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Good morning,
So me and my family have test driven the volvo xc40 the other day, it was the t4 inscription d4 diesel awd. Our initial thoughts are very positive but with a few niggles. The volvo xc40 easily is the smoothest car I have ever driven, it just glides along the roads and all wheel drive is an option if off road needed, which I am sure it will do very good at because the off road reviews are very positive. We did test the cornering and the cars steering was very smooth and flawless. Me and my family felt very comfortable in this car, and originally we did suspect it may be a bit cramped but it wasn’t, plenty of room inside the cabin. We did drive through the town, city, and no issues what so ever apart from some really bad drivers that I noticed with ease over years of driving experience haha. The cars sign recognition was incredibly handy because it keeps you safe, although naughty people would probably just switch it off sadly, it is a great addition we liked though. The niggles would be the packs. This car if you want the essential packs can go up to 10 grand easily, and some of those should be standard but volvo have a different take on things, and some things on the xc40 would not come standard on say.. a skoda kodiaq, so they try to balance it out. Overall we thought the car was a perfect balance and we tried to get better deals elsewhere but the others simply could not match the spec of the volvo. The major thing that sold me was mainly the sign recognition system and the all wheel drive which has different modes to off road needs. I would be going off road a lot so I thought this was a perfect option.
Just a quick summery for everybody. I will keep the forum informed of build status and any issues that arise if interested. I hope you have a nice day thanks for reading my volvo xc40 quick thoughts.
Cheers.
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Good morning WreckitAnth.
Glad that you have found a car that meets you and your families needs. I hope it isn’t too long a wait for the build.
Joss
Current car: BMW X2 sDrive 20i M Sport 5dr Step Auto In metallic Portimão Blue. 04:10:2025
Previous car:Peugeot 308 GT Premium 1.2 Pure tech Petrol.I did have a look at the XC40 Inscription auto 4WD a while ago and thought it a very decent car, albeit just a tad too small to get the chariot in the boot.
Plus on top of the £2647 AP, when ‘pretend building’ it online I ended up speccing over £3500 of options and packs to get it configured exactly as I wanted it. Just about everything on my personal tick list turned out to be an option/pack as opposed to standard specification!
It is however a very well put together car and like you I found it very smooth and refined.
A good car if it ticks all your boxes.
Dave
Isn’t the T4 a very thirsty car?
Your right Thomas, I was getting 23mpg on mainly autobahn driving in the one I hired a few weeks ago. It wasn’t an unrestricted autobahn either so I was only doing normal UK speeds.
I’m also a bit confused by ” T4 Inscription D4 diesel ” it doesn’t make sense. Is it a T4 which is petrol or a D4 diesel which isn’t on the scheme?
Agree with the thoughts on the XC40 and I ordered one myself this weekend just gone – but a T3 Momentum Pro manual which is the 3 cylinder petrol. This will replace an XC60 with a motability handover date of October 10th.
To be honest it was a close run thing between the XC40 and a similar BMW X2. The nice folks in the Volvo dealership really did tip the balance versus the couldn’t-care-less attitude from the BMW dealers.
I have to say this idea of packs with many manufacturers is getting out of hand and it is clearly a profit making exercise as well as a cost cutting one as many of the vehicles should have the pack items included and it takes advantage of those who genuinely need many of the additions to be able to be comfortable and safe in their vehicle !
I drove a D4 R-design (not on scheme) and was very impressed with the interior space and the ride and refinement. The auto box was not as good as the BMX X1 in my opininion. A lovely motor if a bit dear?
I agree Footloose. Every manufacturer is doing it with packs and they are making even basic items now part of an expensive pack.
I think they are trying to make the basic cost of the cars look competitive when in real terms you have to add at least one of these packs to get a reasonable spec.
XC40 T3 Momentum Pro manual, Fusion Red, modern concrete interior.
No packs added, beyond the Pro which gives the things I really wanted – heated memory seats, heated windscreen, and the active bending headlights.
As others have pointed out, some of the packs are a bit eye-watering price-wise. It feels a bit more like buying BMW or Mercedes now where even small items can only be ordered as part of a bigger, more expensive pack.
3 years ago my XC60 came with everything I really wanted but on the XC40 there’d be a few packs at least to get close to the spec of the XC60. I guess, though, the XC60 was having extras added to keep up interest in light of the new model which was rapidly approaching at the time?
Few little things I did find on the test drive which I wasn’t expecting: traffic sign recognition is nicely done and the voice control seems way more flexible than the old XC60 version.
One other point I will make and that’s the availability of colours.
