I may be coming back....any advice on XC60 spec

[Crockers]

Originally Posted by NigelDay

Heated steering wheel. Wouldn't be without it on a cold morning !
Also - at the risk of upsetting the AWD brigade (!) - do have a test drive in a FWD 8-speed geartronic (OK, I have a manual, simply my preference). It's as fast as a D5 AWD, more economical and cheaper. Leaves you some extra option money.

I had one as a loaner when mine was being serviced. Chalk and cheese against the AWD. Torque steer at junctions, coming off a roundabout understeered. OK you'd get used to it and feather the throttle..but on the AWD no need to. Yes FWD is less thirsty and performance is good as is thev8 speed box. But I would just go for an estate car if I wanted that.

As for options. Get the rear camera. Costs a fortune as an aftermarket fit and I wouldn't want a SUV without one. Also the lines curve to assist with parallel parking.

DSP. Once you have it you'd never order a car without it. Adaptive CC is great. The cross traffic alert very useful. Lane assist...not sure. Blind spot great especially on the continent.

[NigelDay]

Originally Posted by Crockers

I had one as a loaner when mine was being serviced. Chalk and cheese against the AWD. Torque steer at junctions, coming off a roundabout understeered. OK you'd get used to it and feather the throttle..but on the AWD no need to. Yes FWD is less thirsty and performance is good as is the 8 speed box.

I don't disagree with any of this. It also comes down to driving style. If you drive with 'enthusiasm' then AWD will win every day.
It's a pity there will never be a (current) XC60 AWD D4 VEA or a D5 with the 8-speed geartronic. If the former had been available I might have been tempted, but sadly the XC60 is now stuck in a time warp until the new model arrives. That's not a big problem for most people, and I'm still more than happy with my choice.

[drpepper]

Thanks for the continued opinions.

Sacrificing the AWD isn't an option for a number of boring reasons I won;t go into, with that in mind the D5 gearbox is a concern especially as I hated in in my MY11 XC90. Everything is 8 or 9 speed now, even my 2 year old C250 is 7 speed so it's a shame they couldn't mate the 8 Speed tot he D5 but such is life I guess.

I'm going to take a D5 and a Polestar D5 out on extended test drives so I'll get a decent impression on whether the gearbox is going to be an issue or not.

Regarding the Driver Support, I'm in the leave it camp at the minute, the rental I drove must have had this as it was bonging and flashing warnings all over the place every time someone pulled in front of me, probably some configuration to tweak the system and whilst I can see Q assist being useful It's not £1900 useful for me personally.

With all that in mind the current revised spec is:-

D5 AWD R-Design Lux Nav in White.
Family pack
Winter back with Bending Lights
Spare Wheel
Dark tints
Front & Rear Park
Rear Camera
Harman Kardon
Subwoofer

The last 3 pretty much add up to the same as the deleted pano roof so I'm not expecting to see a price difference but they seem better value for the £1200 in my view.

Cheers,

James.

[NigelDay]

Nice spec. Last three options are more useful than the pano roof. Do consider the heated steering wheel !

[Kev78]

Listen to the standard stereo.

I was pleasantly surprised. My brother had a 2011 c30 and the stereo in that was awful.

I have a SE lux nav and the sound isn't bad at all. Much better than a standard BMW system.

[drpepper]

I certainly will listen to the standard stereo, the one in the Merc is very good and I'd expect the same given the price but want to have myself covered if not, I'd rather remove spec and cost from my expectation than add it :-)

On another note and the Polestar v's Servicing offer, apparently it's the Polestar models (ie. V60 Polestar), that don't get the offer, an XC60 with Polestar upgrade would still be eligible. Makes sense and may help if anyone else stumbles across the same issue and this thread.

James.

[NigelDay]

Originally Posted by drpepper

I certainly will listen to the standard stereo, the one in the Merc is very good and I'd expect the same given the price but want to have myself covered if not, I'd rather remove spec and cost from my expectation than add it.

If you go HK audio, do get the subwoofer. It's a small extra cost and (probably) difficult to retro-fit. The subwoofer 'settings' are integrated into the audio menu.

[XCeed]

Originally Posted by drpepper

...with that in mind the D5 gearbox is a concern especially as I hated in in my MY11 XC90.

I don't think you need have any concerns about the XC60 D5 Geartronic. Mine is seamless and the car feels fast, smooth and nimble (albeit a bit course sound wise). I have been testing the d4 8-speed and quite frankly feel my D5 is smoother, especially at low revs.
The thing with the d5 is that it will be obsolete very soon - that may not worry you if you are of the opinion that you have the better engine!

[drpepper]

Becoming obsolete doesn't bother me, so it certainly doesn't bother me about an engine :-)

[xc60ed]

Having recently sold a new XC90 2.0 D5 and returning to a MY 2016 D5 5 pot XC60 I have no hesitation in recommending the old 5 pot and 6 speed geartronic. My plan is to keep this car for a long time as I have no faith in the new 4 cylinder diesels. The gearbox is fine as long as you push it over into sport when you want to make quick progress. That also turns off the stop/start so together with AWD means you can get away quick at roundabouts etc no matter what the weather.

Don't sacrifice the Pan roof as I've found it transforms the cabin and wouldn't be without it. Also the 20" Titanias look superb and the ride is still excellent in SE lux form. I really wanted the 20s so chose the SE lux as I found the R design harsh on 20s. All in all the D5 SE lux XC60 is a excellent car quick, comfortable and looks great in crystal white and Titanias.

I agree the standard stereo is good and much better than anything VAG I've had.