The Perfect Family Car?
It is late, and the first major snowstorm of the season has just dumped a 10-centimeter-thick white blanket all over a city so unprepared for winter weather that it's comical. As big, fat snowflakes fall from the
blackened sky, the radio reports that over 100(!) accidents throughout the day have slowed traffic on every major route to a grinding halt. After sitting in nose to bumper traffic for what seems like an eternity, I finally pull into an unshoveled driveway, but at the moment I hardly want to leave the driver's seat even though a nice, warm bed calls my name. Yes, that's really how comfortable the V70 is, a testament to an amazing set of front seats.
Six hours earlier, I was face to face with the new V70. New, you say? It's true - the new car actually features an slightly updated face and a few important improvements as a part of a mild facelift done last year. Volvo decided that the time was right in mid 2004 to give the V70, and its closely related siblings including the plastic-clad XC70 and the smaller S60 sedan, a mid-life update, but the visual changes are so minor and so subtle that you could call it sneaky.
Look closely and you might spot the new-look snout, which is softer, and rounder
like the junior S40 and V50. I find it interesting how Volvo started to revolutionize its styling, starting with the big, soft S80 and then working incrementally downward through its smaller models, like this V70, before finishing with its latest compact sedan and wagon, yet the facelift for these new 'large' cars, is styled after its newborn siblings. The updated V70 has taken a page from the smaller Volvos with its wider, bright chrome-plated grille and new clear headlamp clusters, which showcase bi-xenon self-leveling beams to light the way. Washer jets have replaced the miniature headlamp washers; one of the authentic Volvo trademarks now lost to increasingly stiff pedestrian safety ratings enforced by European crash test regulations. Angular foglamps and a new intake highlight the front bumper, while chrome-plated rub-strips, clear taillamps and a chrome-tipped exhaust pipe mark changes to the rear.
It is late, and the first major snowstorm of the season has just dumped a 10-centimeter-thick white blanket all over a city so unprepared for winter weather that it's comical. As big, fat snowflakes fall from the
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| The recently upgraded Volvo V70 made my snowy commute hardly eventful. (Photo: Justin Couture, Canadian Auto Press) |
Six hours earlier, I was face to face with the new V70. New, you say? It's true - the new car actually features an slightly updated face and a few important improvements as a part of a mild facelift done last year. Volvo decided that the time was right in mid 2004 to give the V70, and its closely related siblings including the plastic-clad XC70 and the smaller S60 sedan, a mid-life update, but the visual changes are so minor and so subtle that you could call it sneaky.
Look closely and you might spot the new-look snout, which is softer, and rounder
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| Look closely and you might spot the new-look snout, which is softer, and rounder like the junior S40 and V50. (Photo: Justin Couture, Canadian Auto Press) |