Hi

Overall I love my V50, it's powerful, comfortable, is full of gadgets and looks good.

We bought it as we have 2 dogs and for that purpose it's excellent.

The only 2 things that bother me with it are:

The turning circle is rubbish, I am forever having to back up to get round car parks, getting round mini roundabouts is a joke etc

The other thing I don't like are the cheap feeling door handles, especially on the back doors

Not hugely bad things you might think but could be improved

If Volvo changed sorted these out I would be 100% happy with the car.

There that's my twopenneth

I'm sorry and puzzled to hear about your problems with your V50. I do not know what has happened to your steering mechanism as my V50 has a tight turning circle making it easy to get in & out of tight spaces. My wife & I were touring recently with our collie & retriever (plenty of space for them with the back seats folded and some light luggage) and our host at a cottage we stayed at commented on the car's excellent turning circle. I suppose your view will depend on what you have previously driven - a truck or a mini car! I also have solid, strong door handles front and rear (but still have low mileage, however). Again, a wonderful dogmobile. :P

Its probably worth you guys discussing which models and size wheels tyres you have - I reckon there is probably quite a bit of difference between an 18inch wheel car and 16inch wheel when it comes to turning circles - also there maybe differences between an AWD drivetrain and just a normal FWD.

Also with regards to the door handles do these change between trim selection and more likely could different year cars haven't different handles..?

you can always just drive over the roundabouts :grin: also, teach the dogs how to jump out of the windows, that way you won't have to open the doors. okay, i'll stop and take my meds. :grin: welcome to the forum.

i have an 08 v50 and i can definitely relate to those gripes - the door handles feel like they are gonna snap off!

i've had even stranger steering issues that seemed to have gone away (knock on wood) - my dogs love it b/c it's lower to the ground than my SUV.

also when idling i do have some vibration - how bout you?

i have ~1800 miles on it.
2.4i automatic - too scared to put anything but premium in it even at 3.50/gallon

i love the car overall though...

Oh dear $3.50/gallon for premium as well - we pay over $10 /gallon for regular unleaded... !!!

Is there a chance they downgrade the trim on the door handle for american tastes? :P

Still waiting for my R-Design :-(

Now the topic of fuel ("gas" in the US & "petrol" in the UK & Australia) costs has been brought up, the cost of premium unleaded in Australia averages about US$5.85 per US gallon, allowing for the US gallon being only 0.823 the size of a UK gallon (strange that). We fill in litres in Australia and did away with the old imperial measurements some 30 years ago. However I still think in feet and inches and miles per gallon like most of the older generation.

I still like my door handles by the way.

Also should add to the topic I get about 25 mpg (UK gallon) around town & 30 mpg on my recent touring trip (using 6th gear a lot in the country) in my six speed AWD T5. I would be interested to know how others cope with fuel costs. Diesel cars are rarely bought in Australia as diesel is a bit dearer that premium unleaded (about US $7.00 per UK gallon or US $5.90 per US gallon).

yeah, fuel costs.. i'm sorry to bring that up - especially since i'm in texas! when i was a younger it was less than 1 USD for premium... anyway - i'm almost 100% city driving - i only get over 50mph for 4-8 miles per day. thus my mileage is a bit skewed.

this current tank, i'm at 19.6mpg (2.4i auto). I basically try not to press my gas pedal as i circle my stupid 10 level parking lot looking for a space... that has helped (but ripped up my tires, im sure). also, on acceleration thru lites i try to keep my rpm under 3000 - i was doing this to semi-break in my engine... but at this point it's prob helping my fuel economy.

i fill up exclusively at Shell, Chevron and Texaco - i try and stay away from the walmart "premium". and i maintain my tire pressure every couple of weeks.


1 gripe i forgot to mention - my sirius radio reception sounds worse than my FM - anyone else notice that? no noise or bad reception - just muddy mids, and crappy highs.... should i have them look at it and risk them ripping my whole console out?

New to the forum but here I go.

Ordered my V50 D5 RDesign (manual) in October last year, it finaly came in March 2008. Took ages because of the colour and all the options I had fitted.

I have the 18" wheels and don't think the turning circle is too bad, as I had an S60 D5 before, and that was a supertanker to park.

The D5 engine in the manual car is ment to be full power, not the cut down version in the Auto, but mine feels well down on my S60's D5. They have ruined the engine by moving the torque up the rev range, and the car never feels like its in the correct gear. You cant drive around town in one gear like you could in the S60.

Fuel economy is a joke. Smaller lighter car, Euro 4 and doing 5 mile a gallon less than my old S60. I have done 16,000 miles since March and have averaged 39mpg. I was getting 46mpg out of a loan V50 2.0D on the same trips.

On a recent trip to France (850 miles each way), 2 adults , two children and two dogs, with a top box on, I averaged 34 mpg.

Anyone else with a D5 think its poor on fuel economy?

Don't get me started about it being a good dog car, it would be if the dogs couldn't get past the side of the dog gaurd. I have two Border Collies and one of them gets around the side of the gaurd all the time. I think Volvo need to look at the design as its pants, for the extra money.

I got the USB interface, but guess what doesn't work with a Microsoft Zune. Great with a 32GB USB Stick though.


After all that I still like the car, but I don't think the D5 version is worth getting over a 2.0d, unless you have cash to burn.

Hi,

I have had my new V50 R-Design 2.0D delivered in the last month (wanted the D5, but too much) and am really happy with it. Only two minor issues;

1. Why should you lose the MP3 connector when the factory Bluetooth is installed?
2. Relating to the BT installed above, I travel a lot in Europe and by default I set my phone list by using the country code as part of the phone. When an incoming call comes in, the display doesn't recognise the number that is stored on my phone and shows the number calling, even though the phone itself shows the callers name. If I remove the country code it works OK. It works OK on my phone, why not using the BT kit?