Volvo

 Volvo

I’m interested in cars and this post is solely concerned with my life as a Volvo driver. If cars are of no interest to you then I suggest you read no further.

I came to Volvo by chance in that I joined a company that provided one for me, It was a 240DL Estate car.  With a 2.3L 4 cylinder petrol engine it was very heavy but also very roomy. Its slab like construction made no concessions to aerodynamics except for a pronounced air dam which was becoming a fashionable feature of the mid 90’s.  I was living in Wilmslow and commuting daily to Brownhills , north west of Birmingham.. I learned to minimise my time on the M6 by joining as far south as possible. Sometimes I was required to be at the Great Barr offices very close to the M6 junction. Heavy traffic on a Friday evening was a particular nightmare with fast moving nose to tail traffic requiring great concentration.

On moving companies back to Castrol I was initially allocated a Volvo 740 2Litre saloon. Well worn it was passing out of the Castrol fleet and allocated to me as stop gap before my choice of Rover 820e was obtained.  The e signified fuel injection into the intake manifold. This very satisfactory  car .was written off when a tree fell on it ( I wasn’t inside ! ). Although replaced the new car had a series of problems culminating in the bonnet flying open on the M40. Annette was driving and handled the complete loss of forward vision with aplomb. I had suffered a stroke and moved to an Audi 80 1.8L diesel automatic gearbox estate car. Quite ridiculously underpowered I bought the car when I was made redundant ( actually disguised early retirement ) and it gave several more years of very unexciting service.

Withy my new part time employer after leaving Castrol I had the opportunity to join the company collective purchase. This had to be a Volvo as that was their choice and I joined the deal and bought a V70, 2.4L diesel automatic estate car. This had just replaced the previous incarnation and used the new 5 cylinder twin overhead cam engine. Volvo are the only company who have mass produced 5 cylinder engines Somewhat to my surprise I found that this layout gave the best inherent balancing of any engine. In an effort to reduce weight the engine block was aluminium ( the V70 a larger car is lighter than the 240 ). This all new 5 cylinder engine will be the last that Volvo ever design as they are moving via 4 cylinder petrol engines to electric. The engine incorporated much of the technological advances including common rail fuel injection. This essentially reverses the previous method of injecting fuel by generating high pressure when required to one of holding a reservoir at high pressure and opening injection nozzles as appropriate. This enables higher injection pressure and hence better fuel dispersion which improves efficiency. The V70 used a catalytic converter to oxidise the exhaust however its wasn’t a good solution for particulate carbon emission.

Diesel engines have come under a cloud in recent years. In many ways this was a result of the cheating on emissions by Volkswagen and Mercedes. A big problem is the smoke produced under certain circumstances. Fine particles of carbon are injurious to health. However modern diesel engines have particulate traps which largely cure this. The Volvo 5 cylinder engine now uses this. Inherent in the greater efficiency of the diesel engine is production of more nitrogen oxides. While catalytic converters ensure this becomes NO2 this is still a hazard to health. Ignored in the present demonisation of diesel engines is that less CO2 is produced. Diesel engines have other desirable properties such as slower revving and higher torque however no good answer to the nitrogen oxides problem exists.. Appropriate design improves but doesn’t cure. 

The V70 used a 5 speed automatic gearbox built in Japan. Although quite high geared the car still registered 2300 revs per minute at motorway cruise of 70 mph. W

The most recent Volvo incarnation I am driving is the V60. This is a slightly smaller estate car than the V70. It uses the Volvo 5 cylinder diesel engine now in 2 L form and with particulate trap exhaust. As used in the V60 the 5 cylinder engine is slightly detuned to produce maximum torque at lower revs.. Now using a 6 speed automatic transmission the V60 is very high geared doing only some 2000 rpm at 70 mph. The high torque produced by diesel engines means this gearing can be used quite easily. This transmission is the somewhat older hydraulic fluid coupling type rather than the more recent two shaft type introduced by VW and adopted by several others.

The V60 design takes advantage of several features designed to ease driver load and improve efficiency. Perhaps the most striking is the forward looking radar which powers both the emergency stop system and a crude heads up display showing the driver how close the car in front and whether, and how fast, the gap is changing. This provision also enables adaptive cruise control. While previous cruise control such as on the V70 set a fixed speed, adaptive tailors to the speed of the car in front. Generally I don’t find cruise control useful in the UK but in the USA with long distances on good roads it is very applicable.

One feature that I feel very dubious about is stop/start. The idea is simple – when stationary for more than about 15s the engine stops and then restarts when the accelerator is pressed. As a technology this was introduced by Volkswagen about 30 years ago and has gradually spread. As implemented by Volvo it works very well with the restarts being very fast; so quick as to be nearly unnoticeable. An extra small battery keeps any electrical ancillaries going while the engine is stopped. My doubt arises in that any fuel saving is minute. I suppose that in a queue it may save some tiny amount but in day to day driving I doubt that any significant fuel saving is made.

One feature which is now nearly universal is dynamic stability control. Essentially this combines anti skid braking with computer controlled side skid resistance. This is achieved by selectively braking a wheel to maintain control. This was demonstrated to me in dramatic fashion at a Volvo test day I attended at the Motor Industry Associations testing ground near Nuneaton in Warwickshire. Lined up stationary facing bollards arranged in a V and on a wetted road. The instruction is simple , accelerate as hard as possible towards the bollards. At the last minute the demonstrator says right or left and then brake as hard as possible without passing the base of the V. Without dynamic stability control this would have resulted in skidding and possible loss of control. As it was with me  the car turns and stops without any drama. Although the speed was fairly modest ( not much above 30 mph ) this feature enables the average driver to avoid accidents which would otherwise have occurred. It is a feature which I certainly feel adds to reassurance. While a highly skilled driver doesn’t benefit as much this enables the average lesser skilled to maintain control in tricky