Good news today. My XC90 has FINALLY arrived! I ordered it back in July. I am away at the moment so can’t collect it yet but will post more pictures when I do. Here are some I received from the dealer:






 Current: Volvo XC90 T8 Inscription Pro PHEV with some optionals on top
Gone: MY16 RRS2 3.0 SDV6 Autobiography Dynamic, Carpathian Grey & Santorini Black Sliding Pano/Ebony & Ivory 2 Tone
Gone: MY13 RRS 3.0 SDV6 HSE Black Edition, Orkney Grey/Ivory
Gone: MY09 RRS 2.7 TDV6 HSE, Santorini Black/Almond

Last edited by fkarim on Fri Feb 15 2019 8:31pm. Edited 1 time in total

Be interested to hear how you get on with it. On paper, it looks a fantastic car

The build quality and customer support offered by Volvo are fantastic!

Enjoy your car 👍

Disco_Mikey wrote:

Be interested to hear how you get on with it. On paper, it looks a fantastic car

jim4244 wrote:

The build quality and customer support offered by Volvo are fantastic!

Enjoy your car 👍

Enjoy Fawad, looks fantastic mate  2003 BMW M5 - 5 Litres of V8 Optimax Slurping Goodness in Carbon Black

2013 SDV6 HSE Black Edition- Orkney Grey with Ebony & Ivory. LR Facelift RAI, Genuine G4 Expedition Rack, 4x Warn SBD-160 Spotlights, Warn 9.5XPS Winch, Mantec Underbody Protection and Sump Guard, Full Easy Lift Suspension Module, LR Light Guards, Light Force HTX230 Hybrid spotlights, 18” Compomotive PD1881 on 265/65/18 BF Goodrich KO2, ARB fridge, TuffTrek awning 😎

Thanks mate.

Very similar situation to my last RRS:
1. Six months from order to delivery.
2. I was away even back then when my L494 arrived at the dealership.

However, I was far more excited last time even though I was already driving a great car (HSE Black Edition) but currently an old Golf! Nothing to do with the Volvo though ... just my enthusiasm about cars has declined sharply. Also I will miss the liberating feeling of driving through anything (those horrible width restrictions) and parking anywhere without worrying. Current: Volvo XC90 T8 Inscription Pro PHEV with some optionals on top
Gone: MY16 RRS2 3.0 SDV6 Autobiography Dynamic, Carpathian Grey & Santorini Black Sliding Pano/Ebony & Ivory 2 Tone
Gone: MY13 RRS 3.0 SDV6 HSE Black Edition, Orkney Grey/Ivory
Gone: MY09 RRS 2.7 TDV6 HSE, Santorini Black/Almond

In 30 years of driving Volvo has still been the best dealer experience I’ve ever had to date.

Car looks lovely, nice shape and the fit & finish will be exceptional.

Steve. 2006 2.7 TDV6 HSE in Cairns Blue.

A very nice car indeed, Volvo designers take the right direction IMO, while range Rover is looking to much to Asian taste and Chinese market share.. In that context ,it is remarkable that Volvo resembles more of the classic SUV looks while it has a chinese owner!. I would consider that hybrid car for sure if it came with a 6 or 8 cilinder engine.
I don.t fancy smal displacement 4 cilinders in big SUV's. RRS 3.0 SDV6 HSE Lux
RRS 3.0 TDV6 gone
LR 3 HSE V8 gone
DiscoveryII V8 Gone
Discovery 1 V8 Gone
Mustang Shelby
Alfa Guilia (classic)

I promised never to buy a car with a 4 cylinder engine but when I tried XC90 and XC60 they didn’t feel like small engined cars at all. The sound isn’t too bad either. Definitely worth a test drive if you haven’t been in one. Current: Volvo XC90 T8 Inscription Pro PHEV with some optionals on top
Gone: MY16 RRS2 3.0 SDV6 Autobiography Dynamic, Carpathian Grey & Santorini Black Sliding Pano/Ebony & Ivory 2 Tone
Gone: MY13 RRS 3.0 SDV6 HSE Black Edition, Orkney Grey/Ivory
Gone: MY09 RRS 2.7 TDV6 HSE, Santorini Black/Almond

