Well, I say "day", it was only a couple of hours in the morning.

First up was a V50 D5. It made a funny "sucking" noise when you pushed the go pedal, and the geartronic thing was horrible. Apparently it'll be available with a manual from November though.

Next was a V50 T5. I liked it a lot. It went VROOOOSH but was quite quiet when cruising, and it went round corners jolly well indeed. Also it was a very fetching shade of blue. I liked it much more than the 911 I tried a few months back, which probably makes me some sort of heretic. And they're not that expensive used. And it utterly humiliated the teenaged scallywags in their little Corsa who were revving and revving at the traffic lights.

Last up was a V70 T6. Which was very, very silly. I decided to rename the suspension buttons from "Comfort", "Sport" and "Advanced" to "Boat", "Car" and "No Springs". Hilariously fast though. Annoying noise as if the back was full of crickets. Pop-up TV to show you the view out of the back when reversing.

And then they gave me a tree to "offset the carbon". I fear it may be a little late in the year to be planting such a small tree, but who knows.

I unfortunately made the mistake of describing the T5 to Lady Bertie McHobnobs as "like Rita Queen of Speed with a windscreen". She has now decreed that never shall we own such a car. Which is odd, as she greatly enjoyed the aforementioned rollercoaster (and, indeed, we shall be partaking of its entertainment on Sunday when we return to Alton Towers to use the free tickets they gave us to make up for being stuck on the Corkscrew for 3 hours last time we went).

Interestingly, though, on getting back into my trusty little Fabia TDi I didn't feel at all let-down by it. Which was nice.

I trust I find you all in good health and thank you for your attention.

Nice review - I've not driven a V50 but I did drive a V70 with the D5 engine in it and AWD. I liked it a lot and found the auto box in Playstation aka tiptronic mode was much more fun than leaving it to its own devices trying to work out what gear was best. Lovely car, incredible spec and very comfy seats, but a car to enjoy driving, I'll take the 911 please

Chris

I too would take the 911, or in the same price bracket as the Volvo, a Subaru Legacy Spec B

The 911 was (obviously) faster and could go round corners better and was plusher inside (though the Volvos were far from shabby and had very comfy seats) but I genuinely had more fun in the V50 T5. Could partly be because I wasn't so terrified of pranging it, but I think also its limits and my limits are probably closer. The 911 could, I am sure, do a lot more than I'd be comfortable with.

Strangely the Geartronic thing seemed to work far better in the V70 than the V50 - could be because the V70 had two auto modes, normal and sport, and I found that just switching between the two gave me enough control. The V50's normal (full auto) mode seemed a bit uncertain of what it was doing, and I jsut wasn't sure what gear I was in in "manual" mode. I could probably get used to it, but the T5's manual worked really nicely. I still don't quite understand having six gears though - fifth seems a bit redundant, as the T5 could burble along at 30 in sixth quite happily.

I am considering a 2.0D in a year or so when the Fabia hits 3 years old. Unless in the meantime Lady Bertie McHobobs comes 'round to the T5 idea. I'll need to try an Octy VRS first though, as I seem to have approval for one of them.