Possible S80 Owner
 

Greetings all -

I just joined the forum as I am pretty close to the purchase of our first Volvo and wanted to learn all I could before making my decision. This car will be primarily for the wife with me behind the wheel on weekends. I took her to look at quite a few different makes and models but after driving a 2005 S60 we just coming back to the Volvo as a first choice.

The only thing we discussed was that the car seemed a bit small for us. I'm over 6' and she is about 5-10". So today I hit another dealer and drove a 2005 S80 instead. The car was perfect and the extra cabin size is just what we wanted.

My question tonight (and before buying) is about gas mileage. We are turning in a 2005 Chevy Avalanche now that the kids are gone and after filling that tank often, gas prices are a major concern. We were looking for a car that felt great and ran in the high 20 mpg's pretty consistently on the freeway. The original EPA stickers for the 2005 S60 show about 21/30 City-Highway and about 20/28 for the S80. I've been reading some posts in this forum and saw some complaints about fuel consumption. Are the EPA numbers bogus? Or can I expect close to these numbers if I drive sane? Also is premium fuel required?

I love this car but believe it or not the Chevy Avalanche actually got about 18 mpg on the highway. I would hate to trade thinking I was going to get a possible 30% savings in fuel only to find that the highway mpg was about the same.

Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated and thanks for a great forum!

RE: Possible S80 Owner
 

If you dont mind me asking, what model S80 and S60 is in question, are they All Wheel Drive, and are their naturally aspirated or turbocharged?

As you are well aware alot of fuel economy numbers depends on how you drive.. I have averaged anything from 30mpg highway in my 02 S80 to as low as 12mpg city (but thats when im really really thrashing the car)...

Where I am in tampa, no matter how carefully I drive city il never get over 20 due to the excessive amount of traffic lights etc... once I hit a clear road or the interstate the numbers just keep on going up.. What you may find with the s80 is that it takes ALOT of money at the pump, for example cost me 72 dollars to fill up from less than a galon the other day, but thats because the fuel tank is huge.. 21 or so galons... but think of the amount of miles you can drive before your next fill up..
Regards the fuel choice, premium is not required but is reccomended.. model cars have knock sensors and so on, so even if you put in regular you probably wont have this hapening but you cant expect the same level of performance as premium on a car 'designed' for it.. At the same time its anyones guess how much difference premium makes to the overall efficiency and power, and this isnt the time and place for that discussion.

Regarding the test drive, i remember mine well.. Once i drove the Volvo I KNEW that was the car I wanted.. The test area was a particularly good stretch of road... had curves, a 1 mile straight that they let you flaw out the car on, had bumps and humps etc.. only thing that was missing was hills (this being florida)...
Anyway im a big guy also, about 6 foot 3 so I guess I gravitated more towards the s80 because of that.. however I have found that the drivers space inst much different in the s60, its the people who sit behind the driver who would feel the difference the most.

Anyway good luck with the car, and im glad your considering Volvo... I cant really think of anything else since getting mine..

RE: Possible S80 Owner
 

I have a 2005 S80 2.5T, fuel consumption for me, which is about 80% City and 20% Highway is around 21 MPG, when I went to NYC for a weekend trip, I was getting about 27.5 MPG. The car is definately not bad on fuel. Now if you had AWD or a T6, I'm sure your gas mileage would dip some, but it also dependent on how you drive. I drive very casually, rarely do I allow the car to shift above 2,000 RPMS and on the highway I average about 70 MPH. If you drive harder or faster, you will definately see a difference.

In terms of gasoline, I wouldn't use less then 91 Octane. It's not a matter if you can or not, because you can run 87 without issues, but the performance is definately impacted. The fuel capacity is 18 gallons, and I usually put in about 15.5 whenI fill after the warning comes on. So currently, my average fuel fill up, every 1.5 - 2 weeks is around $55.00.

I find it funny though that you went for the S80 over the S60 because it felt just a little cramped, that is why we bought the S80 over the S60, we were originally going to buy the S60 because of the price differene, but we ended up finding found a great deal on an S80.

RE: Possible S80 Owner
 

I have the T6 and do average driving, just about a combination of 50/50 city/hwy driving (18 miles to work, through a few small towns w/ lighst). My computer says I get around 22.5 mpg combined and I reset it each fill up to monitor it, but I haven't noticed a difference between premium and 87 to be honest. I've tried all three grades at one point or another and just didn't see any difference to pay the extra $$ per gallon. Highway I usually do around 70 and get 27ish mpg.

RE: Possible S80 Owner
 

Sorry - I should have listed the base specifications of the model I'm looking at.

It's a 2005 S80 AWD with the 2.5T engine - Black on Tan

The vehicle shows a hair over 27,500 on the odometer and the dealer is asking (sticker on window) $22,999. The CarFax show it came off a 3 year corporate lease and was serviced and maintained at this dealer. They are also listing it as "certified preowned" which extends the warranty considerably. I can see from reading this forum that repairs when they occuur will be expensive so I would like to be protected on the big items

By the way, does anyone know the typical "haggle room" on the asking price? Is this model a tough find or tough to deal on or is it just like any other late model used car?

Thanks for all your help so far I'm really looking forward to getting this car.

RE: Possible S80 Owner
 

I wouldn't say its hard to find, but to put in perspective, I bought my 2.5T AWD with 34,000 miles on it for $16,250 in December. It was clean carfax coming off a lease. It was maintained by the dealer but not bought at a dealer (thus no certification).

Parts are expensive, but the 2.5T is a pretty reliable engine and is a available as an engine on all of the US models in 2005 (including the XC90). Some models are know to have more issues, like the 2.9non turbo (discontinuedafter 2004) and2.8 T6(discontinued after 2001 - replaced by 2.9 T6).

RE: Possible S80 Owner
 

Hey Paul,
I am on my 5th Volvo and my 2nd S80-T6, and I really enjoy the car. I too am over 6'2" and find it roomy even when I have all 4 kids riding with me.
My fuel consumption has been similar to Taylorkevin..around 22-23 mostly with a 70/30 highway/local street driving pattern, regardless of octane.
It definitely feels better driving with a warranty. Mine came off warranty on 3/19, and I find myself driving much more...grandfatherly.
You should enjoy the forum. People are VERY helpful.
Good luck with your decision.

RE: Possible S80 Owner
 

You serious about this room thing? I am 6'2" and have a 2007 S80, and when I drive with the seat in a comfortable position, there is hardly enough room for a normal sized person to sit in the back seat. For example, there is no possible way whatsoever for my to even fit in the back seat if I were driving in the front.

RE: Possible S80 Owner
 

I have a 2000 S80 2.9 with over 200000 miles on itand I get25.8 mpg.Most of my driving is country roads and highway but approx20% is stop and gocity driving.

I Love My Volvo!