Enjoy it Fawad, don’t expect too much of the electric side of motoring though - the ranges don’t come anywhere near the claimed ones at this time of the year. I said I wouldn’t be seen dead driving a BMW............ now I have a BMW Mini with a BMW engine, build quality and QC JLR can only dream of, a dealer who cannot do enough to look after me and lots of money staying in my bank account rather than boosting the oil majors profits! 2020 Pangea Green 1st Edition D240 New Defender 110 is here and loving it
2018 Melting Silver Mini Countryman PHEV - soon to be replaced
2015MY Corris Grey SDv6 HSE Dynamic, the best car I have ever owned, totally reliable only a cou0le of rattles in 3 years, now no longer in my care
Also in my garage is a 1996 TDi300 Defender 90 County HT made into a fake CSW

I’ve had my XC90 for over a month now. I have been meaning to do a write up but been delaying it to try and collect more and more negatives. Luckily both the car and the dealer have mostly let me down in that department so far I just wanted to be as objective as possible in my review and the inevitable comparison to RRS as my last 3 cars (excluding the temporary Golf) have been Range Rover Sports.

Where RRS is Better:
Let’s cover this first because while this is an “off topic” subforum, I appreciate it is still part of RRS forum. And it will be quick to get this out of the way

1. If you need a highly capable off-roader (whether for work, access or just fun), look away now. I haven’t used mine off the tarmac and don’t intend to. While it has some tools like air suspension and permanent 4WD mode for off-roading, it is safe to say it will be no where near LR products. I took my first and third RRS off road a few times but only because I could, not because I needed to. So while this point may be a dealbreaker for some, it has zero significance to me. I want good performace on snow and ice but on my ski trips to the Alps, I have seen even RWD cars get to places where I could never imagine them, just because they had decent winter tyres and were well-prepared.

2. XC90 is bigger and heavier so doesn’t handle as well as the Sport but then again a like-for-like comparison should be against the full size Discovery. I feel XC90 does handle better than the Disco but I do miss the sporty handling, especially in Dynamic Mode, of my last RRS. Having said that, I seldom used to get the opportunity to drive the RRS that way so not a huge deal and I was well aware of that difference after I test drove XC90.

3. Sidesteps in RRS serve the purpose much better. Not a problem for me but kids found it slightly easier to get into the RRS because the steps were lower. The XC90 running boards are roughly at the same level as the door sills so while they protect the sills because one steps on the boards, they are less practical compared to RRS sidesteps. XC90 sits lower so not a huge problem.

4. I liked the way RRS lowered the suspension automatically as soon as the doors opened. XC90 also has easy entry/exit but it kicks in only when the ignition is turned off. My passengers open the doors well before I switch off so the car doesn’t get the chance to lower the suspension until everyone is out and doors are closed (for safety reasons). In that sense it is only “easy entry” as the “exit” bit doesn’t get used much unless I’m on my own.

5. The front driver and passenger armrests were useful in RRS. Luckily the centre cubby box lid in XC90 is at the perfect height and is very comfortable so I can rest my elbow on it. The doors are too high though and not suitable for use as elbow rests

6. Purely subjective but I think overall the RRS is a better looking car, minus the rear end, which I got used to but never particularly liked. Having said that, I don’t find the XC90 ‘ugly’. Front is pretty good but the rear could be better.

This is all I could gather in over 1 month of ownership. I have given it a lot of thought and even listed things that don’t actually matter much to me.


XC90 Plus Points:
There is so much to state here that I gennuinely struggled with where to begin. This list is NOT in order of importance.

1. Driving Position and Comfort:
The seating position and view of the road are equally good as RRS. Loads of headroom all around, leg room for second and third row seats is amazing. Not compared to just RRS but also Disco. Ride is super smooth, quite and comfortable whether it is on electric or petrol, despite lower profile tyres (275/40/21) compared to my last RRS (275/45/21).

