New company car - Volvo XC70 or Subaru Outback?

I am just about to get a new company car and have been given two choices: Volvo XC70 or Subaru Outback - both 4x4.

I prefer the Subaru personally (mainly due to looks and no "old man" image). For my job I have to drive to Sweden, Finland and The Alps a lot and will be taking this car with me. Obviously these places have harsher winters than we do so I wondered which best car for these conditions was? Also should I go manual or automatic?

Asked on 20 December 2013 by Matty1976

Answered by Honest John
A manual will always give you greater control in tricky conditions. You need to fit cold weather tyres for winter conditions or good 'all weather' tyres such as Goodyear vector 4 Season that can be left on the car all year round.

Presumably you mean diesel. Volvo is about to introduce a new low CO2 181PS 2.0 litre 4 cylinder D4 diesel engine that promises to be better than Subaru's 150PS flat four diesel, but we don't know fir sure just yet.
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