Volvo may be pulling out of touring car racing, but you can still play Go Swede Racer, Go with today's Nice Price or Crack Pipe V70 R. You'll just need to determine if its price is worth catching the rutig flagga.
Good things come in small packages, or so it has been said… by small people. Yesterday's diminutive dynamo of a pickup, the 1995 Honda Acty, bowled over with its cab-over cuteness, and that, along with its price, was more than enough to garner the little trucklet a 72% Nice Price win. I just love a happy ending, especially when it's preceded by a massage.
Speaking of massaging, that's typically what manufacturers do to regular cars to make go-faster editions, and a lot of those can also end up in a happy ending. Let's take a look at this 2006 Volvo V70 R and see if it - and it's asking price - makes you happy.
First off, let's break down that name because it's a whole bunch of numbers and letters, and that can be kind of confusing if you're not an English major or particularly god at maths. The V stands for Versatile which is what Volvo (also a V) weirdly uses to describe their wagons. Still with me? Okay. The 70 in the middle denotes the decade in which the band ABBA enjoyed their height of popularity, something the Swedes don't like to let people forget. Finally the R at the end. That means that this Volvo thinks every day is talk like a pirate day… Arr matey!
Okay, most of that might not be 100% verifiable as I can't seem to get in and change the Volvo page on Wikipedia, dammit. We'll have to go with the more traditional explanation that this is the hottie version of Volvo's mid-level wagon of the 2000s.
The R badge on the car does mean that under the hood sits a transverse-mounted 2.5-litre five cylinder that's been gifted with a KKK turbo and a whole set of intercoolers. That all conspires to make 300-bhp and 295 ft-lbs of torque. In the case of our car, all those ponies and twisties are sent through a six-speed manual gearbox.
Now, 300 horses is a lot for just two wheels to handle, especially when they are the front wheels that also have to do steering and bumping around duty. Never fear because the R has a Haldex all-wheel drive system, as well as a slew of acronyms like DSTC and Four-C to keep everything in line.
Other R attributes imclude a lowered suspension, Brembo brakes, five-spoke alloy wheels wrapped in tim band tires, and a roof-elongating aero aid out in back. Put all together these cars are bad-ass without looking to stand out too much.
This one, in arrest me red over Atacama (orange), is said to rock only 42,000 miles - or a little over 5K a year, which ain't half bad. Also seemingly not bad is the car's overall condition, and in fact the seller describes its shape as being 'spectacular.' Thanks to Seinfeld, that's a word that I can't hear and not think of boobs.
You'll need to decide if anyone would be a boob paying the seller's $30,000 asking price for this hot Swede. That's $20K off new, but then it's an eight-year old Volvo and '06 V70s (without the R) go for far less. Is all the go-faster worth that kind of scratch? Or, at its price, is this R really an aren't?
You decide!
Washington AC/DC Craigslist, or go here if the ad disappears.
H/T to 1skinnyd for the hookup!
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