Agouti
Dropped off my 2011 S60 D5 AWD this afternoon for its service and was given a near new 2016 XC60 T5 FWD (base model) as a loan car. It's about an hours drive each way so it's a good test drive and I thought someone might be interested in my impressions.
First, the good
1. It's pretty quick, and doesn't need that much encouragement. Nice little blow off from the turbo too. Though the rated torque is (on paper) a lot lower than my D5 you wouldn't know it driving around. I was actually surprised when I checked and saw it was only 180kW - the lighter 2WD drivetrain and petrol flywheel would be helping quite a bit I guess. Does suffer from some traction issues but the understeer is not intrusive and you get lots of warning.
2. Fuel economy - surprisingly good and only a fraction worse than my D5. Admittedly it's 2WD not AWD but I still got down under 6L/100 in the 80km/h sections. Unsurprisingly it rolls really easily, on cruise control sections of downhill where mine stays at the same speed the XC60 sped up quite a bit. Rolling down from 100km/h you only lose 1km/h per second.
4. LCD dash - love it. Doesn't offer a huge amount more in a practical sense (satnav heads up turn info aside) but very cool. Other makes still do better versions, though I haven't seen the XC90 offering.
5. Frameless rear vision mirror - also love it. The auto-dimming is much improved, it dims at lower glare levels and is a lot more gradual. Looks nice too.
6. Side mirrors auto angle down when reversing also seems to be improved. Mine tend to angle in way too far. New ones are pretty spot on. No auto-dimming from the looks but I didn't miss it.
7. The 8 speed is as nice as you would expect. Still not 100% but pretty close, and the up changes are quicker and better than the geartronic with the torque coming reasonably fast but also without throwing you around like the early VW DSG does. There is a little bit of forward/back bounce with light throttle changes but if you weren't feeling for it you probably wouldn't notice.
8. Suspension is pretty spot on. Nice and compliant for quickly traversing speedbumps but hugs the ground well enough in the bends. It's not far off a X3 while being a far more comfortable ride.
9. Reversing camera performance at night is noticeably better. The reversing lines are kinda blocky and not as nice as earlier models though. Will attach comparison if someone cares.
10. Stereo is pretty good for the base spec (8 speaker high powered equivalent I believe). Would add a subwoofer still though.
11. New Bi-Xenons noticeably whiter and brighter. Could be age related. Wish I could have had a go with the new matrix LED on the XC90.
HOWEVER...
13. Torque steer. It's there and on gear changes it can be downright dangerous. Sure, it's not XR5 Turbo bad but I really expected Volvo to have that sorted by now. Putting your foot down to grab a small slot in traffic, especially around a roundabout, and it really gives the steering wheel a pretty sharp tug. The funny thing is winding out in, say, third, it will track pretty straight but when it drops into the next cog (even at 90km/h) you get a very distinct tug. Edit: after a few good tests of the loud petal the torque steer largely disappeared. It happened twice badly, once mildly in the opposite direction then couldn't be replicated again. I can only conclude electronic trickery and adaptation is involved and I was the first to push it.
14. Still a fair bit of engine noise. It could be deliberate, and it's got a reasonable note for a inline 4, but it's not much quieter than the D5 under throttle. Disregard. It's obviously been too long since I drove mine without the stereo going. D5 is way louder and across a wider throttle band.T5 only really becomes noisy above 2500rpm-3000rpm and is otherwise plenty quiet.
15. Road noise is still pretty prevalent on coarser surfaces, especially for nice new tyres (64dB vs 66dB in my S60 still with original tyres on a sample 100km/h stretch). The noise is a lot less harsh though. On fine and medium roads it's nice and quiet.
16. Still no automatic puddle lights or DRL when you lock and unlock, and no option that I could see to turn them on. The "See me home" still only controls the interior lights. Also still available by pressing the little lights button on the remote though.
17. Cruise control now goes in 5km/h increments with up and down (rounded). So if it's set to 77km/h, you press up, it goes to 80km/h. Press again, 85km/h. I much prefer older style where you can increment it by 1km/h. Not massively annoying but makes it harder to follow traffic with cruise control on. Wouldn't be an issue with the adaptive cruise control obviously.
18. Can't bring myself to like the stop start, especially as it only consumes a reported 1.7L/h when idling with AC (which stops with the engine as you would expect). Noticable shake when it starts and it jerks the car forwards a bit if you are trying to ease forwards. Leave stop/start for the hybrids I think.
19. Tends to dive a bit even under moderate braking and has a noticable bounce back when it comes to a stop.
20. Mirrors still make cheap sounding gear noises when folding in and out, though they seem to do it quicker. They also failed to auto fold out when I manually unlocked the car instead of relying on the PCC. Press of the mirror L/R buttons fixed it though.
Good and bad - tailgate opens a long way up, high enough to hit the stuff I have stored above cars in the garage. Also if you panic and fight the tailgate motor it won't accept that it was shut and will keep the tail lights on. Won't let you lock it, either, until you open the tailgate properly. Would be annoying for me but I'm sure others appreciate the extra height.
All in all I thought it was a pretty solid car for the $65k $58k (reduced) asking price, and I would take it over a Tiguan or an X3 without hesitation, especially with the extra boot space. Didn't think I'd ever seriously consider a 2 litre petrol engined SUV but it was surprisingly good. Don't think it would be much good for heavy towing and I would still probably option up to a D5 R-Design, even though it would mean losing the very nice 8 speed.
Also decided I need the same wood trim in my S60. Mandatory. Hope it won't cost as much as I think it will, though...
Agouti
This one is $65k and I believe it's the only marginally above the base "Selected by design" version. Almost the lowest spec you can get plus heated seats, wood trim and satnav. Lots of stuff is standard these days.
You can't get R-Design in FWD so can't speak to why his has no torque steer while this one does. Can't see any options for additional traction control for the FWD.
As I said it does track pretty straight under acceleration, it's mainly at the gear changes and in 1st (possibly over bumps) where I felt it. It wasn't subtle either.
Edit: maybe the larger wheels help with it?
Edit2: mirrors still make that cheap sounding plastic gear noise folding in and out.
Edit3: Tried to make it torque steer on the way into work and the under the same circumstances it seemed a LOT less prevalent. I only managed to get it to do it properly once and it was to the left, not the right, when it started to break traction on a merging lane. Its almost as if it is learning and compensating with the PS. More testing required (poor thing).
Agouti
That's interesting regarding the Driver Support Package. Going through the (mobile) website it lists more or less depending on where you find it and it doesn't specifically call out improved traction or the upgraded anti-roll system which I believe it also contains (standard in R-Design). Suspect they don't want to make it obvious you are missing safety related features.
I wouldn't be surprised if the thing adapts and automatically counters torque steer (might require speed sensitive steering system, though?), it would be easier to build it that way than design suspension to be immune. I'm probably the first person to really give it some welly so it could explain why the first instance was so bad but has seemingly gotten better.
Also worth noting that despite my abuses its still averaging 7.0/100.