2. Seats:
This is technically part of comfort but the seats are so much better that I wanted a separate heading. The RRS benchmark was already high but my XC90’s seats are even more comfortable and with more adjustments. Cushion extension (not present in my RRS Autobiography) is an amazing thing. Massage seats (again missing from RRS AB) are amazing. Lumbar adjustment has a greater range. Seat leather is top quality. It is important to note that I didn’t pay extra for these features as they were standard in my top of the range Inscription Pro. My RRS was also top of the range Autobiography but lesser spec than XC90.

The middle 2nd row seat is quite acceptable in terms of comfort in XC90. RRS had something close to a “wooden bench covered in thin leather” there which was useless for any journeys longer than just a few minutes.

Another feature I really like is the ability to control the front passenger seat using the driver’s seat controls. You can go into the centre console screen and select an option to tell the car you want to control the front passenger seat. Now fiddling with the driver’s seat buttons moves the corresponding components of the passenger seat instead of driver’s seat! Sure you can use memory seat options to save the settings for regular users of the car and then it is a simple press of a button but last week I picked up someone and they needed to move the passenger seat because my wife likes to keep the seat way forward as she is short. I didn’t need to give them instructions on which buttons to push and pull in the dark. I didn’t need to get out of the car and go to the other side to adjust the seat for them. Just put it in that mode and used the buttons on mine. Everything is computerised so I don’t think this feature would have required any extra hardware or huge amounts of effort. Just some clever thought and common sense.

3. Technology:
This is what completely blew me away. MY16 RRS tech already felt like a decade behind MY16 XC90 that I test drove before signing the paper. The MY19 XC90 is even better due to software upgrades. Big centre screen is very responsive ... no dreaded lags. Clearly recognisable response means I don’t need to take my eyes off the road to confirm my input has been acknowledged. Apple CarPlay works like a dream. Waze is fully functional on the centre screen. No need for phone holder and no charging cable in view (one of my pet hates).

The Volvo On Call phone app is so reliable. The estimated time to a full charge is very accurate in the app. Whatever I want to do, works first time. The InControl app failed to connect and get the car’s latest status half the time. Using remote climate from the InControl app was so frustrating that mostly I had to give up and look for the remote key fob and use that instead, if in range. And that was a £1,000 extra 4 years ago. With XC90 you can choose whether to switch on steering wheel and/or seat heating when using remote or timed climate. All of this works every single time in Volvo On Call and the response is quick. InControl response time was pathetic even when it did work.

Stingy LR were using a 3G WiFi hub at least up to my MY16 RRS. XC90 has always had 4G so as long as you put in a 4G SIM card, you get decent internet speed in the car. Also, the car is capable of displaying text messages from the inserted sim. This is important because in my RRS whenever I put in a new sim, I couldn’t read the activation code required to register the sim on the network provider’s website/app to be able to keep an eye on internet usage. I always had to call them up to register. Thankfully I would be able to read messages on the screen in this car.

Latest sat nav maps can be downloaded from Volvo website and uploaded to the car using a USB drive. All for free! Not a big deal for me though because I use Waze via CarPlay. Still handy where network coverage is limited.

4. User Focus and Thoughtfulness:
Attention to little things is quite impressive. Most important to us in this category are the airvents in the B and C pillars for 2nd and 3rd row passengers respectively. All my RRSs only had airvents behind the centre console and the air never reached my kids in the rear seats. They were often too cold or too hot and it took a very long time for the temperature to settle to an acceptable level for them. The XC90 also has airvents behind the console but has the B pillar ones in addition which are far more useful and provide instant hot or cold air for rear passengers.

There are other things too, for example there is a little plastic flap/clip between the driver side A pillar and windscreen to retain parking tickets so there is no need to stick them on the windscreen and no need to leave them loose on top of the dash where they fly away when you shut the door. The 3rd row seatbelts have retainers to keep them in place when the 3rd row seats are in folded down position.

5. Engine, Gearbox, Hybrid System:
This is my first hybrid and I don’t have a reference point so many things I say here may be common to all or most PHEVs.

The 8-speed gearbox is as smooth as the RRS ZF gearbox, if not more. If it was difficult to notice gear changes in RRS due to smoothness, it is difficult even to detect when it changes from electric to petrol and vice-versa in XC90. OK the engine noise (very quiet and civilised for 4 cylinders) gives it away but there are no jerks etc. to accompany the switchover.

