Volvo Estates Axed last year

[Dustydog]

A bit late but what a sad day! The icon estate that from the 60s set the scene for caravanning , camping, moving home.
Seems no one wants them now.
Is that a dislike for an estate car per se or the fact us tuggers seem to favour SUVs?

Are estate cars dead in the water🤔

 

[Mr Grumpy]

We've had a few over the years. Very versatile workhorses.
Could even use them for weekend sleeping accomodation.
Only problem we found was the number of neighbours asking for help in moving bulky items for them.
I'd certainly have another.

 

[otherclive]

VAG still offer estates from Audi, VW and Skoda. The new Superb and Passat being developed by Skoda. Mercedes are still selling estates but the world has moved to SUV snd markets reflect this.

I’ve had three Volvo estates. My first was a 245 GLE auto. It “pinked “ as Volvo hadn’t developed it to properly run on lead reduced fuel. They marketed a lower compression version in east Africa but I could not obtain one here. Volvo suggested I have a double head gasket fitted. Even octane improver did not do much. But the coup de grace came when rust blisters started to appear and the rear tailgate suffered galvanic corrosion that Buckmans bonnet would envy. It was an early product of Volvos Belgium factory. So it morphed into a Citroen BX16?estate, a real trooper.

The second Volvo a 740 had a very short life as it self immoliated, and it was ICE not EV.

Third one was a 2010!XC70 that had a hard act to follow…. a generation 1 Kia Sorento. Unfortunately Volvo had problems with its particulate filter regeneration that caused fuel to enter the sump and increase the sump level. The solution being to put less oil in the engine to allow for dilution by fuel. I kept it three years but when we sold the caravan we bought a Subaru Forester. Not a fully paid up member of the Volvo fan club.

 

[toad a caravan]

My dad had a 145 Volvo and used it to tow a Devon trailervette trailer tent to Cornwall many times..He then got a 240 and replaced the trailer for a caravan. Both solid cars..

 

[GaryB]

My first was in 1997, a 940 LPT bought as an ex-demonstrator at 6 months old, 2.3 turbo and 5 speed manual with just about every option. No more Volvo’s until 2019 with another ex-demonstrator, this time a V90 D4, replaced in 2022 with a V90 B4 petrol, unfortunately this one has a few electrical problems.

 

[RogerL]

I seriously considered an XC70 in 2000 but was disappointed at the "lack" of space - every other brand of estate had grown substantially but not the V70 and XC70, still no bigger than the old 145.

 

[toad a caravan]

I liked the wide tailgate Fitted on a lot of their estate, almost could fit a front door inside..plus on the earlier petrol ohc engines if the cam belt failed it didn't ruin the rest of the engine

 

[Buckman]

People either buy a hatch back or a SUV. Only estate we have ever owner was a 2010 Ford Mondeo and then we only had it for about 6 months before rejecting it due to known issues with the Powershift gearbox.

 

[RogerL]

People either buy a hatch back or a SUV. Only estate we have ever owner was a 2010 Ford Mondeo and then we only had it for about 6 months before rejecting it due to known issues with the Powershift gearbox.

Many people need more space than a hatchback without the complexity of a 4wd SUV - there's still a reasonable choice of estates although not as wide as it used to be, mainly because the related hatchback/saloon has been axed in favour of a crossover.

 

[Tobes]

My parents have had 7 Volvo estates; 145, 245, 240, 850, V70mk1, V70mk2, V70mk2
I have had 4 (V40, V70Mk2, V50, V60) an S60 Saloon and XC90mk1
The current Polestar2 is effectively a hatch back XC40 (now EX40).
Fantastic cars. If Volvo release an EV70 - I will be in the line to get one.

 

[Guzzilazz]

Volvo has made some strange line-up decisions in the UK... I wanted to replace my XC40 mHEV with a PHEV. The mHEV was a sop to emissions (35mpg?) the PHEV was excellent 40-50 mpg on the occasions I had one as a loaner. Volvo UK stopped the PHEV in 2022 (I think), so I had to go to a Sportage (Self charging to get a high enough towing limit).

WIth the estates, the market has changed. I'd be interested to see how many S (saloon) and V (estate) models were sold last year. The SUV - most of which are NOT 4WD - has taken over...

 

[Buckman]

Sadly we have crossed Volvo off our list and and other manufacturer who has decided that we need a hybrid vehicle. Unfortunately this limits our buying options unless we look second hand.

 

[trevormonty]

Definitely wagon fan but changed to small AWD SUV as its just 2 of us now and wanted AWD for launching boat. Must on local ramp. Also AWD is useful for towing caravan, not essential but nice to have.

Saw doco on youtube about demise of wagon in USA. Only the few high end europe ones and Subaru Outback left in that market. Outback out sells all the others combined by considerable margin.

 

[RogerL]

Definitely wagon fan but changed to small AWD SUV as its just 2 of us now and wanted AWD for launching boat. Must on local ramp. Also AWD is useful for towing caravan, not essential but nice to have.

Saw doco on youtube about demise of wagon in USA. Only the few high end europe ones and Subaru Outback left in that market. Outback out sells all the others combined by considerable margin.

And the Subaru Outback itself is half-way between a conventional estate / wagon and a 4WD SUV, one of the original cross-overs - for some markets the Subaru Legacy* estate is available, same bodyshell as the Outback but with less ground clearance.

* called the Liberty in Australia (and New Zealand?) as Legacy is a veterans association.

