A really muddy Volvo XC70 ...

[Arthur Dent]

That's one badly messed up Mass Air Flow Sensor - I can see why it needed major work!!

Thanks for posting and thanks for the pictures, Torsten.

I agree, don't think XC70 are real off-road vehicles !! Not really tough enough. 

I wonder how your Highlander would have faired on such a terrain though... or for that matter, how any vehicles would have faired.

You know, they really should do these kinds of tests once in a while... run all of them through a rough terrain and evaluate the damage costs afterwards... I wonder if trucks and "real" SUVs would really do that much better than car-based vehicles... Of course, I wouldn't want to pay for the damanges incured on all those cars... 

I've got a co-worker who takes his old 80s Subaru out in the bush for hunting - beats the living daylights out of it. Still running strong years later. Apparently it does better most "real" SUVs.

[Snowman]

  I would hardly call tearing around a gravel pit off-roading. Lots of fun for sure as I have done it many times…in rwd cars. This would be ideal for Subaru’s and “real” awd. A modern SUV would just catch an edge and flip over deploying all the air bags.

[bmorton]

Love the XC70. I've driven them on forestry roads in central BC and have a great picture from when I drove one onto the rocky shore of Kinbasket Lake. The journalist experience Volvo did with XC70s in Baja earlier this year certainly made a case for the vehicles being tougher than the average car, although they're clearly not real off-roaders.

[Scaerio]

Hallo Torsten!  Schön, daß du unser kanadische Website besuchst!  Wo in Deutschland wohnst du?
Schöne Grüße aus Ottawa!

Mittendrin (hessisches Mittelgebirge - neben Fulda) ;-)

Just found this Website via gogle pic search machine on my internetride for pics on XC70 ;-) But it seems, here are only a few volvo driver - or?

Greetings to Ottawa! Appologize my very bad English ;-)

Regards
Torsten - the www.xc-fan.de

I used to have a 1993 Volvo 850GLT, but an electrical system fire killed it in July 2005.  I now have a Suzuki Aerio (=Liana in Deutschland...)

BTW, I lived in Aachen from 1988-1989 (as a student) and Düsseldorf from 2001-2002 (working at the Canadian Consulate)...

[ktm525]

That's one badly messed up Mass Air Flow Sensor - I can see why it needed major work!!

Thanks for posting and thanks for the pictures, Torsten.

I agree, don't think XC70 are real off-road vehicles !! Not really tough enough. 

I wonder how your Highlander would have faired on such a terrain though... or for that matter, how any vehicles would have faired.

You know, they really should do these kinds of tests once in a while... run all of them through a rough terrain and evaluate the damage costs afterwards... I wonder if trucks and "real" SUVs would really do that much better than car-based vehicles... Of course, I wouldn't want to pay for the damanges incured on all those cars... 

First and foremost if vehicles are going offroad the first requiremnt is skidplates. I ripped an oilpan off of an old Datsun 4*4 truck out in the bush and it was a very long walk back to civilization. One misplaced tire can ruin an engine., not a pretty picture with the fancy engines most of these rigs are running these days. My 88 Toyota 4*4 practically lived off road and it stood up to 8 years of abuse. It even got submerged a couple of times where the plugs had to be removed to get rid of a little water. My next Dodge Dakota put in about 50/50 duty and it did a great job for 8 years. 

[safristi]

Scareio....was this you in Dussel....?... ...

[AVToller]

My old Renault 16 had major skidplates protecting both sump and muffler. They saved me a lot of money and a number of looong walks as I used to drive at manic speeds on forestry roads back then. They got a real wprkout.