Newbie seeking advice

[The Incredible Hul]

Good day to one & all. My wife & I may be in the market for an XC vehicle under the motability scheme. Currently we are driving an m-sport BMW. Last year my wife got a gastro pacemaker fitted & ever since she has found the hard ride of the BM extremely painfull - a combination of m-sport suspension & run flat tyres. Anyway she has quite fancied a move to something large to take her wheelchair in the back without having to dis-assemble it, something that has a soft ride and, something that can easily manage speed bumps without so much as a look back. The XC series looks like it'll fit the bill. We fancied the XC60 as it has enough space and of course is bang up to date, however it's popularity means it's an expensive car on motability. The XC90 however is reasonable and comes in the D5 Active spec. I'm going to arrange a test drive with dealer in chippenham. I wanted to ask the community the following queries;

- do you find the ride soft & able to absorb speed bumps and the usual pot holes without affecting passengers?
- what sort of mpg do you get in town traffic?
- every six weeks we undertake a 300 mile round trip on the motorway, how do you find them on the motorway both in terms of stability and mpg?
- As someone who has in the main driven a mixture of sporty hatchbacks and small saloons will the 90 take time to get use to or is it realistically a big friendly beast?


Many thanks in advance for any responses, oh and hello to all members!

Kevin.

[Pitvar]

Originally Posted by The Incredible Hul

I wanted to ask the community the following queries;

- do you find the ride soft & able to absorb speed bumps and the usual pot holes without affecting passengers?
- what sort of mpg do you get in town traffic?
- every six weeks we undertake a 300 mile round trip on the motorway, how do you find them on the motorway both in terms of stability and mpg?
- As someone who has in the main driven a mixture of sporty hatchbacks and small saloons will the 90 take time to get use to or is it realistically a big friendly beast?


Many thanks in advance for any responses, oh and hello to all members!

Kevin.

Hello Kevin, I think I'm OK to answer this as we've swapped a 320 MSport saloon for an XC90 Active D5 manual and I drive a 325d MSport tourer. Plus I change one of the cars about once a year so have driven all sorts!

. Pot holes and speed bumps are still slightly felt but a dream compared to the MSport where you have to scan the road ahead and avoid any sort of broken surface or risk a shaking. [as a bonus the XC90 tyres are a third of the price of 18" Run flats...]

. With just over a 1000 on the clock we're getting 29MPG - mix of runs so far but includes short town trips every week day to my better half's work and back - I imagine when run in, in purely short trips in town it'd be high 20s and with a mix of driving around 30 with 35+ on a run?

. Motorways are very, very comfortable - we did a 300 mile trip the first weekend and a 400 mile trip last weekend and when I got back in the beemer on Monday it sounded loud, felt small and was crashy over the road [and it previously felt like a large and very quiet car to me!]

. Coming from all sorts of sporty cars [RX8, 306 DTurbos, 205 GTis - showing me age] as well as stuff like Passats, Mondeos etc I find the XC90 very good in 99% of conditions, comfortable, fantastic high driving position, good on rough stuff like very potholed car parks, swift enough for such a big car - overtaking no problem once it passed the 1000 mile mark - before then we'd run it mainly below 3000 rpm following advice on here - the only thing you do have to learn when you swap cars is that perhaps obviously it doesn't corner like an MSport and the seats haven't got the side bolsters you'll be used to - this means that you'll have to be a bit slower in the bends and get used to a bit more lateral movement in the seat, as it were. That said it is quite subtle and I find after a few corners I relax into the XC90's pace and handling without problem - and there has to be a minor payback for the very good ride quality.

One last, more objective test - I have a good aftermarket Satnav holder which attaches with a suction cup - in the BMW it rattles and shakes so much that it can be a struggle to read the map, I have to wedge it on the screen and into the dash at the same time to stop if vibrating itself off the suction cup. In the XC90 there is no movement at all ! If you're going for a test drive you could try something similar?!?

Anyway sorry for the long response and good luck - well worth a drive I'd say. Cheers, Peter

[The Incredible Hul]

Thanks Peter for your feedback. I laughed at your scanning the road ahead for potholes etc, you are so right! The ride quality of msport suspension & runflat tyres is truly appaling. I'm going to arrange a test drive and see how it goes, the salesman said he's happy to let us have the car for an extended run.

Thanks, Kevin.

[don kalmar union]

You have picked just about the very best Volvo dealer in the country.

Proprietor owned and managed they are right on top of their game with the highest of standards in their relationships with their staff and customers alike.

Many in the discerning, experienced and opinionated Volvo tuning and performance community travel the length of the country to deal with them.

Regards, Don.

[The Incredible Hul]

Thanks Don, I have to say I thought they were good right away they were really friendly. When I mentioned the health challenges we face and the importance of the ride the salesman immediately said we can have it for a good few hours and he knew of some local 'rough roads' and speed humps to try out.

Regards, Kevin.