Faults:

Driveshaft made an awful noise, replaced along with a wheel bearing at MOT time. Not too bad, and wear and tear you would get with any car.

Service history is essential on these cars - do not touch an abused example. Things get very expensive. My car was bought used in great condition and I will keep it that way - I am under no illusions about the car however, it is older now and mileage is over 100K, so expect anything to go wrong and it will be expensive. The car is for Volvo fans only, others need not apply!

General Comments:

The V50 is just an estate version of the S40 saloon.

This Volvo is a fantastically comfortable and great looking car. Relaxing to be in and drive, comfort levels are top notch. SE Lux model is the one to have, beige leather and electric everything. The car is smooth and quiet on the move.

On the outside mine is silver with original Volvo alloys, looks very nice and still modern after more than 10 years.

2.0 diesel performs great and you can get close to 50 mpg taking it slow.

A great little estate car that does everything I need. Reliability issues seem to be more common with the smaller diesel units, but larger diesels and petrol engines should be OK if looked after, but this is an expensive car to run.

Faults:

Engine changed noise. Advised by the dealer that the cam timing chain had jumped a tooth.

Stop start, stopped working!

General Comments:

I was not impressed by this car, which was a shame!

It was a company car that I managed to get rid of. The list price is high and the spec is low. The Skoda Octavia is bigger, cheaper and had more equipment!

I was expecting a little more!

The boot is very small for an estate car, and very shallow; even my laptop pilots type bag could not be upright, as the handle would not let the cover for the boot close.

The engine had enough power for most things, but the car felt heavy, which hit engine power. It's a shame, because the handling was good.

The interior was bland, and the seats, although supportive and comfortable, were made of some sort of potato sacking material; very hard wearing, but not pleasant.

I took the car in for a service, and was advised it needed some engine work. The car has a timing belt and twin cams, which are chain driven. One of the cams had jumped a tooth, narrowly missing an engine disaster!

I think my car was the 'ES' spec. If you are going to get a V50, buy a better model with a bigger engine. There was a good car in there trying to get out; it just needed more of everything!