New Volvo wagon advice sought

We currently have a '98 V70 which is just now coming up on 100K miles and
with which we have been very pleased.

We are beginning to contemplate replacing it in conjunction with a trip to
Scandinavia next summer. Therefore, we'd like some real world advice based
on experience. Does someone(s) out there have recent experience with a V70
2.4, a XC70 AWD, and a XC90 T6 AWD, in other words the base models of each
line? We're particularly interested in impressions on handling and
behavior, gas milage, and what octane gas do they need.

And, have you used the overseas delivery program. It sounds like a good
deal providing a small discount, airline tickets, a night's lodging, and the
equivalent to free car rental in Europe for the duration of your vacation.
Has anyone done it? Any downsides?

Thanks.

George

 

Got my '01 XC70 on European Delivery and love it. It gets about 23 mpg
compared to 25 mpg for my '93 850 and '95 850. It has good acceleration
and what impresses me most is that I can floor the throttle in wet
weather and never spin the tires. In wet weather you can leave the
corvettes in your wake for a ways at least.

I have used European delivery 6 times and wouldn't go any other way.
You really can't afford not to use it. That would be like throwing free
money away.

Includes European license and insurance, home delivery, duty, and the
discount and perks. When you get home the sales tax is on the value of
a used car, not a new one.

 

Thanks, Steve. The tax break is one advantage I hadn't thought of.

 

Can you combine the overseas delivery with a suppliers discount (I get the
Ford PAG X-plan through Magna International) or is it one or the other?...
Or do you not know for sure, in that case I will ask the dealer next time
I'm in.

 

The dealer only gets a small commission with Overseas Delivery since
they only manage the paperwork and billing. They have no inventory but
do make the physical delivery when the car arrives in the USA. For that
reason some dealers intentionally don't do a good job with Overseas
Delivery. We were going to try a new dealer and he said that he tried
Overseas Delivery once and the people weren't too happy with it. I
would recommend a dealer that has a good track record. We have always
had a good experience, but we start at least 3 months in advance. In
our last case they had to supply a car with an unusual set of optional
equipment (no leather, no sun roof, Shiftmatic, & the winter package) ,
get us the title and insurance for the UK, and have the car ready for us
outside London when we got there. They did a fantastic job. One
warning they gave us though was that there was only enough petrol in the
car to get us to a nearby petrol station where we paid about US$4 a US
gallon.

 

Thanks for the info... I hope it isn't a US only program - never seen it
advertised at a Canadian dealership (tho I've only been to one).

 

i have heard folks say the program pretty much pays for itself...you
end up w/a new volvo and "free" trip...bottom line...i am l@@kin' fwd
to doing a volvo factory tour and new unit pick up...someday....the bmw
factory tour in germany was cool...today
i would like to retunr and see the bmw f1 developement center and
garage....

 

Hmmm. I used to see it mentioned on the Canadian volvo website but it's
gone. It's in Google's cache at http://makeashorterlink.com/?H2FB21D0B
(full url below) as of April 27, but that page is not on the current
site.

Three Canadian dealerships are listed as participating, one each in
Montreal, Ottawa and the Toronto area.

Chip C
Toronto

That full url was (big breath!):
http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cach...+overseas+delivery+site:volvocanada.com&hl=en