Anyone got a Polestar upgrade for D4?

[Tatsfield]

I bought the Polestar upgrade for my D5. Just love it! I know it's not a huge increase in power, 215 bhp up to 230 bhp, but the car is a different animal now and I wouldn't go back to standard 215 bhp.

It's not the cheapest mod but I did get a 20% discount from the Volvo dealer and the cost is 20% tax deductible and the 20% VAT was recoverable, because I use the car for business. So for me it was a great mod at a very affordable price. If you pay full price for it, it would be expensive.

[yostumpy]

Originally Posted by Tatsfield

I am used to boxes with a Sport mode changing down at least one gear when the Sport mode is selected. I have always used this feature to provide engine braking coming into fast bends etc. On the Geartronic this does not happen unless you also break quite hard to slow the car and once it is slowed, then the box changes down which defeats the object of engine braking. Does the Polestar upgrade change this aspect of the box and make the Sports mode more "sporty" coming down the range as well as going up it?
.

Just read your post of 2016, and was this altered on later cars, or did you have a software glitch back then, and not know it. My 2016 changes down 1 gear when flipped over to sport/manual, and I thought they all did.?

[FreshAir]

https://elkperformance.uk/ is a possible lower priced source for official upgrade.

[yostumpy]

Originally Posted by FreshAir

https://elkperformance.uk/ is a possible lower priced source for official upgrade.

Might help , if they said what part of the country they are in.

[Tatsfield]

Originally Posted by yostumpy

Just read your post of 2016, and was this altered on later cars, or did you have a software glitch back then, and not know it. My 2016 changes down 1 gear when flipped over to sport/manual, and I thought they all did.?

My 2012 XC70 Geartronic changes down when the road speed reduces which you have to effect with the brakes. It does not change down merely because you select the Sports mode. What you describe is what I would have expected from a sports mode function as dropping a cog to slow the car is a basic sports driving technique. On my previous car you had to press a button to engage sports mode, so I wired a foot pedal switch on the foot rest in parallel so that a touch of the left foot which had nothing else to do would engage sport and drop a gear and another would switch out of sports and allow the box to change up again, all without me having to take my hand of the wheel. I really miss that feature but there is no way my 2012 XC70 will offer me this sort of sports based driving.

[reggit]

Originally Posted by yostumpy

Might help , if they said what part of the country they are in.

The phone number has an 01300 area code which seems to be in the Dorset area.

[apersson850]

Originally Posted by Tatsfield

What you describe is what I would have expected from a sports mode function as dropping a cog to slow the car is a basic sports driving technique.

As you know by now, that's exactly what my XC70 D5 2012 is indeed doing. And it has nothing to do with it having Polestar, as those I've driven all do it. Just like our XC70 D4, which doesn't have Polestar.

[Tatsfield]

Well my 2012 just doesn't do it. It careers along until something slows it and then it changes down to match the road speed. It definitely doesn't drop a cog to slow the car when the lever is moved. The local Volvo dealers were asked to upgrade the transmission program but they said that it was always subject to upgrading when the car is serviced under the Volvo servicing promise.

I came from a sports GT car where engine braking was very much part of the driving experience plus the fact that I modded the access to the sports mode to allow me to flip in and out of it with a touch of my right foot on a pedal switch. So I was very used to using the gearbox for both acceleration and deceleration and coming to the XC70 was a great disappointment. I've got used to a different style of driving but am very jealous of XC70 owners who have instant engine braking when moving the selector into the sports mode position.

[apersson850]

Originally Posted by Tatsfield

... but they said that it was always subject to upgrading when the car is serviced under the Volvo servicing promise.

That's a truth with some modifications. Volvo prepares an update package for some parts of your car, a package which is loaded if you do a service at Volvo.
But not everything is updated.

On the other hand, my car has done this since day one, which was back in 2011, so it's something that should have been there from the beginning. It's not a racing car's downshift. It may take a second or so, from shifting to sports mode until you get a gear shift. But it comes in two stages, since in S mode the converter lockup is more firm. If you are coasting, it will pretty immediately apply a stiff lockup and a moment later shift down, at least if the latter is reasonable under the circumstances. If you already are doing 200 km/h it will probably not.

[Tatsfield]

I've stopped worrying about it but even if it is performing as you say, compared with the true sports downshifting to which I was used for 25 years of driving various 2+2 coupes, Toyota, Honda and Peugeot, the AW box on my XC70 provides next to no real engine braking without using the brakes. On the 406 Peugeot V6s which I had for 15 years I could drive hard all day on open roads without touching the brakes unless some other car impeded my progress but on the Volvo I'm using the brakes all the time. It reminds me of the old US style auto boxes of 50 years ago. But the Swedish tank isn't a sports car and it does a lot of other things very well.