Learn Me: Volvo V70 XC

In reply to ebonyandivory:

I agree, but you have not met my mother. Not the epitome of a good driver. Not even close. And she has a long commute to work at a school in an area that sees awful weather condition and has a superintendent who is reluctant to close ever, so might as well give the woman every chance she can get to make it there.

And for a little closure to the thread, my father ended up buying a reasonably nice '99 Legacy Outback wagon that has so far proven to be a wonderful car.

NickD wrote: In reply to ebonyandivory: And for a little closure to the thread, my father ended up buying a reasonably nice '99 Legacy Outback wagon that has so far proven to be a wonderful car.

This is the most astounding information in this thread. A subaru DOHC EJ25 that hasn't blown a headgasket or spun the bearings yet at 18 years. I suppose it could be on it's second or third HG by now.
Are there ventilation holes in the rear fender wells yet?

Full service history, no head gaskets. They're not even seeping oil externally. I call BS on the Subaru head gasket nonsense anyways. Never had a set fail on any of the Subarus I've been around. My sister's '99 Forester has had a hard 150k on it, never had head gaskets, they seep a little bit of oil externally but it might also be valve cover gaskets. I brutally overheated a '93 Loyale a few times due to a bad radiator (and the old EA82 is supposedly notorious for warping heads when overheated) and never had an issue

As for the ventilation holes in the rear fenders, it's a little bubbly but not holes through. It does have a nice crease down the quarter panel through the taillight though. And the front fenders are a little ugly just ahead of the wheel well. But solid underneath.

I'll just add (am reluctant to ruin the path and intent of your thread) that AWD can exacerbate bad drivers for a couple related reasons. The first being that they can inspire false confidence by the very knowledge that "I'm driving an omnipotent AWD" and the second being that AWD's capability to get up to a safe speed and above. We all know it's the stopping and turning on slippery roads where the problems arise. Four good snow tires on a FWD may end up being a safer alternative for her in reality though perhaps not perception.

ebonyandivory wrote: Not to disregard the Volvo part of the OP but this makes me wonder how many people have actually driven a car, any car, with four good snow tires? I can't imagine having any trouble (generally) with a decent fwd car, maybe a Volvo in this case, in snow with a set of decent snow tires. Anyone who doubts this is likely to have never actually done it.

I have - every year.

A FWD with good snow tires is fine, gets you around without much drama.

An AWD car with good snow tires - well that is just MAGIC!!!

ebonyandivory wrote: I'll just add (am reluctant to ruin the path and intent of your thread) that AWD can exacerbate bad drivers for a couple related reasons. The first being that they can inspire false confidence by the very knowledge that "I'm driving an omnipotent AWD" and the second being that AWD's capability to get up to a safe speed and above. We all know it's the stopping and turning on slippery roads where the problems arise. Four good snow tires on a FWD may end up being a safer alternative for her in reality though perhaps not perception.

Well, the thread was already over. Like, 4 months ago. They already own the Subaru.

NGTD wrote:

ebonyandivory wrote: Not to disregard the Volvo part of the OP but this makes me wonder how many people have actually driven a car, any car, with four good snow tires? I can't imagine having any trouble (generally) with a decent fwd car, maybe a Volvo in this case, in snow with a set of decent snow tires. Anyone who doubts this is likely to have never actually done it.

I have - every year. A FWD with good snow tires is fine, gets you around without much drama. An AWD car with good snow tires - well that is just MAGIC!!!

This.

AWD with snow tires > FWD with snow tires > AWD with all-season > FWD with all-season.

NickD wrote: Well, the thread was already over. Like, 4 months ago. They already own the Subaru.

Well, sorry to like, bother you.

ebonyandivory wrote:

NickD wrote: Well, the thread was already over. Like, 4 months ago. They already own the Subaru.

Well, sorry to like, bother you.

Sorry, didn't mean for it to come off like that. I'm having E36 M3 day at work and in a not-so-great mood. My apologies for coming off jerkish. Your advice was sound, but they already own the car now, so it wouldn't make sense to sell the car they have that works when it took so long just to find one that met their requirement and budgets. And the amount of FWD station wagons under $3k (Hell, any car around here under $3k that isn't a total pile) around here are slim-to-none.

I just figured since the thread popped back up after 6 months I would give a little resolution. We decided, after the less than positive opinions on the V70 to avoid that thing. And my father wasn't entirely sold on Volvos in general, so they went with what me and him know fairly well

NickD wrote: Full service history, no head gaskets. They're not even seeping oil externally. I call BS on the Subaru head gasket nonsense anyways. Never had a set fail on any of the Subarus I've been around. My sister's '99 Forester has had a *hard* 150k on it, never had head gaskets, they seep a little bit of oil externally but it might also be valve cover gaskets. I brutally overheated a '93 Loyale a few times due to a bad radiator (and the old EA82 is supposedly notorious for warping heads when overheated) and never had an issue As for the ventilation holes in the rear fenders, it's a little bubbly but not holes through. It does have a nice crease down the quarter panel through the taillight though. And the front fenders are a little ugly just ahead of the wheel well. But solid underneath.

Good luck to you. My 99 Legacy blew the HG at 66k miles and spun bearings at 85k miles, the replacement motor was burning massive oil at 70k miles, so I am a little bitter. I took good care of it too.
Also that engine has internalHG leaks, they rarely seep oil externally, its all about coolant getting into the cylinders.

