One week on...

[watto64]

On the 25th Jul collected our first ever Volvo, a 10 month old XC90 Momentum B5 diesel who's main purpose will be a tow car, I had owned Hyundai SUV's since 2008 so changing brand was a big deal. Went for the Momentum as required sensible wheels and tyres for towing, it also has tinted rear glass, 360 cam, heated front screen steering wheel and rear outer seats. The dealer experience was very good, my partner as zero tolerance for dealer BS!

So one week on.
1. mpg is very good, im not heavy footed and tend to drive these days like the caravan is always attached - nice and steady. 200 mile round trip to see family and trip average read 53mpg. Local driving around and still high 30s mpg
2. Installed a front dash cam with help from this forum and probably one of the easiest installs i have done
3. Relaxing to drive, i normally turn off 'stop/start' but this is seamless and the seats are very comfortable. getting use to the touch screen but voice control does most things you need to do...shame you cant instruct 'go to dynamic mode'
4. Tyre noise from the continentals fitted is prominant at times
5. The lane assist is so accurate it wants to follow every deviation of the lines so its only use will be motorways
6. The retractable towbar looks a great piece of kit, glad we had this and not the fixed flange we usually have

We have our first caravan trip this week, if it dosent go well im sure my overhalf will let me know....

[SnineT]

Regarding the lane assist, I found mine had a tendency to go for the chevrons and it will also follow the car leaving the motorway rather than plough straight on, I found the best use of it was to steer in a relax mode which is arm on the door card either using the rest or the top of the door with an un-gripping hand still holding the wheel but not fighting with it but just enough to stop the sensor detecting no hands, I believe this was the way Volvo intended it to be used rather than no hands,


With the fuel I found on a run the dash would under read, one trip I did showed like you a low 50's but the gauge and how much fuel I'd put in before going indicated more like 60-64 mpg,

The trick is don't rely on the assists, they are best used only if you understand their limitations, the adaptive for instance I found great until there was traffic, lane one has the 50-60 gang in it and you soon find yourself not making the progress you can where using lane two results in usually a German brand sitting on your legal backside @ 70 wanting to zoom by having closed on you at 80-90, then the crawler in lane one detects you overtaking and all of a sudden he's matching you at the 70 he couldn't find before, peepole eh,

Another long distance tip is to sling a bottle of inj cleaner in before you go, this might be a placebo but if you want a good steady clean a constant 1500-2500 rpm trip is an excellent way to do it.

EDIT, I also noticed that the speedo under reads by about 2-3mph, I found this out as I was overtaking using the 70-80 required to quick pass the 60-65er's when all of a sudden I spotted the van parked with it's sniper windows open, a few worried hours later I noticed I was set at 30 on cruise going past a speed reminder board and it indicated 27 & a thank you, this mean't time to get the cam footage out and sure enough the 75 I thought I might get clocked at was indeed 71-72 as I past the van, allowing for 10% + 2mph most counties allow you no letter arrived, I don't believe this affects the milometer though as both work on different levels.

[Ian0803]

53mpg is impressive, best so far for me is 49.8mpg on a gentle run to Heathrow.
For my typical longer journey, its between 46-48mpg with a 4000 mile average of 44.1mpg, so all good for a big car.
Not tried the pretend I am towing a caravan approach for improved consumption.

Mine came with Michelin Pilot Sport 4 SUV tyres and tyre noise is well suppressed on most road surfaces.

Coming from a BMW with IDrive, its a step backwards to have a touchscreen without the big adjustment wheel for easy navigation of the menu and settings. I particularly miss the ability to easily zoom in and out of the map to be able to see upcoming road conditions and a list of road issues

[volvocamper]

2B40CE12-68D0-4039-9D4D-6C254850B582.jpegGood summary, glad you like the car. We are on our 2nd xc90 (3rd actually as had a mk1 for 2009-2013). We tow a 2000kg twin axle caravan using the factory swing towbar and it is a great bit of kit. Its neat trick is a self test of the trailer lighting.
Do watch the towbar weight though, it is max 110kg which is a tad low.
I came from a 3.0 v6 Touareg and imho the xc9 diesel just gets on with the job and is more composed than the VW was (and that was vv good).

[neilgorin]

Originally Posted by SnineT

EDIT, I also noticed that the speedo under reads by about 2-3mph, I found this out as I was overtaking using the 70-80 required to quick pass the 60-65er's when all of a sudden I spotted the van parked with it's sniper windows open, a few worried hours later I noticed I was set at 30 on cruise going past a speed reminder board and it indicated 27 & a thank you, this mean't time to get the cam footage out and sure enough the 75 I thought I might get clocked at was indeed 71-72 as I past the van, allowing for 10% + 2mph most counties allow you no letter arrived, I don't believe this affects the milometer though as both work on different levels.

All cars underread.

I set the cruise to 77mph on motorways on my v60. A separate sat nav / phone app shows that to be consistently 72 or 73mph and massively reduces the "BMW up the backside" issue.

[MikeGMT]

Originally Posted by neilgorin

All cars underread.

I set the cruise to 77mph on motorways on my v60. A separate sat nav / phone app shows that to be consistently 72 or 73mph and massively reduces the "BMW up the backside" issue.

I think you will find that the speedometer always over-reads, ie, it can never show you going slower than your actual speed. There is a UK standard as to how much % is allowed over, this allows for tyre wear and pressure differences, I guess this is a slip of the pen, and what you actually meant.

Not sure about the BMW analogy though, if you have one up your a**e your not going fast enough.

[watto64]

First tow with the caravan went very well, kept looking to my left for a nod of approval from from the Mrs...
The BLIS is deactivated when the caravan electrics are connected, i had read somewhere about it detecting the caravan on sharp corners.
Used the adaptive cruise but not the lane assist as has been posted above it did indeed tried to follow a car up a slip road, that was after the adaptive cruise slowed us down because the muppet went from lane 2 to the slip road in one move..

Not done a proper fill to fill fuel test but the instant trip avarage started at 21mpg but was gradually inceasing to 27mpg after the 80 mile trip to the site of mainly motorway and some country lanes at the end.

[neilgorin]

Originally Posted by MikeGMT

I think you will find that the speedometer always over-reads, ie, it can never show you going slower than your actual speed. There is a UK standard as to how much % is allowed over, this allows for tyre wear and pressure differences, I guess this is a slip of the pen, and what you actually meant.

Not sure about the BMW analogy though, if you have one up your a**e your not going fast enough.

Sorry yes, they over read.

Except my 69 MGB which actually under reads by 2 mph, which I have to remember when I've not driven it for a little while.