new member, maybe new V60 owner

[Kev0607]

Originally Posted by Simeon90

Er, no, Alfa is a luxury car brand, the only thing you could possibly liken to Fiat is reliability, and the OP clearly has the tools and knowledge for that, as I was pointing out.

Yes I've had problems, but they're fixed, and now I have the car as Volvo intended I think it's a bit crap frankly for what is a £35k ? car new, XC60s are pretty cramped inside and I unfortunately don't find it particularly comfortable on long journeys, maybe I would have been better off with R-design seats, but never drove one. However, car in question is a V60, possibly a lot nicer, but I never drove one because the boot is too small for an estate.

I didn't know Alfa was a luxury brand. I don't see many of them, not compared to Merc's, BMW's, Audi's and so on. Being honest, I think a Mercedes or Jaguar is far more luxurious than an Alfa. I don't put Alfa in the luxury league, but hey... That's just my opinion. No offence to anyone that owns one.

What you experienced with your car is a design flaw, a bad one at that. Volvo aren't alone in that world though. There's other manufacturers that have major issues too. Its not right in a 35k car, but it happens. No car is perfect. Its good that its sorted though.

I never understood why people think the XC60 would be roomy in the first place anyway,. Its a mid-sized SUV, being honest, its on the small end of "mid size". Just look at it... you can see as clear as day that its not going to be spacious. If you want a spacious SUV Volvo with plenty of room, go for an XC90. The XC60 is a baby in comparison.

Originally Posted by gianmarko

Hi Kev, thanks for the informations.

a couple words about alfas...
alfas are fiat but they are not "fiat". fiats are the cheap line and alfa is the luxury line and alfas are built to a completely different standard.
i had 4 and they all had a fantastic reliability record. i scrapped the 156 at 360k km, my first 159 at 300k, my current 159 has 200k and still going strong, and my wife Giulietta is at 210k km and works like clockwork.of course they are older and cheaper cars than a 2018 V60 (my 159 is 2009) but build quality is excellent. all alfas i scrapped is because of a detonated alternator, replacing which would have costed thousands.
One of the reasons i dont get another Alfa is that they do not make a car that fits my needs and at this stage i need an autobox, decently powered diesel station wagon and market is quite narrow there.

now enough alfa on a volvo forum

the V60 i test drove had the smoothest autobox i have ever driven so it should be ok there. roger for the gearbox fluid. as changes are very few high price of fluid is not an issue. i plan getting vdash, i always prefer to take a look myself at diagnostics because often garages dont understand them correctly and start randomly replacing parts.

inspecting the car i looked at the belts and they look good. no oil leaks either (that would get the car bounced at the MOT and car will be delivered freshly MOTed, pretty standard practice here, and MOT is a serious business so a guarantee car is ok.

i suspected spares will be more expensive than for fiat, but i hope i will need few (needed very very few for my alfas, mostly brake parts and other consumables.)


i think i will get this car. it ticks all the boxes except perhaps price (at 21k euro is a bit pricier than similar ones on the market here) but other V60 on the market are at 2 or more hours drive.

i see this car is supposed to burn 5.7lt/100km which is surprisingly low, is that a realistic number? with my current ride i average 7lt and is a manual FWD

That equates to around 49 miles per gallon... On a longer journey driving on motorway/faster roads, that's achievable. Around town doing short trips, I think it would be much lower than that.

A detonated alternator would cost thousands to repair? Did the belt snap, causing the timing belt to fail too?

[gianmarko]

well lets say Alfa is the "luxury" brand of Fiat.

i had a few Fiats and apart the bulletproof diesel engines, cars are built cheap and it shows.
Alfa are different. or were, not sure. a friend who works in a fiat garage says they saw a ton of stelvio coming back with defects.

i will miss, for instance, the double wishbone suspensions and the fantastic brakes. most modern cars have mickey mouse brakes, and the V60 doesnt look much different...

of course i will never forgive Fiat for having more or less killed Lancia. still got in my garage a little turbo Lancia with a four wheel drive transmission

the boot of the V60 is spacious enough, on same level of the 159, and i have a roof box for long family trips, which i think is a great solution, as i dont like to have the car loaded to the brim with stuff flying at the first braking, and with a **** weight distribution.

i gave the nod to the dealer so i welcome myself to the Volvo family.

alternator in the 156/159 with the five pot engine is more or less unreachable and lots of stuff needs to come out, to the point that some drop the entire engine.
in Switzerland, with labour at 100 per hour in a good day, its cheaper to get another car.

in the 156 the alternator seized at 360k km. in the 159 it just stopped working at 310k km

Originally Posted by Kev0607

I didn't know Alfa was a luxury brand. I don't see many of them, not compared to Merc's, BMW's, Audi's and so on. Being honest, I think a Mercedes or Jaguar is far more luxurious than an Alfa. I don't put Alfa in the luxury league, but hey... That's just my opinion. No offence to anyone that owns one.

What you experienced with your car is a design flaw, a bad one at that. Volvo aren't alone in that world though. There's other manufacturers that have major issues too. Its not right in a 35k car, but it happens. No car is perfect. Its good that its sorted though.

