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Any experience of the Volvo D6 PHEV cars?

Sue Pertwee-Tyr

Sue Pertwee-Tyr

Accuphase all the way down
I’m tempted by one of these, a rare diesel PHEV, but bothered by reports of complexity and costly maintenance/repairs. They’re mostly 5-10 years old now. The engine is the bombproof 5 pot diesel, and the known Achilles heel is an aircon compressor, apparently, but I don’t know if, when that is sorted, there are other gotchas lurking.

Does anybody have any experience to offer?
 
Yes, thanks, I’d seen that one too. Should have mentioned it in the OP. Not sure how common that failure is compared to the aircon one.
 
Although a cursory Google doesn't return a litany of problems you'd expect if there were significant and / or major problems, I wouldn't bother. Just get the D5. No hassle / weight of batteries and avoiding the risk of new (to Volvo) hybrid tech. You can get EU6 compliant versions if you're worried your local area will go the ULEZ route.
 
Sue Pertwee-Tyr said:
I’m tempted by one of these, a rare diesel PHEV, but bothered by reports of complexity and costly maintenance/repairs. They’re mostly 5-10 years old now. The engine is the bombproof 5 pot diesel, and the known Achilles heel is an aircon compressor, apparently, but I don’t know if, when that is sorted, there are other gotchas lurking.

Does anybody have any experience to offer?
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What is it about an old, used hybrid that has you interested?
As with the above post, keep life simple. It’s cheaper and easier.
 
Tony Lockhart said:
What is it about an old, used hybrid that has you interested?
As with the above post, keep life simple. It’s cheaper and easier.
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It's the fact that it's one of the few diesel hybrids around. I like diesel cars as daily drivers, I've got used to the torquey delivery and while petrol cars have improved, they still don't get to diesel's fuel efficiency and mpg. But we have an Ecotricity account so I'd get a free go at a charger every week and it'd be nice to be able to do short runs, including my commute if I ever return to the office, on electric.
 
Also, Volvo seats are the business. I'm not in the market for a new or nearly new one as my car buying budget doesn't extend up that far yet, but the previous model is where I'm looking, and the fact that there's a PHEV option at all is of interest to me, as many alternative makes in that era weren't anywhere near doing a PHEV.
 
If you're looking at used premium diesel hybrids, there's the MB C300dh which gives you a range of which is a full (not plug-in) hybrid as well.
 
Sue Pertwee-Tyr said:
It's the fact that it's one of the few diesel hybrids around. I like diesel cars as daily drivers, I've got used to the torquey delivery and while petrol cars have improved, they still don't get to diesel's fuel efficiency and mpg. But we have an Ecotricity account so I'd get a free go at a charger every week and it'd be nice to be able to do short runs, including my commute if I ever return to the office, on electric.
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But as you’ve suggested, that all falls down on the £££ side when even the simplest thing goes wrong.

We are collecting our new car in March. It’s a 1.5 petrol Passat estate. We desperately need the loadspace, and as most journeys are under ten miles, a diesel is no longer appropriate. I tried and tried to justify an EV or hybrid, but once I did the maths (for a large estate, remember) it wasn’t going to happen.

On the economy side, the Passat will do nearly 60mpg on a long run, according to a couple of online friends. My diesel Merc has never done 60mpg in over 11 years!

A typical comment when bonnets are lifted on modern cars is that there’s no space left. I’d hate to have a car with no space left and then the necessary bits for the hybrid system added to the mix. I bet almost every job is a pain/expensive.
 
Yes, can't argue with any of that, Tony. But I'm PHEV curious, and if the known issues (aircon and ISG) had been dealt with (on a used car with full dealer history and bills to show work), I was trying to get a feel for whether there was anything else likely to come at me out of the blue.
 
I hadn’t heard of these before your post but I find it rather intriguing especially if it would be ulez compliant. If the price you can buy it for reflects the ( real world ) cost of replacing both those achillies heals, I can see why you might be interested.
 
Buying a car that has had the issues sorted only works out if they are the final solutions. If they replace like with like, and they fail again, that’s not so good.
 
Yep, the aircon is a beefed up unit, AIUI. The original failure mode used to drain the 12V starter battery and lead to a litany of electrical glitches and fault codes, to the bafflement of dealers initially, but replacement units have addressed it. Not sure about the ISG. It doesn't seem to be as endemic as the aircon issue was, so if an older car hasn't had it fixed, maybe that's a bit like the IMS in a Porsche 996 - it's unlikely to be a dodgy one by now.
 
Nope. Partly because the seller hasn’t replied, partly I’m now self-isolating (until Thursday then it’s ‘look out World…’ ;) ), partly I’m getting cold feet about a 7 year old car with a complex drivetrain developed when knowledge of these things was not as well-advanced as now.

Not ruling it out, but being a little more circumspect.
 
I would be checking on battery life on cars of 5+ years, and the cost of replacing them should parts / cells begin to fail.
 
I bought one (well the D5 PHEV variant) a couple of months ago from Cazoo - a 2017 model and intend to take out an extended warranty with them which at least seems to claim it covers all the hybrid stuff and the aircon pump. I keep meaning to ring a Volvo dealer up to try and get a copy of the service history to check if the pump has already been replaced but have not got around to it yet.

I have to say I am pretty impressed with it. I get about 45 mpg whether in stop/start urban driving or motorway crusing, which is pretty good considering the size of the car. I have only charged it up fully a few times, as I don't have a way to do this at home, but obviously when you do that, it uses no fuel at all for the next 20 miles or so. But even if you don't plug it in to charge, it will harvest energy from braking and engine excess so as to optimise the consumption and usually sits at about 1/8 electric charge.

The drivability is excellent - its pretty seamless switching between electric and internal combustion modes (not quite as smooth as my petrol Lexus was, but that I think is just the more refined nature of petrol as opposed to diesel engines). The AWD mode has already proved useful when down a muddy lane I expect I would have got stuck in either a FWD or RWD car. And the performance mode (where both power sources are used) makes fast overtakes very easy on A roads. The handling is (as you would expect for such a large, generally FWD biased car) a bit stodgy on B roads (but that is why I also have an old MX5!).

One final thing to note is that boot is quite shallow due to the batteries under the floor, but it at least makes loading easy as the boot lip lines up with the floor (and the level of the back seats when folded down).

Any specific questions, just ask!
 
Sonority said:
I would be checking on battery life on cars of 5+ years, and the cost of replacing them should parts / cells begin to fail.
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Volvo state that the service life of the hybird battery is ten years - https://www.volvocars.com/mt/suppor...ations/battery/hybrid-battery---specification

If a battery fails, it's usually on or two cells that fail, not the whole battery, and there are companies that can test and repair cells.

For example: https://www.manchesterhybrids.co.uk/
 
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