General: C70 Buying advice - any tips?

[Simmy]

yes they are good with the active bending function switched on but the bulb price is a shock when its time to replace them i never knew untill i went to buy some ... the good thing is they have a long life abt 10 yrs.

[zapcity1]

+1 with Kev on the xenons. C70s on halogen to me are just not acceptable. My cross country winter commute was no fun until i changed to an XC70 with xenons.

The standard fit xenon Osram D2S's are only £40 each on Amazon, so not bad for 10year life at least.

[Bonefishblues]

If anything, the C70 on halogens is even worse than my S60 on similar, and that's saying something! Absolutely avoid if you want to drive in darkness.

[TimS996]

Replaced two of these bulbs in my 10 year old Lexus IS 3 years ago. Dealer said it looked like they were the original bulbs, so they do last well and a big improvement.

Whatever we buy them for, we inevitably end up spending more on wear items.

[Simmy]

Originally Posted by zapcity1

+1 with Kev on the xenons. C70s on halogen to me are just not acceptable. My cross country winter commute was no fun until i changed to an XC70 with xenons.

The standard fit xenon Osram D2S's are only £40 each on Amazon, so not bad for 10year life at least.

D3S in our facelift c70 bought some cheap ones they lasted 5 months . so went with the philips ones .2 years so far keeping fingers crossed at that price...

[eagle58]

Originally Posted by TimS996

https://www.graysgarage.co.uk/used-c...eartronic-2dr/

Looking at this, it seems a good deal, but a lot of money for an older car?
Seems to have Xenons as well at this age would be a bonus.

That looks a lovely car with a low-ish mileage but a bit expensive.

I paid £3.5k for mine in silver with 99k miles.

It's a lot of money but if the garage will do the cambelt change and service, then that mitigates it a bit.

They aren't that common and so you have to make a call. Look after it and it will last you a long time and you'll probably get a good price when you sell it.

[Spacemonkey]

Interesting reading, and exactly what I was going through a month or so ago. I'd decided on D5 with Premium stereo and light leather and the rest didn't matter. Would have preferred HID lights, but the one I bought had the reflectors re chromed so are pretty good tbh. I do a LOT of miles , more so in the winter, so lights are important and these are good enough tbh.

I bought an 08 SE Lux with Premium stereo, winter pack with a manual D5 with 160k miles for £2500. The manual is effortless with the D5 and really smooth. Engine quiet but sounds nice when giving it the beans. I'm getting up to 50mpg on the motorwayand averaging 42mpg. My computer is about right according to my brim to brim calcs and I do between 500 and 900 miles alternatively every week. It's a great comfy cruiser. Mine is on 18s and really comfy. With 160k on the clock they might be a bit soft, but the car drives great for what I want and the damping is fine- it's not an MX5 and I don't drive it like one. It's the lovely Ember Black which is black pearl with an orange/copper flick and cream leather interior.


Bad points- heater doesn't work properly. The car was sat for months before the dealer bought it so it seems likely a jump start and/or new battery was fitted which seems to be a good way to knurdle the software on the climate control module. I need to get the software reloaded. It could also be the heated seat modules so a pair are on the way before the software. I've changed the heat sensor and it's not that.

Yellow button in boot doesn't work (Hall sensor 3 probably has a broken wire) so a right pain to use the boot when the roof is down. Which it usually is.

Half the speakers either don't work or crackle in and out, so got a complete new set and will get the amp rebuilt and hopefully that will cover it. As the left rear speaker doesn't work at all, the rear parking beeps don't beep, but it IS working as stereo mutes when it gets real close.

Leather is filthy and discoloured but a good resto will solve it. I've already fitted an R Design steering wheel and that's really nice!

Swirl flap arm was popped off as usual. Bought the kit but on this lump the swirl flap arm cannot take the pin, unlike the XC90 I had yeas ago, but fitted a new arm and it's not popped off for the last 1k. The ball joint arm on the flap is short so you'd have to actually remove the swirl flap to get access to fit the pin, and it's also really close to the block so no room for the pin either.