I never understood why people think the XC60 would be roomy in the first place anyway,. Its a mid-sized SUV, being honest, its on the small end of "mid size". Just look at it... you can see as clear as day that its not going to be spacious. If you want a spacious SUV Volvo with plenty of room, go for an XC90. The XC60 is a baby in comparison.



That equates to around 49 miles per gallon... On a longer journey driving on motorway/faster roads, that's achievable. Around town doing short trips, I think it would be much lower than that.

A detonated alternator would cost thousands to repair? Did the belt snap, causing the timing belt to fail too?

[Kev0607]

Originally Posted by gianmarko

well lets say Alfa is the "luxury" brand of Fiat.

i had a few Fiats and apart the bulletproof diesel engines, cars are built cheap and it shows.
Alfa are different. or were, not sure. a friend who works in a fiat garage says they saw a ton of stelvio coming back with defects.

i will miss, for instance, the double wishbone suspensions and the fantastic brakes. most modern cars have mickey mouse brakes, and the V60 doesnt look much different...

of course i will never forgive Fiat for having more or less killed Lancia. still got in my garage a little turbo Lancia with a four wheel drive transmission

the boot of the V60 is spacious enough, on same level of the 159, and i have a roof box for long family trips, which i think is a great solution, as i dont like to have the car loaded to the brim with stuff flying at the first braking, and with a **** weight distribution.

i gave the nod to the dealer so i welcome myself to the Volvo family.

alternator in the 156/159 with the five pot engine is more or less unreachable and lots of stuff needs to come out, to the point that some drop the entire engine.
in Switzerland, with labour at 100 per hour in a good day, its cheaper to get another car.

in the 156 the alternator seized at 360k km. in the 159 it just stopped working at 310k km

What a great design that is. Remove the engine to replace an alternator!

Welcome to the Volvo family!

[GMcL]

Always thought of Alfa as the sporty Italian brand "Cuore Sportivo" and all that.
Lancia was the luxury leather and (faux) wood brand until the Stratos, 037, S4 and Integrales stepped on toes and muddied the water.

Volvo didn't quite hit the luxury high mark due to no S, 7, A8 rival. Good cars but no high water mark.

[gianmarko]

both Lancia and Alfa had a long history of races and successes. then fiat decided to dedicate Lancia to "luxury" cars of the group but it failed miserably.


the real luxury segment is already very crowded and overall quite small anyway.


ok, waiting for the dealer to complete the paperwork then i will take delivery of the V60.

will keep you posted

Originally Posted by GMcL

Always thought of Alfa as the sporty Italian brand "Cuore Sportivo" and all that.
Lancia was the luxury leather and (faux) wood brand until the Stratos, 037, S4 and Integrales stepped on toes and muddied the water.

Volvo didn't quite hit the luxury high mark due to no S, 7, A8 rival. Good cars but no high water mark.

[Kev0607]

Originally Posted by GMcL

Always thought of Alfa as the sporty Italian brand "Cuore Sportivo" and all that.
Lancia was the luxury leather and (faux) wood brand until the Stratos, 037, S4 and Integrales stepped on toes and muddied the water.

Volvo didn't quite hit the luxury high mark due to no S, 7, A8 rival. Good cars but no high water mark.

I agree with you. I know Volvo is considered a luxury brand, but they have yet to make a model that competes with the likes of the top-of-the-line saloons like the S Class, 7 series, Jaguar XJ, Audi A8 or Lexus LS.

The Volvo S90, the "flagship" model for Volvo currently, is really a competitor to the E Class, 5 series, XF and A6 from the executive segment, not luxury. I guess that's why S Class' and the others are so expensive. There's a difference price wise between a new S Class and an E Class for example. Two different levels of "luxury"...

[Stu B]

Originally Posted by gianmarko

of course i will never forgive Fiat for having more or less killed Lancia. still got in my garage a little turbo Lancia with a four wheel drive transmission

the boot of the V60 is spacious enough, on same level of the 159, and i have a roof box for long family trips, which i think is a great solution, as i dont like to have the car loaded to the brim with stuff flying at the first braking, and with a **** weight distribution.

i gave the nod to the dealer so i welcome myself to the Volvo family.

Congratulations on the V60 purchase, I find the boot is fine too, obviously nothing like the capacity of the V70 I had before it but plenty big enough and it’s a more convenient size of car to drive and park generally.

More importantly, it sounds like you might have a Lancia Delta in the garage - we’re going to need a photo!

[foxhole]

Have a V60 diesel, 2014, seems very quiet, (certainly less noise than my old Honda Jazz petrol) not sure what fuel consumption like yet but on first fill drove home 60miles, in petrol station it showed a range of 360 miles , on getting home it showed a range of 410miles so although I drove 60 miles range rose by 60miles.

[gianmarko]

he he i do and is a really nice specimen, with just 34k km on the clock.

Originally Posted by Stu B

Congratulations on the V60 purchase, I find the boot is fine too, obviously nothing like the capacity of the V70 I had before it but plenty big enough and it’s a more convenient size of car to drive and park generally.

More importantly, it sounds like you might have a Lancia Delta in the garage - we’re going to need a photo!

[Stu B]

Originally Posted by gianmarko

he he i do and is a really nice specimen, with just 34k km on the clock.

Lovely!