Volvo still “committed” to four-cylinder engine plan

[Lexman8]

https://paultan.org/2017/03/17/volvo...r-engine-plan/

[familymangreg]

Originally Posted by Lexman8

https://paultan.org/2017/03/17/volvo...r-engine-plan/

I'm not convinced there are fuel economy gains as the article suggests, not in the real world.

:wq

[pagan8c]

I can see the point of less problems with using 1 standard wiring harness keeping overheads down and I think a lot of car companies are going this way as well. Personally I have no problems with the 4 pot engines. The V90 I have at the moment drives really well and is as quiet as my XC70 or even quieter. I take the point re fuel consumption but I believe there is a small advantage. I will have to see how my new XC90 D5 performs but it is bigger and more powerful than the V90, which is a D4 , so I expect it to be a bit more thirsty.

[Quacker]

If fuel economy was that much of a concern, their diesel engines would be fitted with SCR/Adblue and less EGR without the NOx lean storage catalyst. This would gain between two and four MPG Imperial over the current setup and probably at least equal the fuel economy of the Audi Q7 and Mercedes GLE rivals.

Its all about compromises and costs of production and, ultimately, corporate profit. Volvo has decided to make really good four cylinder engines without the complication of the Adblue system [for now], and it works very well, and so do the petrol engines. But while their fuel economy potential is impressive in historical terms, the figures are less so when compared with rivals today, especially from the German rivals mentioned who manage slightly better, from a V6 3.0 with more power in the Audi's case.

The compromises stack up for me though, and having previously been an Audi Q7 owner, for six years, and having another primary car for the last four, I decided on the Volvo purchase.

With barely a thousand miles on the clock, I'm already getting 38 mpg from my D5, which will probably improve as the car beds in over the first 15,000 miles to well over 40mpg on a reasonable journey. I'm happy with that and the performance of the D5, which is only part of what makes a good car.

[jmot]

be interesting to see if these 4 pots with high pressure turbo's etc stand the test of time engine stress wise especially with start stop thrown in too.

[Clan]

Originally Posted by jmot

be interesting to see if these 4 pots with high pressure turbo's etc stand the test of time engine stress wise especially with start stop thrown in too.

You could say that about 10 years ago when extra power was being squeezed out of more standard engines , however this engine was designed from scratch for 450 BHP + So it has lots of built in safety margins of course .
so if you start modifying these , who knows what you could get , 1000 bhp ? There is a row of 8 huge inlet ports along the front of the head , you could screw 4 x 40 dcoe Webers on there :-)

Stop/start has been with volvo now for about 7 years and no mechanical problems whatsoever ,so well tested too .

[mordred1973]

Its just a shame it sounds like a thrashing little supermini engine in a £50k car (don't get me wrong same applies to Discovery5 and X5 with their 4 cylinder engines)

Interestingly I see many of the motoring mags are saying on the Disco5 you may as well spend the extra money on the nice TD6 since the fuel economy is basically the same in the real world between the SD4 and TD6....

[jmot]

tbh tho given everyone including volvo is committed to having fully electric models making up a large chunk of sales by 2020 etc I think that by the time we end our term with our imminently due xc90 our next car will be electric. Thats what I hope...so keeping 4cyl when nearly all focus is going to electric makes sense.

[PhilS]

I've had my XC90 D5 Momentum for just over one week and in the 530 miles or so that I've covered so far my experience has been that it is a more refined car than the Disco 4 HSE it replaces.

In terms of fuel economy, it's definitely an improvement on the Disco - ranging from low 30s to low 40s and averaging somewhere in between. I'm driving as I normally would and since filling up I now have just over 1/4 tank remaining, having covered 431 miles on that tank so far. From memory, we used to average around 420 miles on a tank in the Disco, so definitely an improvement. Even more impressive considering that the XC90 has a smaller tank.

[Clan]

Originally Posted by mordred1973

Its just a shame it sounds like a thrashing little supermini engine in a £50k car (don't get me wrong same applies to Discovery5 and X5 with their 4 cylinder engines)

Interestingly I see many of the motoring mags are saying on the Disco5 you may as well spend the extra money on the nice TD6 since the fuel economy is basically the same in the real world between the SD4 and TD6....

but it is not thrashing , its doing about 1800 very smooth and quiet rpm at 70 ! In contrast a 1200 renault clio is doing nearly 4000 rpm at 70 mph