Picky Differences Between Momentum and Inscription
 

Forum Post

My XC90 ‘66’ plate MY2017 Inscription went in today to have the Volvo OnCall and Start Stop looked at as neither have worked since I bought it a few weeks ago. After a bit of back and forth I managed to negotiate a XC90 courtesy car while they have mine. They delivered me a ‘67’ MY2018 Momentum which had quite a few differences to mine which I thought I would share for anyone considering one and not sure on the differences in trim levels.

Exterior
Inscription comes with the silver effect grill and chrome effect door trim with ‘Inscription’ in them. It also gets a square boot badge.
On the Momentum, At the back there is a silver effect “diffuser” which is quite big, and round chrome exhaust pipes. The Inscription gets wide angular ones and a much smaller chrome effect “diffuser”
I’ve noticed in the dark on the Momentum the lack of door handle lights, and illuminated door sills, which make my Inscription look really smart.

The wheels are smaller diameter with fewer chunkier spokes, although similar in design.

Interior
On the inside, it’s got the normal leather, compared to my Inscription’s Nappa Soft Leather. I’ve got to say when I was looking to buy, I wasn’t bothered by this, but having had it for a few weeks, the normal leather feels really rough and cheap. The whole dash also feels really cheap as it is plastic rather than leather. The brushed steel effect trim looks and feels plastic, compared to the metal mesh on mine. Again, I probably wouldn’t have noticed if I hadn’t been sat in the Inscription for a few weeks.
The good thing is though that there is no writing in the seats. I have no idea why a Volvo felt the need to write Inscription everywhere all over mine.
The Momentum hasn’t had the 12” driver display upgrade. It really frustrates me that Volvo offer the smaller one, it looks rubbish, info is cramped, and it can’t honestly cost that much more for the 12”. Another revenue stream I guess.

The MY2018 also has a different ignition nob, turn right to both start and stop, while mine is turn left to stop, right to start. The Momentum also has a plastic key, Inscription gets leather, although both of mine are bashed and broken.

The Momentum seemed to be missing the Individual drive mode, but it’s possible this is turned off somewhere.

Options
Both cars have 360 cameras, and I couldn’t live without them. The loaner has front and side parking sensors which are really good. I had them on my Jag and miss them on my XC90. It also has ParkIn/Out, which I haven’t tried yet.

The loaner has the panoramic sunroof, and contrary to what most people have said in the thread on this, I don’t rate it. My two year old wasn’t fussed. The blind that comes over electrically is cool, but it is thin, and street lights still come through. I found in normal light I couldn’t notice it was there, and so I guess the only reason to have it is for slightly older kids. But I imagine the novelty wears off.

The loaner is lacking the family pack and my two year old missed his integrated window blind this morning in the bright sun. Incidentally, It would be really cool if those were electric too, as he likes it down, but I have had to pull over in the past to put it up as he shouts “No sun - go away!”

The Momentum is also lacking the passenger seat memory and the ability to move the passenger seat from the driver controls which my Inscription has, and is useful when the boy is kicking the back of the seat.

That’s about all I’ve noticed, there may be other differences, let me know.

I guess it depends on your needs and budget. I drive an S90 Momentum with the 12" display and the Winter Pack. I've been in the fortunate position to have driven two Inscriptions - one just before market launch in Sweden, the second whilst mine was in the workshop for a short time.
Spec'd correctly ("Pro" model), I think a Momentum trim is fine for most drivers. Harder wearing seats, soft scratchy plastic dash and door panels that is easy to clean. The seats don't have full electric, but it has all the adjustment where it counts, and they just as supportive as the Inscription ones.
It depends on your needs and how much money you want to spend on a car. I completely agree that the 8" display should never have been made available in the UK, it doesn't work right with the entire HMI in my opinion.

Agreed, and post didn’t intend to offend those with Momentum. I honestly thought Nappa Leather was just a gimmick. But I am surprised by how much smoother it feels. Having said that, the wife has normal leather on the V60 and 50k miles in it is just as smooth as Nappa. Maybe it’s just the loaner only having 2k miles and it’s still not worn in.

I don’t think I would have gone Inscription if speccing from new, but buying used, this one had all the toys I wanted.

no no non taken :)

If budget was no object, I'd have stepped to an Inscription for the luxuries of moodlighting, door lamps, cornering light units, but I don't miss any of those features if that makes sense....

