I have driven a few of the cars you mention - Citroen Xantia (as well as a few BXs) and ford Mondeo of various versions. The Mondeo handled better, but the ride was not better. The Xantia was a long time ago and was just a pile of crap in most ways, so cant say I remember it having a great ride.

Remember my XC90 is on normal 19inch wheels with deep profile tyres which I think makes an enormous difference. It is also a Momentum, without any of this r-design nonsense in the suspension and seats. Is your T8 on 19s? Momentum spec?

Yes mine is an T8 R-Design, but I have driven Momentum models which are slightly better ride wise and have more comfortable seats - but it's not the seats I'm complaining about, it's general refinement. 19 inch wheel models still have far too much bump-thump and are not by any means supple unless on air suspension. R-Design steel-spring suspension is identical to the Momentum. So yes I have 20 inch wheels which do make matters worse. My last Range Rover had 20 inch wheels too and that was sublime. If the Xantia you drove didn't ride well then it was broken! Leagues ahead of an SPA XC90 - and that's not even a particularly comfortable Citroen. Yes the car was definitely built down to a price and it showed in many areas. My XC90 cost 70-75 grand new - no excuse for the lack of refinement.

You won't know a smooth ride until you've had a BX.

I had a BX 1.4 and a BX GTi 16V - not a patch on my XM, CX or DS for ride - but still very good for a small light car.

Incidentally I had a chance to try another Volvo today (service time) a new S90 recharge on 19 inch wheels. The (still gruff) petrol engine was slightly better noise insulated than my XC90 and the bump-thump was slightly better - still, neither were good enough for a premium car, the ride was still unacceptably jiggly and the tyre roar excessive. One thing that perplexed me was the stiffness of the throttle pedal - about three times more resistance than the brake pedal at normal braking forces - very odd. The little cap over the charge port has been deleted (penny pinching?) as has the drive mode selector which is now in the touch screen menu (a retrograde step) - Google maps looked nice though compared to my Sensus nav map. Other than that I can't say I bonded with the car very much - a perfectly good car but didn't feel special or premium. My friend's humble Mondeo Vignale is far more refined.

charge port
 

Cannot comment on cars ride quality as never had any of the models
mentioned except a rather old and battered £100.00 XJ6 4.2 with holes in the floor which would never of passed another MOT in the late 1970,s never mid today.

I have though had a new VW Phaeton with its W12 engine It was incredibly silent and its ride superb with its automatically adjusting air suspension and its double glazed windows.

Now have a S90 T8 Recharge and yes first impression of no cap on the cars charge socket does seem like penny pinching. That was until I deduced that Volvo had designed the actual flap with a round seal fitted to it. That actually seals up against the cars charge socket when the flap is closed.

Seems like an elegant design solution to me negating the need for a separate cap.

It does seem like an elegant solution, then go and take a look at your fuel cap which is exactly the same solution, if it's anything like mine you can see dirt and crud on the inside area of the "cap" where you'd expect it to be clean, similarly fuel damage around the area suggests that fuel escapes too. It's clearly not water tight.

To be honest have only put petrol in once to date as hardly run on engine. And I have not studied the filler flap.
Did notice filler neck has two plugs in it.
Makes it difficult if you have in an emergency to top up from a can that does not have a long nozzle.
But should stop petrol leaks from filler nozzle.

Ride quality of a car is a very subjective thing and what one person finds good, another wont.
For me, I like to feel the road through the car as it gives me a much better feel of that the car and the road are doing and as such lets me know what the available grip levels are.
Any of the Volvo cars on Air suspension are all too soft and squidgy for my liking as are the vast majority of the steel sprung cars too.
For me, a 'premium ride' is much more about the quality of damping and that is why I went with the Polestar Engineered models due to the exquisite damping provided by the Ohlins dampers however, for most people (yourself included I imagine) the ride stiffness of the PE cars even in their softest setting would be far too stiff and jiggly a ride so again, its all very subjective. For note, I run my dampers at setting 4 of 22 the majority of the time, setting 1 is fully hard and 22 is fully soft.
What you class as a premium ride I would class as far to soft and squidgy and vice versa. As the old saying goes, you cant please everyone.

As far as the stiff throttle pedal goes on the new recharge models, that is for use during 'One Pedal Drive' to give a better control of the regenerative braking when coming to a stop or slowing down in town or in traffic. It works really well but if you dont have it selected then as you say, it just feels weird compared to standard throttle pedals. Most drives I never use the brake pedal at all, the system works that good and it brings the car to a full stop very successfully.

I've never had a cap over the charge port on either of my XC60 T8's but have never felt like I am missing anything there as my charge ports stay dirt/dust free and never get any water in even when cleaning using a power washer.

I do however miss the drive mode select wheel, having to go into the menu's to change drive mode is a distraction compared to just spinning a wheel which you can do without taking your eyes off the road once you are used to it.

Yes you can't please everyone and the key is always in the damping like you say as good dampers are usually expensive - I like soft long travel springing with controlled damping. I don't like to feel the road and I'm not a slow plodding driver. Even on the track on two wheel I like soft suspension with good damping.



That maybe the reason but I still don't see why it's necessary - I drove my brother's BMW i3 with one pedal driving a few times, it had "normal" throttle resistance and lift off braking was perfectly controllable.

Volvo ignoring this issue
 

I wrote to Volvo nearly 3 weeks ago regarding this ERAD issue and to date not even an acknowledgement. Incredibly poor customer service