V fast and comfy but lots of repairs needed

I wasn't too fussed about the look of the S80, but the sheer speed of it when I test drove it won me over. I got it second hand at 50k miles, but I wasn't too concerned about the state of it because my dad had a Volvo once and so I thought it would all be fine. MISTAKE! I've had quite a lot of problems with this thing. The main thing is just a load of really odd engine problems, like it'll just die when driving on the motorway. Drifting without power isn't usually all that dangerous but it's no fun either. The body of the car is also really showing its age in a big way, and the plastics inside are pretty much coming to pieces. There are a number of other little problems day to day with the electrics and the heating etc. Really it's just not been that reliable. It's possible some of this is a result of how it was driven before, but added together it just seems like a shoddy car.

If you can overlook the mechanical bother, or if you're luckier than I've been, then the Volvo S80 is actually a good car to drive. I said about the speed. Well I've had it on the continent and smoothly cruised at 150mph, it took that in its stride (was behaving itself that day - maybe it prefers high speeds!). Obviously it's pretty thirsty for fuel at that sort of speed, and it's pretty bad at normal speeds too as it goes.

From the driver's seat things are in a pretty sensible order. I drove a mate's car the other week and it did make me appreciate the Volvo S80 a bit more for that. Like the satnav display is mounted at the top of the dash, not too far out of your eye's view. His one was on a monitor that was half way down the central panel, really distracting to try and check it and you couldn't see the road at all. The S80 has got a nice set of controls from the steering wheel, makes life easier. The air con controls are nicely arranged, lets you blow air on to do legs, lap and face separately. It's a bit of a pain that the stereo is completely integrated into the front panel cos you can't easily replace it with a different one, at least I've got no idea how you'd do that.

And after all, the Volvo touch does come across in some other cool ways. Like if you flip down the arm rest in the back there's a fridge! Just a little one mind, but it's dead fancy. The boot in the Volvo S80 is really massive too, plenty of space for golf clubs and lots else. In a way I'll be sad to let it go, but mostly I just want rid of it cos I don't think the gearbox will last much longer.