Well on Saturday I placed on order on a new Volvo V60 R Design, I was always going to get another Skoda but the deals at the moment are lousy.

 

To put it in perspective I wanted to get a new Kodiak and it would of meant spending £80 per month more than a more expensive Volvo so unfortunately it was a bit of a no brainer.

 

I was also keen to try and secure something before the uncertainty of Brexit.

 

Volvo have guaranteed to keep the price post brexit (as its going to have a possibly long build time) whereas Skoda were just unwilling to commit and all I got from the salesmen was a shrug of the shoulders and a " don't know, if the price goes up we may need to pass the cost onto you but Skoda HQ have not told us anything"

 

I have loved my time in my Skoda its been my third so far, but personally I think they need to up their game in terms of offers (perhaps the VAG group is bogging them down) but then again who know what will happen after October 31st 

 

I won't be leaving here for a while as its penned for delivery in January and then there will be a brilliant Vrs finding its way onto someones drive.

I'm assuming the £80 per month relates to a part of a leasing or PCP deal so there may be a wider picture.....?

 

But if you've seen a Volvo you like go for it....!!

 

There are few prizes for brand loyalty nowadays unfortunately.....

Yup, it was PCP, same deposit, mileage etc - but the Volvo APR was 2.9 as apposed to the Skoda 5.9 and the dealer contribution from Volvo was far higher.

 

Plus Skoda wouldn't pay off the finance on my car but Volvo will, which I couldn't understand (especially as the trade in value is the same as remaining finance) 

42 minutes ago, Phil245 said:

There are few prizes for brand loyalty nowadays unfortunately.....

 

If there were any prizes I never experienced them 

 

V60?  Well seat comfort is a given but having checked it out when thinking of changing my Octavia estate - nope. Perhaps it's an option if you don't require the space but from a 3 time Volvo owner many years ago, I was shocked how impracticle Volvo have become - they were once the 'go to' manufacturer if you wanted an estate. I never drove the V60 but real-world fuel economy was another questionable area. (check it on honestjohn website). From past experience, I'd advice taking out a service package if offered as Volvo servicing used to be expensive.

 

Of course the other thing is watch out for the list price - add a couple of extras and many of them top the £40,000 mark thus attracting £455 year road tax.

 

For practicality reasons, the V60 was insantly rejected. The garage did have several delivery miles V90's - D4 R-Design with several option packs on them for £31,999. I did have a test drive in that...  thought the diesel was a tad noisy to be honest but that's me coming from a petrol.  Then I found out those particular cars listed at £43,890 which meant £455 a year road tax. The boot was also less impracticle than my much smaller Octavia so it didn't make sense.  The car I test drove is still for sale, now at £29,999  ( comparible cars at other garages are £1500 cheaper still ).  That equates to £16,000 off list price...   they simply can't sell them. Despite the reputation, Volvo estates ( more so their saloons) attract huge depreciation, that won't affect you with PCP tho but may explain why they can offer to pay off lease costs...  the lease company problably bought them for a song.

 

I personally wasn't too keen on the tablet display but at least Volvo have several shortcut buttons. Managed to hook my phone up to the system but unlike the headunits in VAG cars, the Volvo wouldn't display my test messages nor read them back to me. Perhaps it's not compatible with my particular phone. But even the std sound system in the car was far superoir in every way to that of Skoda's - that's the difference when you install speakers in to something with solid build quality. I suspect you'll be able to turn it up full and the sound won't distort.

 

But as I say as far as comfort goes, Volvo still have one of the best seats available.

Edited 6 August, 20196 yr by Guest

Thanks Scot5

 

Yes the comfort level is brilliant, the seats were something else, to be honest I knew the boot was smaller than the Octavia (not by a massive margin) but I probably need to ram my car full possibly once a year at most so that wasn't an issue.

 

The real world fuel economy is better than the Skoda but not by a huge margin.

 

I was very careful with my extras to make sure that the price fell just below the £40K mark, with discounts I got it for £7.5K less with the service plan thrown in so I was very happy with that, but to be honest the model I bought (R Design Plus) had so much kit that I didn't really need to add much - I did add the Harman Kardon sound system as I spend so long in the car I wanted to treat myself.

 

Out of all of the cars in this sector suffer from depreciation to a certain extent Volvo does seem to be better than Audi or Mercedes.

 

What really swung it was the quality and design of the interior, its probably a bit marmite but I loved it and felt it was a lovely place to be - I am sure that the New Octavia will be snapping on the heels of other marques when it is released but I have a feeling that may come at a price.

 

 

1 hour ago, finnster01 said:

Thanks Scot5

 

Yes the comfort level is brilliant, the seats were something else, to be honest I knew the boot was smaller than the Octavia (not by a massive margin) but I probably need to ram my car full possibly once a year at most so that wasn't an issue.

 

The real world fuel economy is better than the Skoda but not by a huge margin.

 

I was very careful with my extras to make sure that the price fell just below the £40K mark, with discounts I got it for £7.5K less with the service plan thrown in so I was very happy with that, but to be honest the model I bought (R Design Plus) had so much kit that I didn't really need to add much - I did add the Harman Kardon sound system as I spend so long in the car I wanted to treat myself.

 

Out of all of the cars in this sector suffer from depreciation to a certain extent Volvo does seem to be better than Audi or Mercedes.

 

What really swung it was the quality and design of the interior, its probably a bit marmite but I loved it and felt it was a lovely place to be - I am sure that the New Octavia will be snapping on the heels of other marques when it is released but I have a feeling that may come at a price.

 

 

Well I've owned all three -  a  couple of V70's ( one from new, one del miles) a S60 (del miles ) and A4 (new...   and paid £1800 for leather and £400 for wood inlays - why? what the hell was I thinking about? ) and a C180 auto ( del miles ).  Apart from the extras, I'd like to think I bought the cars at the lowest price I could find ( I'm Scottish ) and to be honest if it wasn't for that crazy decision to add extras to the Audi, all three depreciated the same. Other running costs was a different kettle of fish tho. The Merc was a money pit, the Volvo would have been the same if it were not for searching around and playing garages off against each other. Depreciation aside, the Audi was the cheapest to service out of the three, that's how bad the other two were.  BMW was actually cheapest of all.

 

I'm just thinking what I said about my smartphone. I can't remember the exact specs, but something tells me that Android Auto and Apple Car play were extras on the V90 R-Design Pro so I guess the same goes for the V60? I think you had to upgrade the HiFi system to gain those - as if a £43k car wasn't expensive enough !   It's got to be different now, but I had Volvo's upgraded systems on both the V70 and S60 and back then and to this day it's the best manufacture installed sounding system I've heard - Volvo is a great foundation for installing Hi-fi.   If you've opted for that HK upgrade then can't tell you how jealous I am     It'll make Canton sound like a £4.99 Alba music stick from Argos.

😀 It was £350 to add smartphone integration, which as you rightly said is quite mean considering the cost of the car, you can add it without having an upgraded system, but surprise surprise they dont freely advertise it (the dealer let slip that it was something I could do)

I just decided that I might as well spend a bit more and get the upgraded HK system, I love my music and for every car I have ever owned I have had the stock system and there was not a huge difference in monthly payments to add it.

 

They threw in 3 years servicing which I let them know was a deal breaker if they didn't , I have it with the Skoda and it makes life so much easier and cheaper.

 

Its my first time in what may be considered a "premium" brand so sort of an unknown territory for me, my Skodas have been bulletproof up till now so reliability wise it will have a lot to live up to.