Volvo V90 D4 R Design - Owner impressions

[anotherv60]

Hi All,

Thought I'd give some first impressions on my new V90. I’ve had it for almost 2 weeks now and already racked up 700 miles - commuting, ferrying children to parties and the weekly shop. In the same vein as Jim (see his S90 first impression) I think it might be handy when people are searching forums for cars they're interested in to get some owner's views.

The car looks fabulous, drives really well and has loads of technology: in short I am very pleased with my purchase. This is the first car I have leased (Volvo PCH, £196 per month, 9 months deposit, 24 months, 8000 miles pa), all previous cars I have bought outright, and it’s definitely something I’d do again, assuming the price was right.

I’ve had a lot of colleagues ask about the car - it has turned a lot of heads in the work carpark, especially because unbeknown to me the Managing Director picked up a V90 T8 Inscription Pro the day my D4 R Design arrived… honestly, I had no idea! (mine looks better!)

Loves: Precise and comfortable ride in the R Design on the 18” wheels with the Pirelli P Zeros, very little wind or road noise.
The cabin is fantastic and comfortable place to be, the fit and finish is superb and the 12.3 inch driver’s display is fantastic. Seats are by far the best of any car I’ve been in.
LED headlights - Auto High Beam - not something I thought would really get excited about, but driving at night is fantastic with these.
The price!!

Good points: Sensus screen - it is fantastic once you get the hang of it, but I think Volvo need to copy audi/bmw on logical car settings, (more on that later).
Automatically-on heated seats (depending on outside temperature) work really well.
Room in the back for 3 full size child seats (2 are ISOFIX).
Boot divider/sorting and general boot space more than adequate.
Windscreen wipers with the washers built into the wipers - no more spraying the roof!
Pilot assist - this takes a little getting used to but the system works really well. It is fantastic in rush hour stop/go traffic.
Ecomode - the coasting function on an automatic transmission!
The D4 has plenty of get up and go even though it only has 190HP. There is a little delay in comfort setting when you want to go - surprising this isn’t the case in Eco, and in Dynamic mode there is nothing to worry about, except more fuel consumption.

The first 700 miles I have averaged 43mpg…this has climbed from 31mpg after the first 100 miles.

Mirror and seat positions, radio stations, wipers, heated seat preferences can be saved to the key so if your partner has a key it will change to those settings when the car is unlocked. It works really well on the one and only time we have tried this: I have a been selfish and hogged the driving.

Bad points: Rear parking sensors - the operation of them feels late - don’t get me wrong they work but a picture of the sensors at the back of the car on the sensus display is only shown if the sensors detect an object which means at first you think they don’t work! All other cars I have driven with these that can show an image of the car does so once reverse is selected.

Customisation - When you first get the car, the factory default is to turn everything off. The car will not remember your preferences, unless you store it to a profile and a key, but this is not obvious at all and did **** me off at first. For instance, the automatic electronic parking brake is set to off when the car is switched off by default! Pressing the auto parking button is only remembered until the car is turned off, that means the following day when you park up and expect the car to put the handbrake on it doesn’t… This can be fixed by saving the preference to the profile, but stuff like this shouldn’t need to be saved to a profile. Another example is the automatic wipers, unless they’re saved you have to turn on the automatic wipers each time you need them, thereby defeating the point of automatic wipers. In the Audi these are default on, assuming (somewhat logically) you want to make use of the functions. I think it is entirely possible people are driving around in Volvo V90s and don’t know half of the technology that is available because it is turned off by default. I’m sure most people’s first thoughts when they realise they have auto-dimming mirrors isn’t, “Oh, I must remember to go into the settings and activate that, then.” It’s more likely to be “The lying buggars! These mirrors don’t dim at all” (or - as my wife insists, “What the hell is wrong with normal mirrors?”…)

Conclusion: It is a fantastic car, and if you are considering one, you totally should! It is great, and somehow makes you more relaxed on the road. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a big car, but you can still have fun driving it, especially in R Design spec. The kids think its a “space car that drives its self and talks to you” They also love the automatic boot opening… although they have inadvertently kicked the car one too many times for my liking! I went for this model / spec because of the fantastic deal and missed out on some of the options that I thought I would like - i.e. Xenium, winter pack, Volvo on call,bliss etc but so far I haven't felt that I have made a mistake by not ordering these..perhaps time will tell and I'm sure if I had the above I'd be raving about them.

When the weather improves I’ll post some Photos, but comments / questions / thoughts more than welcome.

Another V60…maybe I need to change my avatar.

[pigglesberg]

Great write up!

Can't wait to get mine now. If you don't mind me asking, was that price including VAT? That's insanely cheap! I thought my deal was good which was £227 on 9+23!

[anotherv60]

Yes that was including VAT - it was too good to miss which is why I didn't get any options etc. A week after I got mine they had the T4 momentum for £159 per month, which is ridiculously cheap, I think it has been sold or at least it isn't being advertised anymore. Chesterfield Volvo somehow very cheap. £227 is still well worth it for the money in my opinion and you'll love the car.

[MCV60]

I agree great car. I’ve just put 4K miles on mine. A more comfortable ride in comparison to my previous V60, which seems so dated now.
My initial frustration with Sensus not syncing to my phone appears to have sorted itself. The car is very comfy, big enough and looks great. I just wish it had the 360 camera.

Yesterday whilst sat in traffic, I came across the interior reading lights are dimable by holding down the buttons and the windows have 2 speeds. Subtle touches

[Director76]

I hope you’ve got a good excess mileage rate - your 8k pa won’t go far at your current rate!! 😉

[dghdgh]

Call me old fashioned and an old Git but my biggest gripe is lack of a manual to read while my wife watches Emmerdale, Corrie and any other rubbish on TV. I look a bit odd sat out on the drive all night.

[pagan8c]

Originally Posted by dghdgh

Call me old fashioned and an old Git but my biggest gripe is lack of a manual to read while my wife watches Emmerdale, Corrie and any other rubbish on TV. I look a bit odd sat out on the drive all night.

You can download the full manual to a laptop or tablet from Volvo and read it to your hearts content . Unless of course you are too old fashioned to have 1 of these items lol.

[GJB]

Or you can buy one ask your dealer

[cheeseman75]

Great review and really useful, looking forward to my own V90 at the end of March

[cheeseman75]

Originally Posted by dghdgh

Call me old fashioned and an old Git but my biggest gripe is lack of a manual to read while my wife watches Emmerdale, Corrie and any other rubbish on TV. I look a bit odd sat out on the drive all night.

If you have an ipad the manual for this is amazing and includes videos as well built in, i have been reading this myself ahead of the cars arrival