I wish I could buy a new one of these right now!
Station wagons may not get everyone's heart racing, but when there's a Volvo badge on the grille, it's definitely worth a second look. The new Volvo V70 R AWD is the latest in a long line of fun-to-drive Volvo haulers, a family that includes some memorable wagons like the 122S, 145, 740 and 850. Even the hip 1800ES was kind of a wagon.
In creating the V70 R AWD, Volvo engineers took the recently-released 70-series station wagon and slipped their high-output, high-pressure, turbocharged, 2.3-liter inline five-cylinder engine under the hood. This 246-horsepower engine gets the power to the ground through a viscous-clutch-type AWD system that can transfer torque between the front and rear axles in milliseconds.
However, the Volvo is more than a super-rigid structure holding an excellent engine and suspension. All of the switches and controls have a very deliberate feel about them, and the whole car just oozes quality. Lots of manufacturers are dressing up their wares with fancy accents and lots of power accessories in a vain effort to make them feel like a luxury car--without the pretentiousness, the Volvo is that luxury car. The fact that it's fast and can carry a lot of stuff is only a bonus.
I wish I could buy a new one of these right now!
My rental car on the trip to Ireland back in 2001 . With my parents.....manual transmission......RH drive.....nearly no sleep on the flight over.......and a roundabout less than a mile from airport.....loved every bit of it.
Dang, comments on a new car review from 22 years ago. (Thanks for reading, everyone.)
I did not need to see this while still trying to make up my mind if I want another daily or not.
Sorry for the fuzzy photo, too. In 2000, we were transitioning from film to digital, so there's a good chance this was shot on film and then returned on a CD. The original isn't on our photo server, so that's a good sign that it predates digital photography.
Remember when cars were cool?
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