XC60 - First Few Days' Impressions

[Ron 98]

Now that I’ve had my XC60 D5 for a few days, I thought it might be illuminating to post my initial impressions of it here.

First of all, the car was handed over to me with a faulty DAB radio module, a squeaky clutch pedal (caused by a badly-fitted pedal rubber, which I found and fixed myself), and without the cosmetic rear skid plate which is part of the Styling Pack. This all took some of the shine off taking delivery of my first Volvo.

The 205bhp D5 engine is a real grower. Having come from a 231bhp BMW 6-cylinder diesel my expectations weren’t high but I’ve found the Volvo engine to be very quiet when cruising and never intrusive, even when “flooring it” to pass slower traffic, when it feels comfortingly brisk. Aided by a nice, light gearchange the car is entertainingly “driveable” and feels sprightly in city traffic. Average fuel consumption with the 6-speed manual gearbox is around 38mpg to date, which I’m hoping will improve as the engine loosens up. Overall the car feels very quiet and refined.

The RTI satellite navigation system is really quite good. It offers full 7-character UK postcode input (unlike the distinctly average BMW Professional system) but has no address book feature and I think the spoken directions are a bit fussy, with the 400/200 yard instructions being so close together as to be irritatingly intrusive. More disappointingly, the real-time traffic warning system doesn’t seem hugely effective so far. For example, on a recent trip through central Edinburgh, it tried to take me through part of the tram track-laying worksite which has been closed to road traffic for many weeks; I expected the system to know about this notorious closure and to navigate around it. Also, the dinky little input buttons behind the right-hand side of the steering wheel are a little bit fiddly to use - a Lexus-style touch screen still seems to me to be the most effective way of working a satnav. But I’m getting used to it, just as I did with the BMW i-Drive system.

The Dynaudio stereo system with subwoofer set-up is very good indeed and I’m pleased I specified it. The USB connection works well with a 32GB memory stick, but doesn’t recognise my Creative Zen MP3 player (“unreadable”) – though I can of course play this via the Aux socket.

The bright green compass in the rear-view mirror is mildly distracting and, to my mind, pointless.

The electromechanical parking brake is easier to get used to than I’d expected it to be.

I can’t reach the centre of the roof to polish it! Perhaps I should have specified running boards instead of scuff plates…

The front end of the car is invisible from the driver’s seat, so I’m glad that I ordered the front park assist feature as well as the rear camera.

The difference between the three 4-C chassis modes (Comfort, Sport, and Advanced) appears very subtle. After a run through some of the twisty bits of the Scottish Borders today I have to wonder whether it lives up to its £1000 price tag.

All in all, I’m enjoying my XC60. It’s comfortable and quiet without being characterless, and I’m glad I bought it. If only it had all worked properly when the dealer handed it over!

[Pebble]

The compass can be turned off, there is a "reset" button on the bottom of the mirror. A short press with a paper clip in the small hole turns the compass off.