Apart from that it's great! Drives more like a 60k car than 160k. Just can't wait to get the heater sorted. And the stereo sounds amazing even when half of it is dead!



That one you're looking at looks really tidy but very overpriced imho...

[Bonefishblues]

Originally Posted by Spacemonkey

Interesting reading, and exactly what I was going through a month or so ago. I'd decided on D5 with Premium stereo and light leather and the rest didn't matter. Would have preferred HID lights, but the one I bought had the reflectors re chromed so are pretty good tbh. I do a LOT of miles , more so in the winter, so lights are important and these are good enough tbh.

I bought an 08 SE Lux with Premium stereo, winter pack with a manual D5 with 160k miles for £2500. The manual is effortless with the D5 and really smooth. Engine quiet but sounds nice when giving it the beans. I'm getting up to 50mpg on the motorwayand averaging 42mpg. My computer is about right according to my brim to brim calcs and I do between 500 and 900 miles alternatively every week. It's a great comfy cruiser. Mine is on 18s and really comfy. With 160k on the clock they might be a bit soft, but the car drives great for what I want and the damping is fine- it's not an MX5 and I don't drive it like one. It's the lovely Ember Black which is black pearl with an orange/copper flick and cream leather interior.


Bad points- heater doesn't work properly. The car was sat for months before the dealer bought it so it seems likely a jump start and/or new battery was fitted which seems to be a good way to knurdle the software on the climate control module. I need to get the software reloaded. It could also be the heated seat modules so a pair are on the way before the software. I've changed the heat sensor and it's not that.

Yellow button in boot doesn't work (Hall sensor 3 probably has a broken wire) so a right pain to use the boot when the roof is down. Which it usually is.

Half the speakers either don't work or crackle in and out, so got a complete new set and will get the amp rebuilt and hopefully that will cover it. As the left rear speaker doesn't work at all, the rear parking beeps don't beep, but it IS working as stereo mutes when it gets real close.

Leather is filthy and discoloured but a good resto will solve it. I've already fitted an R Design steering wheel and that's really nice!

Swirl flap arm was popped off as usual. Bought the kit but on this lump the swirl flap arm cannot take the pin, unlike the XC90 I had yeas ago, but fitted a new arm and it's not popped off for the last 1k. The ball joint arm on the flap is short so you'd have to actually remove the swirl flap to get access to fit the pin, and it's also really close to the block so no room for the pin either.

Apart from that it's great! Drives more like a 60k car than 160k. Just can't wait to get the heater sorted. And the stereo sounds amazing even when half of it is dead!



That one you're looking at looks really tidy but very overpriced imho...

Made me giggle a bit, I must confess

[TimS996]

Well, thanks for all the advice and I appreciate the write up! I’d have to the speakers working personally!

Off to see this hopefully Monday for way of comparison, at least it claims to have a FSH and belts done so spec for spec it’s pretty similar to the one at £5.8k. That car looks good but I don’t think they will drop as far as I’d like. If it was £5k I’d have driven down there today but the dealer probably won’t move too far.

I think silver cars are a bit dull, so hoping it looks better in the flesh. Leather looks pretty tired in the back and there’s a good dent in the wheel arch. MOT history also throws up CV boots and bald tyres, neve a good sign if it’s been run that hard, but maybe why it’s been up for sale for 3 months, so they might be up for an offer.

I didn’t like the bit in the MOT history about all the wheels being out of shape. Lots of notes about this on cars I’m looking at now.

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-det...tion=on&page=1

[Bonefishblues]

Looks like the leather may have been cleaned with a solvent that has taken the coating off to me. Horrid tyres. Check boot carefully for water ingress - there's a lot of staining in there.

Are you still solely looking at D5s? Based on the ones you're linking they do seem poorer value in comparison to the petrols - and you did say that the extra mileage was only a temporary thing, IIRC.