The car shows an electric only range of 21 miles on a full charge, it delivers that mileage and sometimes slightly more due to conversion of energy from braking (including engine braking). An arc in one of the dials in the instrument panel tells the driver how far they can push the pedal while staying in pure electric mode. Pushing further, as soon as the virtual needle goes beyond the arc, the petrol engine kicks in. A frugal driver (not me!) can control and minimise petrol use when driving around town. I have noticed even the adaptive cruise tries to keep the car in electric as much as possible and eases off acceleration when the needle gets to the top of the arc, where practical.

There is a feature to “lock” the car in petrol mode to conserve electric power for later use. Example usage is when you might be on a dual carriageway but about to enter a town where you may find electric use more appropriate.

It is also possible to charge the car using the petrol engine while driving but it is recommended for occasional use only. After all it is a plug-in hybrid, not a Lexus style one (whatever they are called).

I have also registered it for the 100% Congestion Charge and T-Charge discount even though I don’t see myself ever driving in Central London on weekdays. As much as I believe the threats to environment and the problems of congestion are real, this discount, while great for people who drive in Central London, is laughable. There is no way the advertised emission figures that bring it below the threshold are achievable in most real life use

6. Safety Features:
Adaptive cruise remembers the distance setting. In my RRS it used to reset on every start. Adaptive cruise accelerates and decelerates smoother than RRS. Queue assist also works better. As soon as my RRS came to a complete stop, the cruise/queue assist system needed driver input (accelerator) to get the car going again no matter how short the pause was. Volvo’s system has some tolerance built into it in that if the pause is very brief, the car automatically starts moving forwards when the car ahead has moved. If the stop is a bit longer (I haven’t yet worked out how many seconds), then it needs the driver to step on the pedal so as not to surprise them. The software guys have obviously put some thought into this.

Collision warning system works better than RRS (fewer false alarms). Blind spot monitoring indicators in the mirrors are bigger and clearer. There must be some sort of sensors/radars on the sides of the car as when I pass close to something, audible and visual warnings are activated which couldn’t be due to the sensors in the corners of the front and rear bumpers.

Adaptive/active bending LED headlights were standard in Inscription Pro. RRS AB only had standard static Xenons.

The car has same tyres as my last RRS, in fact with even lower profile. Even then when I lightly touched the kerbs on a couple of occasions, the rim protectors on the tyres worked as they should and the impact was taken by tyres only. No marks on the alloys. I am sure had I gone in deeper, the alloys would have scuffed. But with RRS kerb magnet wheels it was always rims first, no matter how lightly I kerbed them. Probably the design of XC90 wheels is helpful.

7. Dealer Experience:
It is important to note that I didn’t go to the dealer with a reference to any existing customers or any forums. I was just an ordinary customer walking through the door with no ‘connections’.

It is also important to point out that the showroom was very basic. No flashy presentation and grand excesses like some dealers indulge in, which is fine as long as customers are taken proper care of, where it really matters.

Sales and Pre-Sales:
I found the sales people professional, eager to win business and extremely knowledgeable about their product. They were honest and explained the features very well to help a Volvo newbie like me to finalise the spec without going OTT on the options list. I took the best available discount from CarWow to a local dealer and they matched it. Fairly painfree way to knock the price down for someone who doesn’t know how to negotiate

There was a huge delay in delivery but it wasn’t the dealer’s or Volvo’s fault but due to change in regulations around PHEVs. I wasn’t in a rush and was too busy with other stuff so can’t complain. The 5-6 months appeared to pass pretty quickly.

Handover:
A million times better than LR! They have a “product specialist” at the dealership who was super knowledgeable about all things Volvo and PHEV. She spent 2 hours with me in the car upon collection to explain the usage of most features. Helped me set up my Volvo account and answered every single question I asked (and I asked tons!). She knew it all. Even the best salesmen I have dealt with at my local LR dealerships only had basic knowledge of what they were selling. I seemed to know more on pretty much every occasion.