And I think that's the good thing about Momentum cars.. you have everything the SPA cars were meant to be - new platform, technology, powertrain, stunning looks etc but all whilst meeting individual needs.
First thing I noticed about the Nappa after driving 3200mi to G'burg and back in the Inscription is that it wore in quicker because it's softer material to the leather-faced stuff in the standard car.. good for those who like to abuse their interiors somewhat B-)

I think the point OP makes is that despite definitely being an upper end car xc90 can be made to feel and look really cheap. I agree. I don’t think it’s as simple as just rejecting momentum or picking up an inscription.
You could spec just about everything you described in Momentum, though now they won’t let you have walnut which is by far the best inserts (I only haven’t seen the birch in real life). This is what I did as some things in inscription we couldn’t unspec. All the chrome outside looks shouty against dark paint and we didn’t want light paint - we found dark wheels on black momentum looked a lot more understated. Wife absolutely hated the leather dash and window sills and to be fair in early models those looked pretty cheap. I wanted “cheap” leather on seats for better wear with kids as real leather needs looking after. I wanted momentum seats as cushions extensions on other seats are uncomfortable for my wife who is short. The downside of course was 3-4K extra in options to get things like seat memory, driving modes, lighting pack, larger wheels and driver display. I assure you it feels better inside than most inscriptions especially after their seats get worn stained and scuffed. I concede that well looked after inscription will look the best inside.
It really does feel cheap in the low specced xc90 with cheap inserts. It really doesn’t need to be but they have to make some look cheap to justify charging more for the ones that look good. Of course none of the options are worth anything in trade in so my momentum with 12k worth of options has lost 12k more in depreciation for part ex than a cheap spec - may be not so bad if I try to sell private. Having said that I’ve had 4-5 loaners over the last 2.5 years which usually didn’t have one thing or another and I missed them.
When I shopped recently and nearly came to buying it would have had to be an inscription as I could not get the look I wanted with the momentum any more. Now inscription leather has had durability improvement and dash is synthetic whilst better looking so at least some of my negatives are rectified. Cushion extensions are also now acceptable. I also won’t mind the chrome on dark paint as there are lots of new xc90s around so it wouldn’t draw attention.

These things are subjective, but dark flame birch looked best to my eyes when I was spec'ing my Inscription. Here's a pic of how it looks.

Looks like it ties in piano finish on screen surrounds quite nicely. I’ve not seen it first hand, being wood grain my guess is it looks good. My point is I was really underwhelmed by every other insert compared to walnut and just that alone can make a lot of xc90 interiors feel budget. I remember absolute mayhem on swedespeed back in 15-16 when everyone wanted walnut and Volvo suddenly had supply problems. Early adopters who paid full retail price and specced high were the really fussy ones with getting just the right combo. I paid Volvo to retrofit black headlining lining into mine as i thought it was awful in grey (thankfully it’s now standard). It has really expanded downmarket since and people are not too fussy as they get decent value. I was looking at nearly 20% discount new (own spec) if I pulled the trigger. It’s a lot more value.

I have the Birch insets as well which as you say looks really rich unlike the metal ones which personally I find cheap and does nothing to lift the interior.

I guess it's the old 'tomayto'-'tomahto' cliche but I actually prefer the metal inlays and am not a fan of dark wood inlays. Like the lighter coloured ones though (even though I thought they looked awful in last model BMWs)

I'd say there's no question that the Inscription is a nicer place to sit and has some nice flourishes, but I must say, I don't find anything particularly cheap feeling in the Momentum.

Having the T8 there is little in terms of equipment upgrade in the R-Design or Inscription and it's (or was when I bought) mainly about the aesthetics and finishes.

With a 2.5K subsidy on the T8 Momentum, leasing through my business, it was in effect £130 more per month for the R-Design (my preference) or Inscription and I couldn't really (honestly) justify that given the quality of the Momentum.

I do like the R-Design seats though....

Momentum also has raised roof bars, Inscription/RDesign are flush.

The Momentum we bought had options installed that covered all the items you note as missing. Agree on the subtle lighting, nappa leather, 12" display, wheels etc etc. The birch inlays look very, very good on a blonde interior.

I prefer the black grille. I'm not a big fan of large swathes of chrome. I also prefer the round tail pipes.

Disagree on the roof, but that's what life's about :) . I felt it made a massive difference to the interior ambience and my kids (2 and 5) love it.

Ref displays, when we bought just over a year ago there were hardly any with the small one. But most of the cars on the Selekt site now seem to have them - it really does look sub-par IMO and very happy we have the large one.