All generations and engines together · 14,703 MOT tests in the 2025 data · typical mileage at age 7: 83k
Middling among saloons and estates per mile driven. Watch suspension and corrosion. A fair used buy, provided its MOT history has no repeating suspension advisories.
Split by first-registration year. Cars registered in a changeover year can belong to either generation.
Owner folklore from forums and the motoring press, with how well each report stands up. Most of it never shows up in an MOT, which is why this section exists at all.
On D3, D4 and D5 diesel engines the EGR valve clogs with soot and starts sticking, and the EGR cooler itself can crack and weep coolant. Expect a rough idle, smoke or a warning light somewhere between 50,000 and 90,000 miles. A valve replacement runs to roughly £700, and Volvo is reported to have extended the warranty on the cooler to 4 years/unlimited mileage on affected cars, which points to the factory knowing about it rather than owners just being unlucky.
The tensioner on the five-cylinder petrol engines is flagged as a weak point, with failures reported from as little as 50,000 miles. The belt also drives the water pump, so a snapped belt can bend valves and write the engine off, a repair quoted around £6,000. The same warning turns up on both the 1996-2000 and the 2007-2016 cars, so any five-cylinder petrol V70 without belt and tensioner history past 60,000 miles is worth walking away from until you've had it checked.
Petrol V70s can drop into limp-home mode with the throttle stuck at a fast idle, traced to the electronic throttle module. A software reflash sometimes cures it, but a replacement module has been quoted at around £650. It doesn't affect diesel cars, which use a different throttle arrangement, so it's only a concern if you're looking at a petrol.
Cars fitted with the Powershift dual-clutch automatic need the gearbox oil and filter changed roughly every 3 years, about £250 a time. Skip that and owners report failures by around 70,000 miles, with a replacement box costing about £4,000. The older Geartronic torque-converter automatic doesn't carry this specific risk, so it matters which gearbox is fitted, not just whether the car is an auto.
On D5 diesels with a particulate filter, unburnt fuel can find its way into the engine oil during regeneration, pushing the level up past full on the dipstick or electronic gauge. It's linked to cars doing mostly short journeys that never let the DPF regenerate properly. Left unchecked it thins the oil and risks bearing wear, so it calls for a software check and more frequent oil changes rather than one big repair bill.
Owners report the sat nav and infotainment unit freezing or failing outright, in some cases under 60,000 miles, plus stray control-module faults that light up the dash with unrelated warnings, and alarms that trigger themselves for no reason. None of this will fail an MOT, but a replacement infotainment unit alone runs to £600-£1,000.
Ranked from this model’s own MOT record, then from what owners report.
Saveable checklistThe physical checks its own defect data says are worth your time, most telling first.
These judge the seller’s upkeep rather than the model, and they are where the haggling money is.
The physical checks its own defect data says are worth your time, most telling first.
These judge the seller’s upkeep rather than the model, and they are where the haggling money is.
Drawn from the reports above rather than the MOT data. These are the model-specific ones.
Computed from DVSA MOT results, all of Great Britain, 2025. Nothing here is opinion.
Share of tests where each item was recorded. The dark tick is the class average across all tracked models; bars are scaled within each group.
The rows that judge the model rather than its keeper. 1,976 tests in this band.
Tyres, pads and stone chips say more about how the car was driven and maintained than about how it was built.
Same segment (Saloons & estates), best MOT record first. Compare before you shortlist.