LILBENZ230

I didn't see that Swedespeed had a lot of activity, but I might join.

Since it is a flex lease, basically, and who knows if I'll keep it 5 months or 2 years, I won't be doing anything to it.

I pick it up tomorrow.

LILBENZ230

When I reserved it online it said 2 weeks delivery, it arrived exactly 14 days later. The dealer had all paperwork ready and took less than 15 minutes.

Volvo app is way better than MercedesMe.

Only driven it 200 miles so far.. first drive I thought oh boy I’ve messed up. Come to find out the dealership had not adjusted the tire pressures and they were significantly over-inflated from shipping (let me put on my big surprised face). Odd that Volvo uses low line speed sensor based TPMS, which shows green dots at each wheel but no pressure. Adjusted them appropriately and the ride/noise issues went away.

So many audio settings including a full blown equalizer means tweaking the harman/kardon audio is taking a while.

It’s good, though. Really good.

kajtek1

We bought only 1 new MB, back in 1997 and the salesman had obligation to spend 1 hr walking us thru new technology.
Still remember his story about potential customer asking about cupholders. W163 was first generation of US models with build-in cupholders, still when the salesman said it has 4 the female customer walked away.

LILBENZ230

Alright so 650 miles in and 11 days.. looks like this will be a 4 month test drive. I don't regret selling the W212, but I don't know what is next either.

If you're thinking of Volvo, allow me to encourage you to look elsewhere.

pierrejoliat

What did you think about the XC60? wonder if it rides better. Also the wagons are pretty nice I know a girl who has one and she likes it, the one without the lift kit (cross country?]

Arrie

I read somewhere before that it is a law in US that the TPMS must show the actual tire pressure that is different from other countries. Have they changed the law?

Left Coast Geek

they've probably changed the rules, but I think it was my 2008 Tacoma that just had low/OK, without any idea what that meant, nor did it show you which wheel was low. drove me nuts when I dropped the all terrain tires to 20 PSI to traverse some mud and snow. oh, the first time it went off, it was the spare whihc hadn't been touched since the car was new (shortly after that I replaced all 5 tires with new BFG KO2 All Terrain's since although it had less than 20K miles, the tires were 8 years old and we had plans to do a bunch of desert offroading)

kajtek1

The law requiring TPMS on cars come in USA in 2006.
My 2008 E class had TPMS who would not show the values, but would trigger the low pressure alarm.
My 2015 Sprinter 2500 has the same system Funny as scanners can read not only the pressure, but temperatures as well.
Than my 2015 Sprinter 3500 (dually) come with no TPMS.
Commercial truck and vans have lesser requirements than passenger cars.

ygmn

WHY?
What sucks with new Volvos?

DFWdude

My wife's 2014 Sonata has TPMS that identifies which tire is low when it alerts. But that's all. No actual pressure value.

KEY08

There is no requirement to show actual psi values that I am aware of. My daughters 2015 Honda Fit only lights up a warning. That’s it Doesn’t even tell you which tire is causing the warning

kajtek1

What sense is to install advanced sensors and don't make display reading the values of them?
I drive on chromed wheels and about 4 times a year I need to add some air. Scrolling the screen during drive sure beats getting dirty on your knees in the garage.

LILBENZ230

To answer the TPMS question, there are no real sensors in the wheels. The car is using wheel speed sensors to determine if a tire is low based on rotation speed. This is not a good implementation, especially at this price, but in this case it does at least tell you which tire is suspect. Mazda used this system as well up to at least the latest redesigns and they would not tell you which tire at all.

To answer what is wrong with this thing.. it is really unfortunate. It's good in basically every way, but the transmission programming for the Aisin 8-speed is the worst programming I have ever experienced in any car I've ever driven. Accelerate even with moderate intensity from a start, and the 1->2 and 2->3 upshifts take so long that the car has a huge loss of momentum during the gear change. So much so that the car itself will actually pitch forward as though you quickly jabbed the brake. Accelerate lightly to drive around this flaw and it is OK, but I shouldn't have to do this.

This is not exclusive to this XC either, as my friend's V60 does the same thing. Only thing is that I have never really done anything more than putt around in hers and it was not noticeable.

Arrie

I may remember this wrong. I now realized that the 2004 Tahoe that I had did not show tire pressures but it did have pressure sensors in each tire. Resetting the sensors was a procedure where you had to let air out from each tire in certain order for the car to learn the sensors.

I think what the rule in the U.S. is that the tire pressure must be measured and not rely on radius difference between tires to detect low pressure, like is done I believe in the whole rest of the world.

