Car was at the dealer to fix my AC and i was loaned a brand new xc 40 B5 (25 miles)
Initial impressions was the car looked absolutely stunning, it was metallic white, looked so beautiful.
The interior was OK, i feel because it was a base model that the interior felt a little lacking for the Volvo brand. it didn’t wow me like it did when i first stepped into my s60, maybe coming from the r-design it just felt lacking in comparison, it was comfortable at least.
cons:
I didn’t like the shifter, it took some getting use to and some confused pauses for parking gear, its a button.. i did get more use to it after a few days but i wouldn’t recommend resting your hands on it like i did, inadvertently went into neutral a few times just waiting at the stop light. not realizing and just revving the car.
the rear view camera was annoying, such a tall screen and it barely took half of that to display the rear camera, also the camera was positioned in a weird area so that half the actual camera view only saw a black body panel and not the actual street view. so even less view of what you need to see.
base sound system is terrible, i tried everything i could to get the BOOM from the system and the only way to do it was to turn the bass and woofer all he way to down and then it just sounded muffled. the bass or treble was so bad it was when either hit a certain decibel it would actually cut off frequency, it sounded like a crossover just activated on the beat, very jarring.
The brakes were really really weird and it felt like at first it wasn’t working. the first thing I noticed was that the brake pedal would stop actuating, it moves a bit then just stops. so it gave me the sense that this was all the pressure i could apply! finally i realized it worked by how much pressure you put into your own foot, it was like stepping on something immobile and the harder i pressed and put pressure into my own leg was what made it brake harder. it felt like a pressure sensor more than it did traditional brake fluid pressure.
the child seat hooks in the corner of the rear seats were positioned way to far, i could barely get the child seats on, like i didnt have enough strap length, finally got them on by sitting in the seat to press it down, and it didnt have much readjustments to make them tied completely down either. never had this happen in any other car. pro-tip if you have this same problem what i ended up doing was hooking the latches upside down, what i mean is you would latch it the opposite orientation of the picture with the “fangs” pointing up. seems the latch hook is positioned up too far.
maybe because it was a base trim but the options and settings were very minimal on the screen, no option i could see to turn off stop start, which i dont personally dont like but in this case you cant turn it off or i couldn’t find the settings. and on one occasion i had the car turn off on me when i was still listening to the radio with the engine off. felt like a phone shutting its screen off from an idle timer..
i can see everyone’s grip about the android OS. i will admit maybe i didnt have enough time with it and coming from sensus, felt like downgrade. wont go further into it other than that it looked not as refined.
pros:
mild hybrid is awesome! acceleration was pretty amazing and i gota say for a tall car cornering was really good. that extra torque from the hybrid starter/motor was a nice touch on the second half of a turn, really wish i had this in my car to add to acceleration. it really is such a cool and innovative feature to me.
like i said the car looks so good, def got a few looks and glances in this.
gas mileage was pretty good from the 5 days i had it. filled up only once halfway and when i returned it. and i drove maybe 300 miles? rough est.
the 360 camera for parking is much better on this than my s60, hard to explain but i feel like the image was clearer and more precise. despite the rough rear view image.
sorry i got more gripes with it than anything, it just happens to be the things that jump out at you the most and i feel the positives come with time.
im guessing it would be much nicer on a higher trim??