Hi all

I've been looking to replace an S320 for a while. A difficult act to follow, faultlessly reliable, exceptionally quiet and refined. It's about a foot and a half bigger than a v70 ( based on a car park sizing) which suprises me a bit because the boot and even the rear isn't as roomy as they would have you think.

I tried a lot of very fast cars. I'm a bit of a petrolhead but they left me a bit cold. After you've done 0-60 in a billionth of a second you're left to suffer a bit of the 'arsehole in the Audi' syndrome.

I knew I loved the Volvo 'stack two cereal boxes of unequal size' approach but I had my first test drive of a well specced 14 plate d5 xc70 today and was blown away by things I didn't know I even valued in a car. Easy, pleasant, clever, thoughtful, simple. Wow. I bought it later in the day for a real bargain price from a main dealer.

Really looking forward to needlessly carrying large bulky things around because I can. Hopefully using a strap that has been thoughtfully included to strap needlessly large things. Volvo.

Ian