Aftersales:
I even managed to get a taste of the service department in this one month. Just like my L494 (and many others’) were delivered with saggy seat leather, my XC90 had a similar issue but to a much lesser extent. Honestly, it was acceptable (unlike RRS) but I still took it up with the dealer 10 days or so after picking up the car, because I felt at that price point I was entitled to being a little bit unreasonable

I recall I had reported the leather fit issue with the RRS the same or next day after collecting the car but the salesman promptly told me to contact aftersales and washed the sales department’s hands off it. Technically nothing wrong with that, except lack of courtesy. Then it was a hassle to book it in for steaming, getting a courtesy car or getting the car collected and delivered (can’t remember which service I used as they only offered one not both). It came back pretty much in the same state so I left it until the first service and even then it couldn’t be fully rectified.

With Volvo, the salesman took care of dealing with the service department (even though 10 or so days had passed since collection) and I was simply informed that they would drop off a courtesy car, pick up mine and then later swap it back when steaming was complete. I refused the courtesy car as I didn’t need one. Their driver collected the car at the EXACT time and day I desired so I could go to work on time. No LR rubbish 3 hour slots like 8-11 that left me hanging around.

As mentioned before, the fit was already acceptable but it came back better. You can probably still see the problem in some of the pictures below but trust me, it was worse with RRS even after two attempts.

8. Conclusion:
All in all, my downgrade ended up being an upgrade in more ways than I could have imagined. I spec’d up an RRS AB (with extras on top) to bring it as close as possible to my XC90 Inscription Pro (also with extras on top) before ordering and it was around £26k-£27k more. The gap widened further when I factored in the ~11.2% discount on XC90. I don’t know what sort of discounts (if any) were on offer on RRS at that time.


Picrures:

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A great review of a quality car. Those photo’s just show that it is equal to any RR product but I’m sure it will feel solid. As has mentioned by many things break no matter how much money you spend but it’s the dealer experience that makes it or breaks it and this is where Volvo cruises past the Land Rover brand, things could be so much better but they’re not.

Steve. 2006 2.7 TDV6 HSE in Cairns Blue.

Great review and also cracking looking car. Congratulations on your new purchase and many happy and trouble free miles  MY11 Autobiography supercharged. Santorini Black. Monaco interior. Rear screens. Privacy.
Gone MY08 Supercharged HST. Java black. Ivory premium interior. Rear screens. Privacy. Missed a lot.
Gone MY04 Discovery V8 Petrol ES Premium. Awesome.

It’s lovely Fawad I hope you have many happy miles in it. I have the extending seat cushions in the Countryman, they are standard even on my part leather basic chairs, and I agree they make a comfortable seat more comfortable, in the Countryman both front seats have them and while they aren’t powered they are dead easy to adjust manually and my passengers have found that out and adjust the front passenger one a lot! Unfortunately BMW’s app (Mini Connected) is hopeless which for a company that is so good at incar tech is strange, LR’s app is eon’s ahead of the Mini’s system!
I’m in Canada at the moment and have been taken out to dinner by our agent here in his Tesla3............ it is a mighty impressive car, even in the -19c temperature we had yesterday, jaguar stands to loose a lot of IPace sales to the 3 if they don’t fix IPace’s problems PDQ and reduce the prices somewhat. 2020 Pangea Green 1st Edition D240 New Defender 110 is here and loving it
2018 Melting Silver Mini Countryman PHEV - soon to be replaced
2015MY Corris Grey SDv6 HSE Dynamic, the best car I have ever owned, totally reliable only a cou0le of rattles in 3 years, now no longer in my care
Also in my garage is a 1996 TDi300 Defender 90 County HT made into a fake CSW

Quote:

I spec’d up an RRS AB (with extras on top) to bring it as close as possible to my XC90 Inscription Pro (also with extras on top) before ordering and it was around £26k-£27k more.

That's a ridiculous amount of money! Even if the RRS was better in every respect, that price difference is difficult to swallow. When the Volvo is better in some areas, the money is indefensible.

A good review, by the way.  2012 SDV6 - it's missing a couple of cylinders
2008 TDV8 - it was a labour of love and is much missed