I also had an EJ20k that blew the HG at about 70k, but it lived a hard life.

Aspen wrote:

NickD wrote: Full service history, no head gaskets. They're not even seeping oil externally. I call BS on the Subaru head gasket nonsense anyways. Never had a set fail on any of the Subarus I've been around. My sister's '99 Forester has had a *hard* 150k on it, never had head gaskets, they seep a little bit of oil externally but it might also be valve cover gaskets. I brutally overheated a '93 Loyale a few times due to a bad radiator (and the old EA82 is supposedly notorious for warping heads when overheated) and never had an issue As for the ventilation holes in the rear fenders, it's a little bubbly but not holes through. It does have a nice crease down the quarter panel through the taillight though. And the front fenders are a little ugly just ahead of the wheel well. But solid underneath.

Good luck to you. My 99 Legacy blew the HG at 66k miles and spun bearings at 85k miles, the replacement motor was burning massive oil at 70k miles, so I am a little bitter. I took good care of it too. Also that engine has internalHG leaks, they rarely seep oil externally, its all about coolant getting into the cylinders. I also had an EJ20k that blew the HG at about 70k, but it lived a hard life.

Well, we haven't had to add coolant in the 6 months we've owned it, so I say it's good there too.

NickD wrote: I call BS on the Subaru head gasket nonsense anyways. Never had a set fail on any of the Subarus I've been around. My sister's '99 Forester has had a *hard* 150k on it, never had head gaskets, they seep a little bit of oil externally but it might also be valve cover gaskets. I brutally overheated a '93 Loyale a few times due to a bad radiator (and the old EA82 is supposedly notorious for warping heads when overheated) and never had an issue

Half of the "leaking EJ head gaskets" I have seen were oil pan gasket leaks that were improperly diagnosed. They also seem to all drool a tiny bit from the cover plate over the one wristpin access hole.

As far as the EA82 engines go, the TURBO engines had the fragile heads. The single-port nonturbo heads were great. Not sure if the multiport XTs had problems or not, they had Turbo style heads but were nonturbo. Be interesting to see if it was a casting design flaw or a turbo stress problem.

Knurled wrote:

NickD wrote: I call BS on the Subaru head gasket nonsense anyways. Never had a set fail on any of the Subarus I've been around. My sister's '99 Forester has had a *hard* 150k on it, never had head gaskets, they seep a little bit of oil externally but it might also be valve cover gaskets. I brutally overheated a '93 Loyale a few times due to a bad radiator (and the old EA82 is supposedly notorious for warping heads when overheated) and never had an issue

Half of the "leaking EJ head gaskets" I have seen were oil pan gasket leaks that were improperly diagnosed. They also seem to all drool a tiny bit from the cover plate over the one wristpin access hole. As far as the EA82 engines go, the TURBO engines had the fragile heads. The single-port nonturbo heads were great. Not sure if the multiport XTs had problems or not, they had Turbo style heads but were nonturbo. Be interesting to see if it was a casting design flaw or a turbo stress problem.

The EA single-port heads are fascinating. Between those, the basement-level compression, little throttle body with 2 injectors and the intake manifold based around 90 degree bends, it's amazing that that engine could even manage the 85-97hp they were rated at. And then the turbo model added all that spaghetti up top and a lot of problems and only bumped it to 111-115hp. Still, would own another EA in a heartbeat.

NickD wrote:

Hungary Bill said: It might just be a bit more "nickel and dime" than what I'd be willing to put my stamp of approval on for my mom

Well, she's currently driving the world's rustiest ZJ with 3 blown shocks, a leaky radiator, leaky front and rear diffs and one upper control arm that filed for divorce from the body, so honestly that'd be an improvement. But yes, I get what you're saying. We'll keep looking for something else

Don't be so quick to run. My 200 V70 T5 (the R version before there was an R) has 198K on it and is great. I'd hop in and head for California if I wasn't averse to actually going TO California.

EDIT: Didn't realize this was a zombie thread.

DrBoost wrote:

NickD wrote:

Hungary Bill said: It might just be a bit more "nickel and dime" than what I'd be willing to put my stamp of approval on for my mom

Well, she's currently driving the world's rustiest ZJ with 3 blown shocks, a leaky radiator, leaky front and rear diffs and one upper control arm that filed for divorce from the body, so honestly that'd be an improvement. But yes, I get what you're saying. We'll keep looking for something else

Don't be so quick to run. My 200 V70 T5 (the R version before there was an R) has 198K on it and is great. I'd hop in and head for California if I wasn't averse to actually going TO California.

Too late. They got a '99 Legacy Outback wagon about 4/5 months ago. Subarus are a known quantity with us, so we went with that.

Since it came up a bunch of times..- Modern snow tires are awesome for sure, and I have used them a fair amount having lived at 6K + elevation where it snowed allot for 5-6 years. I've had them on RWD, FWD, and AWD cars. In an area made up of level or rolling ground, I agree- AWD is not necessary in winter. If it is a real ruralish area, RWD with snow tires is the best and so much fun I used to drive around for hours just because sideways. However I've found that if you live in mountains and/or there are real hills with lots of unlit neighborhoods with steep driveways, AWD is just way better in real life because getting stuck is so miserable and time consuming. I have theory that sometimes folks who say AWD is overkill don't live where it is really needed.