Actual pressure reading is very good as it sees all tires that could be low at the same time. Difference from tire radius would not see this condition as there is no radius difference to see if all tires are equally under pressurized.

kajtek1

The radius comparison for determination of tire pressure happened about 2005 and did not last.
All my MB starting with MY 2008 had actuall pressure sensor, reading temperatures as well, when you use a scanner.

KEY08

yes, I believe you are correct. Rotation speed of individual tires is also the case in Canada as the rest of the world. US requires the in-tire sensor system.

ygmn

wheel speed to determine tire pressure seems well prone to errors.
I can see where it can see one is flat and wheel speed way different then others...

but from day to day,load to load mix and match tires etc... I cannot see that being effective in the purpose of the these things which is to prevent the SUV from rolling over when a tore goes down
Search FORD back in early 2000-2005 I tjhink

S-Prihadi

I also got the Tire Pressure Warning only using the wheel travelled distance vs diameter x rotation to calculate air loss, not the one with real transmitter from all wheels and proper PSI/BAR reading.
It is a slow system, but worked at -5 psi air loss.
Not that I lost 5 psi from a leak, but one day after I used it at the track where I set 39psi rear and 37 front , I reduced it back again after track use to 34 rear 32 front and forgot to reset the warning system.
Take about 1-2 KM of travel before alert trigerred, as User Manual indicated.

I don't know what is the threshold in psi reduction to trigger the alert, but 5 psi is quite alright, but 2.5 psi would be better.

cleanerPA

There must be something wrong with that car. I've driven several XC60s and V60s now as loaner cars and never had a complaint about the transmission. The T5 cars are slow, but quite responsive and the trans works quite well. I have a V70R, so I'm used to a bit more power than that.

There is no comparison between any Volvo and the E550, though- the Benz is a much better car for me than any Volvo in the last 20 years. The only thing that would have been nice is if they offered an E550 as a wagon here in the US- that would be ideal.

atraudes

I drove a new V60 as a rental earlier this year and it was extremely good looking, functional, practical and pretty comfortable. The engine noise, though, was unpleasant and the performance overall left a lot to be desired. Before turning it on, it was very impressive and felt very well built. Once I started driving, it felt like I was driving a Focus. I do remember the transmission being finicky and clumsy.

Left Coast Geek

i liked Volvos inline 5 and 6 cyl engines, but now they are all 4 cyl turbos

mbvolvo92

That's why I'm holding onto my 5-cylinder wagon as long as I can!

LILBENZ230

This cannot be true as of the 2021 model year. This 2021 XC and bff's 2021 V60 both have plain old rubber valve stems and no physical TPMS sensors. Same for the current MX-5 Miata - we had a 2018 and my parents had a 2019, both with no actual sensors just wheel speed based. Is this going to be a requirement starting in 2022 or something?

I've put a few hundred more miles on the XC now and the wonky transmission behavior has mostly subsided. Not sure what was going on there for the first 600 miles or so.

cleanerPA

If you had weird transmission behavior for the first 600 miles on a brand new car, it might be the adaptation. The car needs to learn how you drive so it can react properly to your inputs. Hopefully, you're happy with it once you've had it for a few thousand miles. If not, you can always go back to a Benz!

My V70R I've owned since new, 2004 Memorial Day weekend. 175k miles later, it's still a good car, just requires a lot of upkeep, espeically in suspension bits. It has a really antiquated 5 speed that is nowhere near as nice as the Benz 7 speed, which is the reason why I liked my C300 quite a bit (also being trouble-free for 92k miles), and the impetus to switch to an E550.

LILBENZ230

I have notified Volvo of my intent to cancel the subscription effective October 1. Twice in 1,000 miles now it has been unable to put power down at all when I needed it. Both times I was met with revving engine and significant slipping. Maybe it's broken? If I had bought it (I would never buy a Volvo personally) then I'd be - pardon the pun - gearing up for a fight with a dealer about "cannot replicate" and stuck with a car that pisses me off almost every drive.

My automotive motto has always been life's too short to buy the same car twice. I've owned a ton of cars, but only ever gone against that one time - for the W204. I bought a 2011 pre-facelift C300 and a 2014 facelift C350. I didn't really like the 2011 and gave the W204 a second chance, and the C350 was much better. The E350 was even better, but the W212 is not a car I will buy a second time. For now, Mercedes has nothing I'm particularly interested in. So, I'm going to pick up my third example of the only car I've ever liked enough to own 3 times - a 2nd generation Kia Soul.