 

[Dustydog]

Back in 2000 I had my eye on a V70 T5 going spare on our fleet. Missed it by a day but still got an Audi A4 Avant 1.8T. There’s something about the Volvo estate spaciousetc

 

[Buckman]

We had a Volvo dealership in our town, but they closed up shop and nearest Volvo dealership was over 25 miles away. The Volvo auto gearbox had the same issues as the Mondeo Powershift gearbox and was terrible. One of the reasons why we got rid of our 2004 S80 after only 18 months having bought it brand new. One thing that I must admit, it was the most comfortable car to drive. The seats were really nice.

 

[Lutz]

Yes, times are changing. In the 1970’s we at Opel built more Rekord estates (Vauxhall Carlton to you lot) than the saloon model and the VW Passat was almost exclusively an estate. Now even saloons in their customary form are disappearing fast, at least in the small to medium size car market.
But that’s not the only development. Back in the 60’s relatively large two door saloons were quite popular. I had a two door Ford Corsair then. You don’t see any now except perhaps in coupe form, but even then they are usually hatchbacks.

 

[RogerL]

Yes, times are changing. In the 1970’s we at Opel built more Rekord estates (Vauxhall Carlton to you lot) than the saloon model and the VW Passat was almost exclusively an estate. Now even saloons in their customary form are disappearing fast, at least in the small to medium size car market.

Your comment on the Rekord Estate is slightly surprising - at the time, the UK motoring press led me to believe that preference for estates was a peculiarly British thing, at least as far as Europe was concerned.

Even back in the '90s, the saloon version of popular cars was very uncommon in the UK but still popular in Eastern Europe

 

[otherclive]

We had a Volvo dealership in our town, but they closed up shop and nearest Volvo dealership was over 25 miles away. The Volvo auto gearbox had the same issues as the Mondeo Powershift gearbox and was terrible. One of the reasons why we got rid of our 2004 S80 after only 18 months having bought it brand new. One thing that I must admit, it was the most comfortable car to drive. The seats were really nice.

The Powershift was dropped when the Gen 3 V70/XC70 were introduced. They had conventional torque converter gearboxes, by Aisin I think.

 

[Buckman]

Yes, times are changing. In the 1970’s we at Opel built more Rekord estates (Vauxhall Carlton to you lot) than the saloon model and the VW Passat was almost exclusively an estate. Now even saloons in their customary form are disappearing fast, at least in the small to medium size car market.
But that’s not the only development. Back in the 60’s relatively large two door saloons were quite popular. I had a two door Ford Corsair then. You don’t see any now except perhaps in coupe form, but even then they are usually hatchbacks.

If I remember correctly in the sixties in Germany a car called the "Glas" was built and later became part of BMW. Despite sanctions, the same car was manufactured in Rhodesia under BMW name and was very popular. It had the BMW front and was known as the BMW Cheetah. South Africa also sold the same model under a different name and with different engines. Radiator or front was the give away.

 

[GaryB]

Following my previous reply, the red 940 returned an average of 28mpg, which back in the mid 90's was reasonable for that type of car. Fast forward to 2019 when I had the V90 D4 it returned an average of 54mpg from memory and the current B4 (petrol) returns 43mpg average. I think Volvo got it "right" with the mild hybrid engines but dropped the ball with the infotainment (I hate that word) centre on the 2022MY cars as it isn't as good as the previous Sensus system in my epxerience.

 

[Buckman]

The world record for the highest mileage by any car is held by a Volvo P1800. It has probably done over 4 million miles.

 

[RogerL]

The world record for the highest mileage by any car is held by a Volvo P1800. It has probably done over 4 million miles.

The P1800 was an early indicator of the quality control issues that have dogged the British car industry to this day - the P1800 was going to be built by Karmann in Germany but VW blocked it so it was built by Jensen in West Bromwich from '60 to '63 with bodyshells from Linwood in Scotland but quality control issues saw Volve take production back to Sweden where the linked car was built.

 

[Buckman]

The P1800 was an early indicator of the quality control issues that have dogged the British car industry to this day - the P1800 was going to be built by Karmann in Germany but VW blocked it so it was built by Jensen in West Bromwich from '60 to '63 with bodyshells from Linwood in Scotland but quality control issues saw Volve take production back to Sweden where the linked car was built.

If I remember correctly Roger Moore drove one in The Saint TV series? One of my colleagues had a cream one and it seemed he had it forever.

Our first Volvo was the 340 and I was so impressed with it that we traded it in for the 440 which we then traded in for a S80 manual which we then traded in for the S80 auto. The latter was the last Volvo that we bought as I think Volvo had been bought out by Ford?

 

[Lutz]

Your comment on the Rekord Estate is slightly surprising - at the time, the UK motoring press led me to believe that preference for estates was a peculiarly British thing, at least as far as Europe was concerned.

Even back in the '90s, the saloon version of popular cars was very uncommon in the UK but still popular in Eastern Europe

Yes, the popularity of the estate car waned much earlier on the Continent. The last generation of the Opel Ascona was never available as an estate car and the specific body panels for the estate car version of its Vauxhall derivative were imported from Australia because Opel thought that it wouldn't be economically viable to tool them up in Europe, as well.

What was popular in southern and eastern Europe as well as certain overseas markets were notchback saloon versions of small hatchbacks such as the Opel Corsa or Renault R5. If they were offered at all in our part of the world, they remained a rarity.