Alexa….play Im Gonna Be by the Proclaimers

This is how I felt last weekend, perpetually on the road. To announce my new addition to the growing list of Volvos I have owned, let me set the stage.

Saturday. Wake up at 5am. Try to find a Lyft to the airport. Live in the middle of nowhere so none are available. Drive 960 to the daily parking deck. Sit in CLT terminal E for 2 hours. Fly to Nashville. Land, test drive car. Purchase car. Drive 7 hours back to Statesville. (I40W was closed for some god forsaken reason). Get home. Realize gear for the NASCAR race the next day is still in my 960 which is at the airport. Take Lyft to the airport. Pickup 960, drive back to Statesville (AGAIN). Go to sleep around 1130.

Got all that? Great.

Now I can finally show you all the car I picked up.

(Doug Demuro Voice) THIS…. is a 2010 Volvo V70 R-Design, one of the rarest cars Volvo has sold in North America. Only sold for the 2010 model year, the running number is about 380 of these cars exist in the entire country. Or at least that was the number the time of production, current numbers will be lower due to some being wrecked or scrapped.

After dealing with stiff, sporty sedans I finally said enough as enough, I need a new wagon so that my poor old 960 wont have to be a daily driver anymore. I initially started looking for standard V70s, not as hard of a find due to them being sold from 08-10. Immediately I realized that finding one without a gross tan interior was going to require some searching. Due to their age, they seem to be in a mix of buy-here pay-here lots and private sales which also means a lot of them have little to no service history or any redeeming factors to justify their often obscene asking prices. Slowly losing hope that I would be able to find a proper replacement to my almost new Giulia I put out a feeler on Swedespeed, just to see if there were listings in the country I might have missed. After that I waited.

A few messages came in here and there. Mostly links to autotrader for cars I had already seen and inquired about. I was quickly realizing that buying a car from a dealer or scumbag car lot was not going to make any sense financially.

I gave up on my search and quickly hoped to looking at some XC70s. One had caught my eye in NJ and I booked a flight to go see it. To my dismay, it was in appallingly bad condition for its age, and the Audi dealer selling would not budge on price. I walked from the deal, and found myself headed back to my buddies place to book a flight for the next day to fly home. As luck would have it, thats when I received a phone call from David. He had messaged me on Swedespeed about his V70 he was thinking of selling. A white, former CPO V70 R-Design that had lived its whole life in the south. The timing couldn’t have been better, it was fate.

Flew out, did some time test driving up in the Smokies, paid and was on my way. This car has nicely extensive service history with lots of records on scheduled service plus other nice items like newer headlamps that really set the car off.

Driving the car home went without a hitch, even with the long drive the car did great. My only gripe is that I am not a huge fan of the currently installed Pirelli tires, I believe they are inferior in ride quality, noise and handling compared to Michelin Pilot Sports+ which I will most likely install later this year due to the current tires being from early 2018.

So far modification wise I have tried to stay relatively OEM+ with the exception being sequential style turn signals in the mirrors from VPARTS in Sweden. I am not sure if I like the look or not, but they were super easy to install. I may end up going back to the stock corner lamps with an LED installed or switch to black caps as I like to keep the look as OEM as possible.

Additionally I did a R-Design dead pedal (did the same mod on my S60 back in the day), along with LED headlights and fog lights. The CEM was cracked with VDASH to add better headlight controls as the stock North American configuration is awful.

The car on the tender overnight while VDASH cracks the CEM, the process was started around 6PM and finished around 1am.

I think my only letdown with these early P3 cars is that they do not offer the same options that the later 2012+ models did like easily added remote start, or global window control with the key. I believe this is due to the early P3s using a 5 button PCC key instead of 6 as they are missing the “data” button used for those options.

The car already has an IPD sway bar and end links, and I plan on ordering the metal skidplate as it makes oil changes much easier and adds a level of protection for a lowered car.

As a side note, for audio I used a TUNAI Firefly LDAC BT to AUX adapter as the car only comes with AUX and USB for audio, Bluetooth for calls only. I am very impressed with this adapter and the sound system of the High Performance Sound in the V70 is exceptional, and as good as the Premium Sound I remember from my S60. The cable fits perfectly out of the way and connects as seamlessly as a built in bluetooth system. (If not faster and better than my Alfa Romeos stock system).

Under the garage lights after its first post trip wash. I also did a full glass regiment as well as decent clean of the interior and leather treatment. Some additional carpet shampooing will be needed for some stubborn sections, and a touchup pen is next on my order list.

With all the LEDs installed, all that is left is to order some Michelin Pilot Sport 4s from my friends up at Hailey Import Service. In part two, I will be installing the optional R design front bumper grille accessory as well as headlight eyelids both from VPARTS. Additionally I will install the more modern shifter like was done in my S60 a few years back, along with LED interior lighting and LED license plate lighting.

Links for all the products I use: