Silver metallic XC with Blue bumpers?

[neuronXC70]

after considering variety of cars including the audi allroad, i decided to opt for the 2005 volvo cross country. partly due to how nice the car was both in interior finish and its drive. partly due to the enthusiasms demonstrated by those on this site. partly due to the great factory rebate going on - they are taking 5,000 off the invoice price.

only problem is that all the other XC'ers have snatched them up and the color choices are limited. decided for the silver metallic - it was tough to even find this one. most dealers had ash gold left only. unpopular color? only thing is that the bumper and the wrap-around plastic has a blue tint on the silver model, different from the other colors which has a black/brown tint. is this universal on all silver models? or am i getting a bum deal?

[gary]

Welcome to the site!

I think the reason you're seeing mainly Ash Gold models left in dealer's '05 inventories is because that it is a very popular color and that would be what dealer's are probably ordering more of for their lots than any of the other colors. So...I don't think it is an unpopular color - quite the opposite. I seem to recall at some point someone pointing out that they thought Ash Gold was the most popular XC color in the North American market.

With regards to the silver color with the [dark] blue cladding, I think this was the norm up until the MY '06, which according to the Volvo USA website, now comes with "stone grey" bumpers. I don't think you're getting a bum deal. I have a model year '03 XC70 in platinum green color and it too is equipped with blue cladding. The first time I saw it, it didn't really excite me, but it's grown on me over the past few years. In fact, I look at it now and it doesn't even occur to me that it is blue in color. Get the XC! It's a great car!

[Willy]

Hi,
I am not very sure about this, but I believe MY2004 was the last year to sport blue claddings (quite a mismatch with the black/gray mirrors and roof rails, I know, I have one - is it possible they had a colorblind designer in Göteborg?) I think that the first XC's with aluminium roofs rails also had black/gray cladding, and that this came in MY2005.
Willy

[KILOFINAL]

Yes, the aluminum roof rails are standard as of the 2005 model year.

[neuronXC70]

just got off the phone with volvo usa.

apparently, the same blue cladding is still used under a different name of "stone gray". it is used on nearly all the body colors except for ash gold, red and sand which use the brown cladding.

i guess i'll have to live with the silver metallic with blue/"stone gray" cladding. not a bid deal, but it looks a bit funny with silver metallic body, aluminum accents and charcoal interior.

[Willy]

Perhaps the blue tint only looked that way as compared to the cladding on some of the dark(er) cars. One way to be sure is if the car has mud flaps, they are only available in dark grey (adding to the strange color mix on my car :))
If I am not mistaken, the supports on the aluminium roofs rails are dark grey.
Anyway, it doesn't keep the car from giving you a comfortabel ride, so don't worry too much :D
Willy

[KILOFINAL]

yes, the supports for the aluminum rails are dark grey. I like the fact that the wing bars are also aluminum.

[nwxc70]

I never have been able to figure out why they offer only two colors of cladding, blue and brown. I can understand that to offer more colors would be complicated and perhaps costly, but then why not just use a black/charcoal on all models regardless of paint color?

I've had my Ashgold (on which the brown does look nice) for two years now and lust for other colors I see on occasion, and then realize I don't like how the cladding "goes" with most other colors.

Any ideas as to why the two colors rather than just one universal?

[birddog]

just got off the phone with volvo usa.

apparently, the same blue cladding is still used under a different name of "stone gray". it is used on nearly all the body colors except for ash gold, red and sand which use the brown cladding.

i guess i'll have to live with the silver metallic with blue/"stone gray" cladding. not a bid deal, but it looks a bit funny with silver metallic body, aluminum accents and charcoal interior.

HEY!!! Alot of us think silver is the colour of choice! Check out Coastals pics of his XC. I wouldn't say it's a colour comnbination that looks a bit funny at all. In fact its a colour Volvo most always uses in their p.r. photos.
;)

[neuronXC70]

no disrespect to all with silver XC. i love the silver color. that was my choice as well for the XC. just the blue cladding that i was, well, less than ecstatic about. but can't have everything in life. sorry about the cliche.

about the volvo PR pics with silver XC. if you look at those pics closely, as i have done since finding out about the blue cladding, the cladding in those pics don't show the blue tint at all. it looks black or charcoal gray. my wife, in PR business for L'oreal, thinks that the volvo photos are touched up, as most PR photos are.

for example, check out the pic on this volve site. the cladding looks dark gray.
http://www.volvocars.us/Showroom/XC70/

[gary]

I think the "grey" color is a result of the lighting conditions. I wouldn't worry too much about the blue cladding. Here is a pic of my platinum green XC (with blue cladding) and you can see that it looks grey to charcoal color.

http://www.volvoxc.com/volvo_photo_gallery/albums/userpics/normal_Dsc02240new.jpg

[neuronXC70]

wanted to let everyone know that i just picked up my silver XC with blue cladding. and it looks great. unlike the first time i saw the car, the cladding looks dark gray/charcoal - it must have been the lighting the first time. it drives great, although my wife drove most of the way back. (this was my way of getting my wife to get excited about the car since i'm trying to get it to be her car, especially since we are expecting our first child in a month - and it worked. she really likes the car)

another note. i wanted to thank those who had posted in this forum regarding the automatic-lock feature (all the doors lock automatically once the car reaches 7 mph) and flashing-lights-with-remote-door-button (parking lights flash to let you know the doors are locked/open and also allow you to know where in the parkiing lot your car is). before i picked up the caar, i had inquired about programming the car with these features. the salesman had no idea what i was talking about. he spoke to a technical guy at the dealership who called volvo and found out how to do it - apparantly it is just a software download on to the car computer chip. the features were installed at the time i picked up the car. this at no extra charge. the salesman told me that my car was the first XC he knows of that has these functions. he is going to get it downloaded to his own XC.

i suggest that all of you out there who want these functions, go bother your dealers!

thanks all.