XC40 Ride Quality
 

I've just taken delivery of a XC40 Momentum Pro T4 AWD with 4k miles on the clock. My original test drive was rather short - about 5 miles, I guess, and I found the car comfortable and quiet. However, on a longish run the other day I was surprised at just how 'jittery' and restless my car is on poor road surfaces. So much so that I found the journey to be less relaxing that it should have been, certainly less than it would have been in my previous car (VW Tiguan).

Most of the reviews I have read or viewed praise the car for its behaviour on the road. Does anybody else feel the same way or am I just being hypercritical? Any suggestions? It may be relevant to mention that the tyres are Michelin Primacy 4 on 18 inch wheels and I've set their pressure at 230kPa

Sorry to hear that, I have almost the same car as you, certainly the same tyres, pressures and drivetrain. I haven't experienced bad ride quality in the first 2000 miles I've owned the car and I've driven a number of different road surfaces. You could ask the dealer to take a look / borrow another xc40 and take the same route?

I have an XC40 Momentum T4 which was new in May of this year.

When I first got it I found it had some vibration and had to have the wheels rebalanced.

After that I've found no problems with the car. I don't do very long trips. 30 mile round trip is about the longest I'm doing at the moment. Most of the roads where I live a pretty awful, and the car handles them well.

Maybe you should take it back to the dealer and have it looked at.

Some cars can be surprisingly effected by tyre pressures, many manufacturers specify higher pressures in the search for lower emissions, try dropping them slightly and see if that makes a difference.

Do you have the option to select ride setting? (Comfort, Eco etc). If so, which are you using?

Thanks for your comments
 

Thanks for your response, PHW. However, I don't think that Drive Mode affects the suspension. My understanding is that you need to have Active Four-C suspension for that.

With regard to Whippy's comment, I have reduced the tyre pressure from the 260 kPa 'Eco pressure' to 230 kPa without much effect. For an experiment, I'll bring the pressure down a tad more - perhaps to 210 kPa and see what happens.

Thanks to another60 and inchdown for their useful comments

I'm going to discuss this with the dealer and see what they have to say.

A week ago I had my first test drives in an xc40 ,the first car I drove was a b4 petrol , I drove it for about ten miles and was very disappointed at how fidgety it was on the road never very settled , I then immediately drove a T5 hybrid ,instantly a totally different car! well planted on the road and a total joy to be in! the dealer asked me my thoughts and I said I would only buy the T5 .
This week I bought a 2020 T5 with 3000 miles on clock from another dealership, had a three hundred mile drive home , the first 100 or so miles the car was very unstable and fidgety!!!! I stopped in a service station and turned off the lane keeping control ,it was an absolute joy to drive the next two hundred miles ,so it seems from my experience that the first demonstrator I drove last week had lane control switched on ,but was really an ok car ! has anyone else had this type of experience !

Yes, I hate this ghost moving the steering wheel, it’ very unnerving.

I try to switch-off as much of this AI control as Volvo allows you to. Getting to know the ‘real’ feedback and feel from a car is important as it can tell you far before some electronic sensor, that something may not quite be right and besides. it’s what being a driver is all about. Electronics can also fail so becoming totally trusting on them is probably not wise.

The way I look at it that once a driver gives over everything to a car to decide, then they might as well just book a taxi and sit in the back seat.