Hello all,

I am planning to order a new Volvo XC70. Have owned as new 91-745, 97-855 and 07-V70. My question is does anyone have some serious seat time with the Textile fabric seats? I have leather on the 855(totaled) and V70, but cloth on the 745. My experience is that the 745 cloth offers better wear than the leather, but the newer style seats in my V70 leather are extremely comfortable.

Long term driving comfort is my primary goal. Second is that I can save some serious dough by skipping leather on the new XC70, but since I run these cars till the end, I do not want to save money on a seat that I end up regreting.

Yes, I have sat in a Textile seat in the dealer showroom, but it's not the same as a six hour road trip.

Your opinion is greatly appreciated.

Wish they still offered the V70 in the USA. Have heard that the XC70 will not be offered in the USA after 2014 so that is why I am starting to price out a new wagon nowl.

We had velour seats on our 845 base It got a bit stretched and the bottom looked lumpy at about 140K - but still comfortable.

Our new 2012 XC 70 has what looks like black denim and the cloth is real taut. The sides of the seat are vinyl and at least two of my friends thought that the seats were leather at first glance.
--
'96 855R,'64 PV544 driver, '67 P1800 basket case, '12 XC70, the first three are mine, heh, heh, 525,000 miles put on 10 bricks

I have the velour seats on my '98.

As something of a semi-contrary opinion, I've replaced the driver's seat bottom three times, the back once, and the passenger seat bottom once. Unfortunately, the New Volvo Corporation (Geely Holding Group) isn't supporting parts availability for cars over 10 years old. My last driver's seat bottom was, according to Volvo, the last one available anywhere in the world. When I took it to the upholsterer, he found the foam backing was flaking apart -- this is on a "new" part -- but since there are no more, anywhere, we installed it.

(I'm tall but I'm not overweight, nor is my wife and she weighs the same as she weighed in High School. The issue with the seats isn't our butts, the issue is Volvo.)

From what I've seen of other Volvos of the same vintage, I expect that leather wouldn't have fared much better over the years.

The seat has been very comfy for the last 197,000 miles. I've replaced the butt foam once, and it was padded out the last time I had the bottom replaced. I'd still buy cloth seats if I ever bought another Volvo. (It's unlikely, since they've pretty much stopped offering a manual transmission in their cars, and that's a "must have" for me.)

The bio-degradable cloth upholstery that Volvo used is nowhere near the durability of Honda or Toyota cloth. And probably not up to the quality of the 740 and 240 cloth seats.

Unfortunately, on the BMW I have leather seats because the alternative was vinyl.

-BTC

'98 V70 T5 197K mi., 5-speed manual, original clutch, third evaporator, third windshield, heated velour cloth comfy chairs, factory HD suspension (1998 only), Bilstein HD, front IPD stabilizer bar, Volvo strut tower brace and skidplate, XC grill, C70 jewel E-Codes, V-1, Lidatek, IPD stuff, JB Weld, Original Duck Tape, zip-ties, Mobil-1 since new.

'08 BMW 328iT 6-speed manual; fewer miles...

This answer was copied from my answer to KlausC about mileage. The first day of our trip I had a little bit of butt burn. The rest of the trip the seats were great - I think that they do need a bit of breaking in to your rear. After the first day, both my wife and I enjoyed the trip with no seat issues - 7 full days of travel.

We have owned a lot of bricks, most with over 100K when we purchased them. Our longest trip was Massachusetts to Saskechewan - 4996 miles in just over two weeks! Our 740 seats were great

A couple of months ago, we purchased a new, stripped, 2012 FWD XC 70 for $27,500.

We drove 1500 miles around town, then made our annual trip to Bemidji (I know that you do not need me to specify the state!) from Massachusetts, 3500 miles, with a few side trips.

When we got home, the cumulative mileage on the computer just got up to 28.0 MPG. How accurate is the computer?

I'll let you know what the real mileage is, as I have all the gas receipts since we bought the car.

I drove 4 miles per hour over the limit as often as I could - 74 MPH where possible.

The car performed well, enough power, even at 74 MPH. I do purchase fuel at least onde during the day, and fill up at the end of the day.

My '96 855R is a little sportier, and the XC 70 is a lot nosier over 3000 RPM - of course the 855R is a sweet car. We got an actual 27,9 with our 855 on our last trip.

Both trips we had our wagons fully loaded with my daughter's stuff on our outbound leg.

We are really quite pleased with our new XC.

The friday before the holiday it took us two hours to get through Chicago, the outside temperature reading was 110 degrees much of the time. I did shut off the AC as soon as it was stop and go. We had to do this because we were behind schedule and drove 700 miles that day. THEN we got lost in Madison! DOH!
--
'96 855R,'64 PV544 driver, '67 P1800 basket case, '12 XC70, the first three are mine, heh, heh, 525,000 miles put on 10 bricks

I have both a 2001 V70T5 and a 2001 S60T5, both of which have fabric upholstery.
I would not want leather or vinyl if I could get good fabric in a climate where it is
either very hot or very cold. In hot weather you get sweaty and in cold weather it
is just plain FRIGID at first.
The fabric CAN be cleaned. Takes a while to dry.
--
George Downs Bartlesville, Oklahoma

Thanks!