Bought V60 D6 Hybrid

[johng007]

Originally Posted by ThwartedEfforts

John can you say what wheel rim size your car has, and what car you had previously? The D6 has one of the worst resolved ride/handling balances I've ever encountered, and though it is something that surfaces as a complaint in almost every review I've seen, I thought I could live with it (aka put up with it). But it's bloody awful and I'm not sure I can.

18" I guess. 235x45/R18 Bridgestone Eco tyres. Am guessing/hoping I can do better when it comes to change to some all-seasons I am hoping to hear reviews of from this forum.
I can't even pin it down, slight vagueness and lack of self centering on completing a turn perhaps - but AWD modes do seem much better. I have not experienced steering suddenly becoming very heavy - would get that checked again if I was you. Also acclimatisation - during a long trip am not bothered by it. Passengers have no complaints - they all love the comfort due in no small part to the brilliant seats I guess. Have driven firm sport suspended cars for years so guess I am used to the slightly unsettled ride. I find it rides soft enough for my taste and the lack of body roll plus the AWD pulling away if I am in a hurry is also rather nice.
Previous car: Audi A4 3.0 Quattro Sport S-Line. Also had a bit vague steering.
BMW 335d M-Sport, Audi S4 Avant/SLK AMG prior to that. Good steering feel but very heavy in S4!
Bottom line, the car is fantastic so in my opinion the bit of steering vagueness is acceptable and only really noticeable when you jump between cars a lot. My other motor is a Honda Civic 2.2 diesel and that handles brilliantly like a go-kart in comparison but loses grip/spins wheels much more easily and it's ride is appalling!
But - a big but as previously mentioned, still on original Eco tyres so wondering what a good set of cross-climates might perform like? Any D6 owner changed tyres and wish to comment?

[johng007]

and just have to say .. .the VoC remote pre-conditioning this winter is brilliant! If you are ever speccing up a car and tempted to leave this off ... don't !

[blobert07]

I'm getting twin engine v60 lux any top tips would be appreciated if any. It's on a company car scheme as tax benefits were The driver of decision making.

Thx in advance.

[johng007]

Originally Posted by blobert07

I'm getting twin engine v60 lux any top tips would be appreciated if any. It's on a company car scheme as tax benefits were The driver of decision making.

Thx in advance.

Have you already ordered or can you still influence the spec?

[Sanzomat]

Hi All,
Had a V70 R Design from 2009 to 2012 so not new to Volvo. Just choosing my next company car and the D5 twin engine is looking a likely candidate. I know this thread is D6 but there isn't much on that on this forum that I can find.

So - questions - how restrictive is the boot size in real life - could a golden retriever fit?
Real world MPG? Assuming charge overnight at home but no charging point at work. 22 miles to work but not always in the office so some longer journeys, say 2 days out of 5. 20k miles pa typically. I guess diesel only MPG would be good to know as I can do the maths then to work it out for any EV range I might get.
EV only range in the real world? I'm guessing the claimed 32 would be more like 15 to 20?
I've been driving a Prius+ for the last nearly four years so I get the petrol hybrid thing (don't laugh its actually been a great car and has met all my needs, well mostly) I have a kit car for fun weekends so driving pleasure isn't a big issue for me - comfort/economy/low BIK tax is the main factor for the daily driver!

The Prius+ might have been a contender for a replacement as the big boot/occasional extra seats has been a real benefit but the 96 CO2 (new model is 101) means its BIK is too high going forward and I may want to tow things (kit car gets out on track days sometimes and having friends tow me home when I've broken it is using up too many favours!!