Trim level defines the colours you can choose. Not all colours are available on all trims, so be careful.
I noticed Toyota seem to be doing this across their range as well now so perhaps its more common than I anticipate. I know BMW have traditionally reserved certain colours of their M-spec cars but this feels way more limiting.
I had the same problem when trying to find a suitable car which needed to be a large automatic estate car (suv’s being too high to get in and out of) to take my wheelchair and all my other needed cargo and to also come with all the kit I needed. Too many were going to add too much money on to the car if I ordered them as extras, either individually or as packs.
That is why I ordered a Kia Optima 1.6 diesel Sportswagon GT-LINE’s which came with practically everything, except a CD player, a heated screen and possibly a heads up screen, although the last has not been missed. The AP was high at £3,250 (now £3,750) but there was no need to add extras, the cost of which I could have lost, if I needed a replacement car due to an accident or poor reliability.
I did not care about the badge on the front of the car (not criticizing anyone’s choice) but just a good car that met all of my needs.
Having just driven from Glasgow to Blackpool and back (for the second time in five weeks), I can confirm that it was good car to drive fully loaded with two people (three five weeks earlier) a wheelchair and fully loaded cargo, I did not notice a difference in power from my previous car a Vauxhall Insignia 2.0 diesel auto Sports Tourer.
I am not comparing the Kia to the Volvo, I am merely responding to the general feedback about cars now coming (or not coming) with the equipment required unless you order it with costly packs.
In fact it is now hard to find large estate cars that are highly equipped, I think there are only about four, off the top my head.
But whichever car you go for WreckitAnth, or any of you go for, I hope it works out well for you all, but the important thing is to make sure we all do as much research as we can and if possible and have test drives if possible.
Interested to know what spec you have both ordered, colour, options etc… @vinnym70 @wreckitanth
XC40 Inscription
T4 AWD Automatic717 Onyx Black (£575)
AP – £4754
No packs because 90% of the stuff you can actually get anyway online and i kind of would like to own those things instead of having to hand the car back in a few year and lose it all. I can use the stuff i buy to put on the next car. (Have to be smart with motability).
Hope you like it. Will be taking delivery in three months and will post up proper pictures and a full review after i have it atleast a year or two.
Cheers.
Almost £5k AP !!!!!!!!
I have been led to believe that the cost of paint to Motability customers was £zero. Is that not the case or is it only for ‘special’ paints?
That’s a beaut by the way. Great choice. ?
? I will be remembered for nothing but had great fun doing it ?
Metallic paint is free, special paints are extra but only the difference between the two paints is what you have to pay, ie: red metallic £575(cost to motability customer zero) special pearl red £950(cost to motability customer £375)
It does look stealthy in black.
I’m not sure I’d give nearly £5k upfront for one?
But if it’s what you want then why not.
Sadly the boot was too small for us to consider it.
If only the xc 90 was on the scheme. I’d pay that money for one of those. ??
Very Nice, I am sure you will love it.
It wasn’t actually the final AP but once everything was sorted the AP was around £4000 roughly i just posted what the dealership said but they got it wrong sorry all. The metallic black was actually free I double checked. The all wheel drive variant is quite a bit more expensive than the fwd by about £500 I think do not quote me on that though so it bumps the AP up. I agree completely btw, the AP is pretty ridiculous but at the end of the day my family loved it and so did I and I used all my money to get it that we saved for a long time. I noticed others said the boot was small but we found it spacious with the cover tucked under the boot flap but some wheel chairs would definitely struggle. Thank you to everybody that helped me on here in the past thanks to you we tested all the cars you recommended and after a while the volvo was the one. We have had issues with motability but we put trust once again back in the scheme. Hope everybody has a wonderful week take care. We will post back once we take delivery also.
Cheers.
I’ve owned a couple of volvos in the past and they’ve been excellent cars. Our old 760 turbo estate was an amazing car for its time. So much power and grip.
Ap’s change from quarter to quarter it’s impossible to judge the lowest quarter in advance, so if you can afford it and it’s right for you then the Ap doesn’t really matter.
Best of luck.
I do really think these extra optional “packs” are a joke.
At least Volvo let you order them. The new Mercedes A Class saloon is a beautiful car but it does not even come with rear parking sensors, almost de rigour these days.
To get them, and other things of course, you have to order the Executive Pack at £1395, which is what I was willing to spend. However they simply won’t allow you to order it!! as someone else on here has said, it is ridiculous. I will have a quick look at the C-Class this weekend, which is only entry level, but is does come with lots of things the A class lacks.
Otherwise Mercedes do not seem to want our business
Paul
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