The salesman was in Irvine for a couple of days in EX90 training, and my test drive was the first one for the dealership!
Being the first customer, I got to keep the car for over an hour, including freeway runs, a test run to my home, two car seats with both kids and my wife in the car, etc. I put it through its paces for “everyday life” (as it relates to me).
I won’t go over the whole experience because I’d just be echoing what other reviewers have already said, and what others on this forum that work at Volvo dealerships have noted. I found all of what others have said to be generally accurate.
Some notes that stood out to me:
- It was very quiet. I’ve driven the XC90 since 2016, and its night-and-day. My other car is a BMW X5 45e, and it was at least as quiet when the BMW is in electric mode, and perhaps even quieter on city roads. I was very relieved because it has been my one gripe with the ’17 XC90 I drive, particularly wind noise on freeways.
- Highway driving had very obviously less wind noise around the A pillar and from the engine bay — something I otherwise hear every day on the XC.
- The dimensions and general geometry were instantly familiar. If you drive an XC90, you’ll feel right at home. It felt like my current car, but more modern in every aspect.
- The air suspension was at least as good as what I’m used to on my XC90 and X5. I have specific bumpy roads that I’m familiar with for suspension test drives and it passed with flying colors.
- Electric third row was a very welcome addition. When folded down, everything felt familiar — seemed at par with the XC90 so I know right away all my usual stuff will fit in the configuration I have already committed to memory for various types of trips.
- The smaller screen instrument cluster screen was something I was concerned about, but I found it OK. I set it on the mode that showed other detected cars around me, and it did highlight a bright yellow whenever a car was in my blindspot on either side. When I first saw that I was afraid they removed the blind spot indicator from the side mirrors but was relieved to find that they were still there! In my opinion, that’s where the eyes should be as long as humans are still driving vehicles.
- The door handles from inside have pinch points and I pinched my finger while opening the door already. It’s a little piece of metal that you lift UP to open, exposing pinch points on either side when that metal grab handle is released to let it sit back in its spot. Something to build some muscle memory to not repeat. I have never in my life been pinched by an interior door handle before, so it was a bit jarring!
- We lost the ‘hidden’ spot to put sunglasses and such near the driver’s left knee.
- One pedal driving could, thankfully be turned off. It had three modes of operations – Off, Auto (only does regen braking when behind a car) and Normal (regen braking activates whenever you release the accelerator). I don’t like the push-pull sensation of one pedal driving so will start with Off, but probably learn my way to Auto.
- You better not expect to make any sort of adjustments while on the road. I spent a long time making all kinds of adjustments (seat, steering wheel, side mirrors, etc.). and came to the conclusion that for the sake of my safety and everyone elses, its best to have it dialed down prior to driving, and only make adjustments at stop lights. As has been discussed by others, the options are enabled by the touch screen and use the same d-pad buttons on the wheel to make the adjustments. Even the side view mirrors are adjusted this way.
We had an awkward moment when I asked to see high beams / full headlights on the car and wanted to see the DRL physically move out of the way to expose the headlights. This did not happen. I saw the headlights lit up BEHIND the DRL bar that was supposed to move of the way. It could be operator error (the salesman had just been trained the previous day) but I told him I’ll be back to check on this later but it does concern me a bit.
It’s tough to tell in the photo but the headlights were trying to illuminate the ‘back’ of the DRL bar, and the DRL bar didn’t move out of the way. I’ll be back next week to ask about this again as they hadn’t operated the car at night until then to confirm things.
Overall, I’m keeping my preorder and looking forward to it. This one didn’t have B&W which I have spec’d out in mine, and I’m confident that will sound sublime given how quiet the drive as and how nice the HK sounded.
I WILL be going back to ask about the DRL issue though.
Some more photos follow.
Power third row
Pinched index finger!
