BBS wheel designed for EV.

https://bbs-japan.co.jp/en/fortega/

Nowadays, unfortunately 19" is the minimum to get the good UUHP tyres for road use. Track use still got smaller options.

Soon 20" will be mainstream, again unfortunately by all the EV makers... new comer or traditional car makers both guilty for the trend.

Long range is a more practical choice?

What would be the pros and cons for s60

It's on the list due to liking the design of it

no other alternatives?

Tesla, low running cost, no need scheduled maintenance.

yeah for most ppl... is plenty, even SR is more than enough...

go test drive first... you're the one gonna live with it... i dunno what is worst, regret buying or didn't buy...

Poor resale & aftermarket support.
The parts are expensive (More expensive compare to equivalent BMW & Merc models) especially after warranty ends, if you want to buy Volvo only car model to intro now is to get the EV range and if you that kind of person always change car every 5 years then go for it.
The rest especially the hybrid series dont touch, seen a lot of expensive repairs due to hybrids special components.

This post has been edited by littlefire: Jun 4 2024, 09:26 AM

I see you put 190k used, I assume you are looking at MY2020 or 2021 model, with 420hp aka 87hp ERAD (rear motor).

Mine is first batch CKD with 250km/h speed cap, and has paddle shifter.

Beware long review

Acceleration
- 420hp only available up until 160km/h. After that ERAD shut off, left with only 333hp pure ICE.
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xe_Juj9qZQw -> see 1:07, pay attention to the center Sensus screen. The blue line that indicates power to ERAD disappears.
- As a result 200km/h to 250km/h is slowwwww... if you try to chase M340i or C43 past 200km/h, don't stance a chance. Still much faster than 330i though
- Try to chase Model 3 Performance, will be hopeless for first 20-30min. Only chance is wait for the Tesla to throttle power (Battery, Motor overheat, depends on tyre might also losing grip)... lol.
- But Malaysia don't have Touge that can sprint constantly longer than 30min

Paint
- Top notch, use premium Glasurit paint and good thickness. As body shop guy about Glasurit.

Engine
- The VEA engine very strong due to some OLD tech. Yes, it is 11 years old engine platform with small incremental update over the years.
- The direct injection pressure of 250 bar was among industrial first, but today 300bar is common. BMW already using 350 bar.
- The engine block is aluminum with cast iron sleeves, also support petrol/diesel, it is very strong and has capacity exceed 500hp.
- Latest aluminum engine from BMW, Nissan etc already eliminated the sleeve, and use silica coating instead.
- Heard some supercharger reliability issue for XC90 in other country, but never have any problem myself nor anyone I know
- Overall very reliable, never have any repair since new. Only maintenance once a year.

Transmission
- This is the weakest link of the car. Many people said oh it it Aisin from Toyota = reliable. Totally opposite.
- The key to judge reliability is designed capacity vs level stress the component is subjected to.
- The Aisin 8AT designed for 470-480nm (depends on what document you read). If you have Polestar tune 430nm, the margin to capacity limit is just shy of 10%.
- I personally know an acquaintance who use XC90 as sales car Penang <-> KL. Any opportunity he floor the car. The transmission started to slip in about a year.
- So you can do occasion fun drive, no problem. If daily whack the car, expect the transmission to fail first.

- Between gear 2 <-> 3, one of the planetary gear set has to reverse spin direction. Thus with manual shifting 2 <-> is always slow.
- On top of that, the rev hang is also very strong in 1, 2, 3. Meaning when you upshift, the engine RPM will stay a while before drop. This is for NOx reduction.
- This is not perceivable if you let the car auto shift, the computer logic hide it well.
- The shifting is smooth all gears with the CISG (the motor between engine and gear box) all be to fill in 150Nm during the empty gap between 2 gears.
- Overall the transmission software is very conservation. If you like fast shifting, get a BMW.... lol coming from a Volvo owner...

Brake
- Brake feel is normal despited brake by wire + physical hybrid by Continental. All the bad brake feels come from the older reviews. I've driven older S90 that released before the S60, really non linear, weak then suddenly like bang the wall.
- The brake system has very good heat capacity.
- Front rotor is 345mm 32mm thickness. Rear is 320mm with 30mm thickness. Both are ventilated.
- Brake pad is rated HH meaning both low temp and high temp (>400 degree C) are rated friction ~0.5.
- The friction is even higher than Endless MX72 Plus, or Dixcel Z Type. Of course those are rated 700 degree C, 800 degree C respectively.
- Those that tracked the car (from SwedeSpeed forum), the brake handles feedback constant 500 degree C has no problem with factory brake.
- But you can expect with this type of brake, crazy amount of brake dusts. Make sure you either enjoy cleaning the wheel, or never bother with rustly looking wheel.

