Care by Volvo (Car Subscription)

[auzwa]

I just wanted to post my experience using Care by Volvo car subscription as I haven't seen too many post's about it online.

I'm an Aussie Currently living in London and not sure how long my wife and I will be in the country so we decided we wanted a car so we could get out and about and see the UK while we can. We were spending a small fortune renting cars and came across Care by Volvo and Pivotal (Jaguar's subscription model). Seemed like a perfect fit, get a brand new car, don't have to worry about tax or mot, when we're done, drop the car back.

To be fair, I'm not the average buyer as I my main concern was about getting a car quickly, looking at Volvo I could get a MY22 XC60 B4 R-Design in 4 weeks. I'd have love to have had a chance to modify the car, but anything not ready to ship was going to be 8-9 months, so I placed the order for the XC60.

I placed the order on the 25th Jan, had the paperwork, background check, hire agreement done within 2 days and the car left for the dealership on the 27th. I downloaded the Volvo app and saw the car as at the dealership on the 1st. I emailed them on the 2nd and they said the car was being prepared and was awaiting all of its mechanical preparation and I could pick it up on the 6th.

Went out to the dealer yesterday, signed some papers (about 5 mins). Then was taken to the car for the handover, got to pull the cover off, about another 10 mins of instructions and was on our way.

So all in from the moment I started the process to picking up the car it was 12 days, way quicker than I thought it was going to take.

The car drives super nice, pilot assist is a game changer in London traffic, the 20" rims ride a little harder than what i'd usually go for and the B4 could definitely be quicker, but the seats more than make up for all of that, my god they are good. I'm an Android and Spotify user, and I was definitely worried about the AAOS (having read all the reviews), but logging in and having the maps in the gauge cluster is awesome and Spotify seemed to work just fine (would love to be able to download songs/episodes however). Time will tell if the system stays bug free, but did come with the 1.9 dealer software update and didn't see any gaps around the TCAM. Hoping RingGo can get an app into the Playstore quickly as that would be awesome.

Went straight for a drive to Dunelm to pick up a rug for the missus and then The Royal Standard of England for a Sunday roast (cracking spot and amazing food)

All in all, really happy with the service and will update the thread as time goes on.

[SignumGB]

Nice looking motor.

[sda2489]

Christ that roast beef looks the bomb.......

Car is nice too!!

What you paying, may I ask? 700 odd?

[auzwa]

Originally Posted by sda2489

Christ that roast beef looks the bomb.......

Car is nice too!!

What you paying, may I ask? 700 odd?

The roast was legit one of the best I've had.

I'm paying 810 because i'm an idiot and didn't understand how far 1200/miles a month is, hoping I can reduce that as I doubt i'll put 15k miles on the car this year. The base is 749, 659 if you take a longer minimum period.

[SignumGB]

Originally Posted by auzwa

The roast was legit one of the best I've had.

I'm paying 810 because i'm an idiot and didn't understand how far 1200/miles a month is, hoping I can reduce that as I doubt i'll put 15k miles on the car this year. The base is 749, 659 if you take a longer minimum period.

£810 per month?!!

[Forg]

I'm surprised more manufacturers haven't yet done this. Subscription services very much looked like the near future for a large proportion of new cars, 3-5 years ago.

[Frankiee]

I’m looking at C40 Recharge on the subscription scheme, only need it for 12months and it’s a really simple (and tax efficient way) to have a car. I’ve also got a MY22 XC60 B5p with just over 10000 miles on it now.

[auzwa]

Definitely not cheap, but serves our purposes, as I mentioned in the OP, not the average buyer. When we first arrived in the UK we bought a £4000 car that just had problems after problems. Decided that if we have 9 months left in the country, we were happy to pay to have a new car and not have to deal with maintenance, taxes, mot, paperwork.

Would i do it if we were planning on having the car for more than a year, probably not, but I think we'll get more enjoyment and less stress out of this than say buying a 10yr old £7000 car, dealing with any issues that may arise then having to try and sell the car when we leave.

[SignumGB]

Originally Posted by auzwa

Definitely not cheap, but serves our purposes, as I mentioned in the OP, not the average buyer. When we first arrived in the UK we bought a £4000 car that just had problems after problems. Decided that if we have 9 months left in the country, we were happy to pay to have a new car and not have to deal with maintenance, taxes, mot, paperwork.

Would i do it if we were planning on having the car for more than a year, probably not, but I think we'll get more enjoyment and less stress out of this than say buying a 10yr old £7000 car, dealing with any issues that may arise then having to try and sell the car when we leave.

Yeah if its short term then fair enough and you have peace of mind too. I finished paying my car off last month. Got rewarded with a failed clutch this month so off it goes to the garage for repair. Been pretty reliable so hopefully nothing else in the near future.

[andrewpain]

Originally Posted by auzwa

I just wanted to post my experience using Care by Volvo car subscription as I haven't seen too many post's about it online.

I'm an Aussie Currently living in London and not sure how long my wife and I will be in the country so we decided we wanted a car so we could get out and about and see the UK while we can. We were spending a small fortune renting cars and came across Care by Volvo and Pivotal (Jaguar's subscription model). Seemed like a perfect fit, get a brand new car, don't have to worry about tax or mot, when we're done, drop the car back.

To be fair, I'm not the average buyer as I my main concern was about getting a car quickly, looking at Volvo I could get a MY22 XC60 B4 R-Design in 4 weeks. I'd have love to have had a chance to modify the car, but anything not ready to ship was going to be 8-9 months, so I placed the order for the XC60.

I placed the order on the 25th Jan, had the paperwork, background check, hire agreement done within 2 days and the car left for the dealership on the 27th. I downloaded the Volvo app and saw the car as at the dealership on the 1st. I emailed them on the 2nd and they said the car was being prepared and was awaiting all of its mechanical preparation and I could pick it up on the 6th.

Went out to the dealer yesterday, signed some papers (about 5 mins). Then was taken to the car for the handover, got to pull the cover off, about another 10 mins of instructions and was on our way.

So all in from the moment I started the process to picking up the car it was 12 days, way quicker than I thought it was going to take.

The car drives super nice, pilot assist is a game changer in London traffic, the 20" rims ride a little harder than what i'd usually go for and the B4 could definitely be quicker, but the seats more than make up for all of that, my god they are good. I'm an Android and Spotify user, and I was definitely worried about the AAOS (having read all the reviews), but logging in and having the maps in the gauge cluster is awesome and Spotify seemed to work just fine (would love to be able to download songs/episodes however). Time will tell if the system stays bug free, but did come with the 1.9 dealer software update and didn't see any gaps around the TCAM. Hoping RingGo can get an app into the Playstore quickly as that would be awesome.

Went straight for a drive to Dunelm to pick up a rug for the missus and then The Royal Standard of England for a Sunday roast (cracking spot and amazing food)

All in all, really happy with the service and will update the thread as time goes on.

"A rug for the missus"?
Sounds like a good swap to me...taxi!