Quote:
Originally Posted by Loskie
Fiat and Peugeot will fit winter and all season tyres as a no cost option. Also offer so called "trick" traction aids. Not sure if they are good in practice but the theory sounds right.
As for BMW Xdrive yes I realise the tax is a bit more but that is not really an issue my V50 is £175 plus I get 45mpg.
But overall I think you may have missed my point in that currently the V40CC is all show and little substance for it. With a few tweaks(all season tyres/sensible size being one, 4wd or trick traction aids being another) then it could be made much better, more suited to the market I think Volvo are aiming for. Or maybe it's just for the "vanity" country market not the real world of vets, midwifes etc who work in the country but at 45 pence per mile claimable struggle to find a suitable car for their needs that can be covered by their expenses.
As an aside to this my 1999 octavia was top of the range had 15" and 195/65/15 tyres the most common tyre fitment at that time. Now my V50 16" 205/55/16 again the current most common fitment. The 15" were more than adequate as for the fad for 18 and 19" wheels it is nothing but show, ignorance and high tyre costs no real world benefit.
Never too sure why people get too hung up on tax. Spread over a year the cost is minimal.
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Volvo consumer services are not exactly right. The Cross Country version is not just a matter of style, it has different suspension with an extra 40mm of travel and big tyres and more ground clearance as standard. And it does work. I was surprised how good it was.
Volvo fit big brake disks relative to the size of their wheels.
If you want even more ground clearance then there is the XC60 in either 2 wheel drive or AWD.
Tyre choice is even more important than the type of drive fitted. I've seen Range Rovers stuck and skidding about simply because they had the wrong tyres fitted. The XC 60 FWD has 80% of the traction of the AWD version.
The V40 Cross Country has trick traction aids as do all Volvos and all Land Rovers. (And probably any European designed car on the market as it's standard as part of the ABS) My Range Rover has even more trick traction aids than my XC90 but the XC 90 appears to be capable of going across any field the Range Rover can. My wife won't let me try the V40 XC in the fields yet.
If you buy a new V40 most dealers will change the tyres for you so I've heard. You'll get around 75 to 84 mpg with the D2 engine and only slightly less with the new D4 190 bhp engine