- Price is RM700+ for just front brake pad. About RM1200 for the front rotors. Expensive? To me you pay what you get.

- The front caliper is single piston, with piston area 28mm^2. This is equivalent to 56mm^2 if push from both sides, if we consider the travel depth.
- So the factor master brake pump can easily push many 6 pots caliper if you consider to upgrade the brake. For your reference, AP9660 and Endless Mono 6 TA both total piston area around 50mm^2.
- In fact the brake pedal travel is reduced vs most car have to press deeper after upgrade the brake caliper.

Handling (including suspension, AWD review)
- The suspension is very very stiff if you come from Japanese car background.
- Might not be 330i sport suspension stiff, it is still stiffer than most continental cars on the market. Make sure test drive it.
- It is comfort enough to filter small rattle like brick roads. But you can clearly tell the yellow speed reduction line, the red one is awful.
- On the mild offroad, heavy rain the Constant AWD is awesome. The car is super stable.
- On the handling department, the reactive time can't compete with the mechanical AWD especially the Torsen diff AWD.
- The feeling is like initial turn-in understeer, then the rear kick in to rotate the car more.
- On mid-high speed corner, the handling is good, hide the weight well, surprisingly agile.
- On the slow-mid speed corner, 50-60km/h and below you will definitely tell the weight, and turn-in is sluggish.
- I put a set of SportContact 7 tyres that greatly reduce the delay.

Active Safety + Driver assistance
- First class ACC. Butterly smooth
- Pilot Assist 2 is very matured. In tunnel, out tunnel, all the sudden brightness change never affected the system
- Pilot Assist 2 is true self centering, basically you get Tesla's basic Auto Pilot minus the sharp corner slow down. It can handle normal highway curves.
- ACC/PA2 uses rear brake exclusively. If you use it all the time rear brake will wear faster than front.
- Seat belt pretensioner use electric motor (normal car has small finger size explosive, and is one time use, so won't be deployed unless airbag going to be triggered).
- This reusable seat belt pretensioner is sometime annoying if you drive very hard, if you fly over the bump it will "strangle" you, lol
- On coming car detection, run off road mitigation are industrial first, now other premium brands have similar.

Annoyance
- Very conservative "kiashu/kiasi" software throughout.
- I got blank front camera once (bug), then it subsequently disabled 360 camera entirely. All came back after off car lock/unlock.
- when car is very dirty it will prompt you to wash the car, at worst case it will disable the ultra sonic sensor of affected side. Well, at least not entire car.
- secured/encrypted ECU, TCU, and 20 others software controller modules. Some electronic parts are serialized.
- Eg:. the gear lever for shift by wire, you can't just replace yourself. Need Volvo VIDA software.
- There are some 17 sensors for collision detection (Normal Japanese car get only 1 -2 and normally skew to the drivers side). Then you guess it, you can't replace them plug and play, must use Volvo VIDA software as well.
- Volvo VIDA is available to 3rd party, but need to pay the subscription.

- Normal wear and tear maintenance is reasonable, about 2k per year. I still have 1 more year before need to pay myself.
- Spare parts support of Volvo is 15 years. I confirmed with the service center.
- The devil lies within those serialized parts better to back to Volvo official service center, but those are very rare to get faulty.
- I think same if BMW iDrive faulty, most also just go back to BMW. I've seen aftermarket iDrive 6, 7 support, not sure about iDrive 8.


Lastly warning on new LED headlights on modern car. They are very expensive. Including the one on Civic -> 4k per side, Mazda3 -> 5k per side. Not sure about Perodua and the recent China car though...
Those with multi-beam good luck... + For Volvo case dozen of collision sensors better don't hit anything major

This post has been edited by constant_weight: Jun 4 2024, 10:53 PM

For most LR is more than enough.

Performance has many gimmicks for actual driving thought. You can set power bias yourself to front, balance, rear.

Can one shot practice driving different type of cars, by just adjusting the software.

The performance allow to change the brake mode, weak throttle lift off to brake is most natural for me. Never fans of one pedal drive.

To me those are proper proper good gimmicks vs pet in infotainment kind of gimmick for China car.

Bro, what an awesome write up! And I’m surprised that a Volvo would have over 400hp!