I'd like to hear from current V60 hybrid owners as to how they rate them/MPG/Boot space

[Tober]

Hi Sanzomat had the car 3 months now. Average EV range has been as good as mid 20's on runs combining country roads, A road and town driving. Diesel range high 40's. I have some issues with range reading but on longer journeys with very limited EV capability I am getting 50+ mpg
Smaller boot is a bit of a pain but compensated by fold-down seats. More problematic has been restricted space in terms of rear seats. Other than that no real problems. V good on longer motorway runs. Acceleration in power mode more than adequate.
Hope that helps,
Bruce

[johng007]

Hi, absolutely love my D6. It is a decently quick and amazingly comfy car.
EV range ... yep, never get the 31 miles. More like 20 but have seen up to 24 I think in the summer and having used the pre-conditioning. However most of my trips are 40-70 miles so I use the SAVE button quite a lot so I can do my congested crawly bits on electric.
On Diesel only, still very good IMHO at 48-50mpg for an AWD. Mostly I get more than that because of running in Hybrid Mode. Also on a long trip I tend to recharge the batteries when cruising at speed on diesel - am guessing not a lot of non-D6 owners know it can do that - pressing the SAVE button will always recharge you back to 12mile EV range and does it very quickly too when at speed.
Obviously when doing local runs, pretty much all electric except when I like to hoof it in POWER mode and always 100mpg+ then.
Charge on Economy 7 at night was ~60p from flat batteries, going onto new tariff which I think is a bit more.
Charge on bright days at home = free (10kw PV array).
Not very good at tracking down charging points away from home buts that's just me and the poor clients I work for .. and always satisfying when I do find one to plug into. ASDA has the charge points but my wife always wants to do Tesco instead ... grrr.
What I really like is having AWD on tap when you want it without the usual associated big drop in mpg.
Boot is shallow but that aside, quite practical so long as items you are packing are not too tall. Helped my son move house with it and swallowed rather a lot. Actually just the right size and height to accept our fortnightly supermarket run set of bags - no loading lip and just the right height to swing heavy bags in and out of.
I have had a factory towbar put on although not used it yet. Have a very heavy twin axle caravan to tow but currently wife's Disco pulls it so just got it for insurance. Check out the Caravan Club review online - D6 is a highly rated fab towcar because of the extra battery weight but also the AWD and the fact pulling away is always electric assisted. Very stable towcar apparently, only let down in reviews by initial purchase cost.
I have owned some pretty fancy high tech German cars over the years but for comfort, nothing has come close to my D6 except for my old V70R.
I would sell you my D6, but only for top dollar, never trade price and only because I would go and get another one..
Your retriever would fit in the boot I am sure but might have to stoop a bit!
I know the engine has extra special piston and cylinder coatings because of the stop-start stuff but in addition I always put in Shell V-Power+ or the new BP equivalent and most outings of any distance I give the car a good blast to reduce the chance of usual low-usage diesel issues ... gumming up and the like.

[Reynir]

I have the volvo v60 plug in hybrid 2015 model. and the the charging socket is stuck in the car.. have any of u been into that??? if u have culd u tell me stomhing about it? please respond

[DieselElectric]

Hoping you have this fixed, but I sometimes find after unlocking the car via the keyless entry, if I leave it a while with the charging cable connected, it relocks the cable. I have to resort to using the remote to unlock it again.

[ih8modem]

Originally Posted by DieselElectric

Hoping you have this fixed, but I sometimes find after unlocking the car via the keyless entry, if I leave it a while with the charging cable connected, it relocks the cable. I have to resort to using the remote to unlock it again.

Yeah this happened to me a few times. I've gotten used to unlocking only when I am ready to remove the cable now. Do you find that you have to lock and unlock, or just pressing the unlock button is enough ?

My wife works with a gent who also has a D5 TE and his cable keeps getting stuck. I asked her to ask him about his undocking sequence, as I am always doing :
unplug - Car then wall.
plugin - Car then wall.

This seems to work ok for me. At home I have a pod-point 7kW and if I unpug the wall first the pod-point locks itself up - hence the sequence I do.

His appears to be to power off the 16A socket (he has the fancy cable charger with 16A 3 pin socket, while I only have the type2 cable) then unplug from car.

Any idea which is actually the correct way ?