XC90 B5 or T8 Advice
 

Morning all,

New to forum, as just deciding on which variant to go for on the XC90..

I’d appreciate any advice opinions please as trying to pick between model and spec. I’ve been offered a R Design factory built B5 (due to spec) delivering in Sept/Oct and a R Design Saville Grey T8 and Pro Bursting Blue (both meeting spec).

B5 or T8 - leaving price out of the picture, our driving is mainly short journeys with the odd long haul weekend trip...

Pro or Standard - how much of a difference does the air suspension make? Is it worth paying extra to have? We live in a village and roads are reasonable, but car used mainly on road to transport 4 of us and our dog...

Any thoughts on residuals, whilst we’ll probably use PCP offer on at present, we may decide to keep / change... so is T8 a better option in this case

Sorry for the ramble, but any thoughts will help! The impatient kid in me doesn’t want to wait till Sept either!

Wow, leaving out price is a big point...

I can, from my experience, give my view point.
I chose the R-Design B5(D) over the T8, simply on price. It was £10k more for the T8 in my spec. As far as I was concerned, £10k buys a LOT of diesel.

Also, unless you are only doing 20mile trips between charges, when the petrol engine kicks in, it's really not economical. If you can charge everytime and only use electric.

Bursting Blue was a big plus point for me, it's now been removed from the MY21 cars as I understand it.

I chose the R-Design, over the Pro, again on cost.
I'd love the AirSuspension, but wasn't keen on the 22" wheel option, both from a ride perspective, but also on a tyre replacement cost perspective.

I've just purchased a set of 19" wheels from an XC90 Momentum, that I will fit winter tyres to. That will allow me to keep the 20" standard R-Design wheels (that have diamond cut finish) for the nicer (non salty) weather and then use the cheaper 19" wheels for the nasty weather, thus avoiding the dreaded white worm on the diamond cut wheels.

See I’ve been looking at similar questions recently; and there is indeed a larger upfront cost on the T8.

But you mention you want a PCP. And the residuals on the T8 as a PHEV are far stronger which plays a big part towards the GFV and thus your monthly payments. I imagine you won’t find a huge amount of difference tbh.

So then the question becomes about use of vehicle instead.

The other issue I have at the moment is when you start speccing your T8 you’re talking about an expensive car.

But the car is made in China(?). I mean I’m the first to say that the Chinese these days can match quality with anyone, particularly as I work in supply chain.

But really. A £70k car, from China..?

Would be interested to hear others’ thoughts on longer term reliability of T8 Vehicles.

06

I have the T8 since March last year. I live in a rather small city (although the largest in Switzerland :rolleyes:) so every city ride is 100% electrical. Now, if that makes for the initial price difference... I have no clue. As I’ve said on other posts, you don’t buy the T8 to save on fuel costs, a diesel would do a much better job.

Now on the air suspension.... that is a must in my view (if it fits the budget, of course). If I would respec my car and start from a momentum, air suspension would be the first to add :), before sound, wheels, massage seats or whatever else.

Just checked the statistics in Volvo on call: 12.000 miles, average consumption 39.7 mpg... don’t know if it helps :) sometimes I tow a caravan, sometimes I drive with 120mph in Germany...

Info from www.autoguide.com - (dated March 2019)

Volvo Cars Torslanda – Torslanda, Sweden

Volvo XC60
Volvo V90
Volvo V90 Cross Country
Volvo XC90

Volvo Cars Gent – Gent, Belgium

Volvo V60
Volvo XC40

Daqing Volvo Car Manufacturing – Daqing, China

Volvo S90

Volvo South Carolina Factory – Berkeley County, South Carolina, USA

Volvo S60

Polestar Plant (under construction) – Chengdu, China

Polestar 1
Polestar 2
Polestar 3

The other item of consideration is where you are likely to be driving and will these destinations introduce legislation that restricts access to diesel vehicles (even if they are cleaner than petrol vehicles).

Yeah it’s the cars with the T8 power plant that come from China as I understand it too. Certainly the xc60 T8 and Polestar engineered come from China.

I think the XC90 T8 is built in Sweden.

So what did you end up with?

The cars are made by volvo , all their factories run to the same standards whether built in China America Belgium or Sweden . Its just China supplying the cash and taking the profits .. The S90 is made in China , not sure if they have stared any other models yet .