Getting middle-aged. Should I buy a Volvo?

Yes, it's hard to tell who made it, really.

Unfortunately, as I said at the start of the thread, that's kind of the point: I need something that looks respectable enough to park outside embassies and stuff. And Chinese billionaires are terrible brand snobs, and whether I like it or not, I have to accommodate that in my choice, because I'll be turning up for meetings in it and giving people lifts.

But all that said, I do also very much like the car.

 

Yes. You can take the boy out of Lytham, but you can't take Lytham out of the boy. If I had one of these in Lytham (widely known as "The Harrogate Of The West"), I'd never be able to find it in the supermarket car park.

(Actually, when we had the CL600 in Hong Kong, that was a problem - there was a couple of times when I'd arranged to pick up my wife from work that she got in the wrong car.)

It doesn't say Bluetec on the back, but I don't think the word was used on Cs of that time. It is the 2.1 litre twin-turbo which I think is used as a Bluetec in other models. And I think I can set up auto stop-start.

Not yet. I'm going to clean it up and then sell it privately: having bought it at auction five years ago, if I sell it privately, I should only take a very, very small hit on depreciation. Which is nice.

Unleaded fluctuates wildly (often up to 20% in a week) because of a weird cartel that the big petrol companies have going. Diesel is a little more stable. Its price is generally towards the bottom of the E10 petrol range. Today, E10 is about A$1.31 per litre, straight unleaded is about $1.34, 98 unleaded (which I'd need if I'd bought a petrol Merc) is about $1.50, and diesel is about $1.29. A$1 is about 52p at the moment. I know this will probably make you cry. Sorry.

 

Yes. I asked whether a Hyo option was available, but they said you can only get that on Korean motorbikes.

 

Thank you! Yes, this is a lot bigger than the previous generation. Much better-built, too - those 2001-07 ones were a bit plasticky and rattly and thrown-together.

A lot of countries seem not to have estates, and a lot of companies seem not to bother with them. As I said earlier in the thread, I liked the Volvos, but I decided I just didn't want an SUV, and V60s are hard to find.

There are a few cars that, if they existed, I'd happily buy. A Lexus GS hybrid station wagon would be brilliant (only a GS - I found ISs a bit narrow and dark). And if I were to go downmarket (and newer), a HyCam station wagon would be a lovely thing too. As it was, wanting a big boot (trunk) but not wanting an SUV left me surprisingly limited. If it had been possible, I'd have liked to have stuck with a hybrid, but Lexus' only stationwagony thing is the RX, which is too much of an SUV.

And in Britain, there's a hybrid Corolla/Auris wagon, but they don't have that here.