We bought our Volvo V70 to replace an Audi A6 that suffered a string of mechanical problems that the main dealer seemed incapable of fixing, unfortunately it seems the V70 has now developed an almost identical fault to the Audi ... typical.

The V70 is a very comfortable car, and one of the safest in it's class, as you'd expect from Volvo. The interior is perhaps a little dated next to the rivals from Audi and BMW although it's simple layout of controls do have a certain appeal.

The boot isn't quite as spacious as you'd expect with the back seats in place, however with the seats folded flat it's a cavernous space that's happily taken anything we've thrown at it ( flat pack furniture, lengths of wood for the odd DIY project, helping friends move house etc ) and there's many points to anchor things to. The built-in dog guard is also a fantastic design, easy to fold out the way when it's not required and keeps the dog in place when it is.

The D5 Engine with the Geartronic gearbox is maybe not the best combination. The engine itself pulls well, albeit with a bit more turbo lag than I'd expect, but the gear box does seem very late to change up, and as a result the engine can be quite noisey at times. In general the engine is much less smooth and refined than I'd expect on a car of this class and there's quite a lot of engine noise in the cabin which is quite intrusive.

Also disappointing was the fuel economy, Volvo quote figures in the high 40s for this car, but realistically on our relatively common drive between Glasgow and London we're lucky to get 34mpg, and less about town.

Volvo has a bit of a reputation for electrical problems, more so in the older cars (we had a 1998 S40 once, that would be a good example of an unreliable one electrically) however it seems that some of these issues continue to plague the newer designs. Shortly after purchase there was a fault with the alarm system, which was quickly corrected under warranty and involved replacing a sensor I believe. A few months later the left headlamp (which is a bi-xenon cornering headlamp) failed, and was replaced under warranty. A year and half later the headlamp failed again with a similar problem, but turned out to be water ingress into the housing and I was able to fix this myself.

The main problem with self-levelling is that if the unit *does* fail for any reason, it will arrange your headlamps in a position which means you can't see more than 5' in front of the car, this is supposedly for safety to stop the risk of dazzling other road users, but at the cost of not being able to see where you're going.

Recently the car has started to experience an intermittent loss of power, this has been attributed to a failed EGR valve at just 60,000 miles in 4 years. On inspection the valve was almost completely clogged to the extent that it has damaged the unit which is a costly replacement. Volvo have suggested that this might be due to 'many short journeys' (yes, the car makes many short journeys but also travels the length of the country a few times every year, I'm increasingly concerned modern diesel engines simply aren't fit for purpose - I should be able to drive my car how and when i want to)

The EGR exists ONLY to comply with EU emissions rules, it offers no advantage to a driver and indeed it actually impedes both performance and fuel economy, and as this is now the second car I've had one fail on - costs a lot to replace.

I would suggest that checking/cleaning EGR valves should become part of the routine service for vehicles with them fitted, perhaps it could have caught this problem before the part itself was damaged.

If I'd known I'd have the same problems with Volvo then I'd have stuck with my Audi however, credit where it's due, Volvo have been a lot more helpful in fixing it and quick to diagnose the problem.