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Unsafe and Unpredictable: My Volvo EX90 Experience

myvolvoex90.com

321–330 of 436 posts

Re: Unsafe and Unpredictable: My Volvo EX90 Experience

#321

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was so excited to get my S60 PHEV. Mechanically it is an amazing machine, great handling, great power, I rarely have to put gas in it. BUT. It is a nightmare with the technology. Like most new cars, everything is tied into the center display/computer. It will crash while driving, which will remove all sound from your car, and I don't mean just the radio/spotify/whatever. You can be in mid-turn with your turn signal…

Pure electrics also work when the screen crashes. My Tesla behaves almost exactly as you describe. When the screen crashes / reboots, you loose all displays, all sound, signals, etc. But the car still drives.

But the screen shouldn’t crash, ever! Why are people accepting this crap?

Re: Unsafe and Unpredictable: My Volvo EX90 Experience

#322
post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mazdas too. I find Toyota's suspensions and driving dynamics terrible. Mazda represents a perfect combination of good Japanese reliability and good handling dynamics. I also like that they still offer a proper automatic transmission in their cars (as opposed to the CVT epidemic in other makes), as well as naturally aspirated engine options (whereas many other makes only offer turbos now). The days of their collaborat…

The Corolla I was driving recently can definitely not be recommended. It was a rental. Was a Hybrid, though that shouldn't affect this. It wouldn't save most of the settings I changed. Apparently you can either save it "to the key" (I googled how to do it, didn't work) or to your "profile" with a mobile app. I would never want to have to use my mobile to save car settings, even if I owned it, let alone a rental. It h…

> setting the cruise control to 50 when in a 50km/h zone will have you driving 45 in reality as evidenced by speed measuring displays I drove by. At 100km/h you'll probably be going 90.

This is very common and it's probably a deliberate choice of the manufacturer.

I know that my old car in the 90s reported 10 km/h more than the real speed and most other cars did the same, especially at low speeds. My current car is not as bad but I have to set 52 to go 50, 72 to go 70.

Furthermore some speed displays are calibrated differently. Some of them report me at 50, 47, 53 at different towns on the same route. I know I'm OK at 52 because I never got a fine.

I'm more conservative on roads that I'm not familiar with (eg: on a vacation in another country.) The general rule has always been to go at the same speed of the other cars.

Re: Unsafe and Unpredictable: My Volvo EX90 Experience

#323

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The two main Achilles Heels of Hyundai/Kia are their ICE Engines and their EV ICCUs. Google reliability for both and proceed accordingly. They're good about replacing/fixing both issues when they come up, and normally have extended warranties, but they are critical components too and long lead times to fix. Outside of those issues, which don't happen on all vehicles, I view the brand as pretty rock solid. I'm impress…

I recently got rid of a 2016 Kia Sonata with a severe (and getting worse) oil burning issue. It was well under 100k miles. We really liked the car otherwise overall. Great price, seemed to be made well, easy to work on. The extended warranty on these only applies if you actually blow up engine, which I wasn't willing to do deliberately because I have scruples. (And according to forum threads, at the time this happene…

We had a 2015 Sorento with a similar issue. Kia said the oil burn rate was within specs and refused to act. It died at 105k, and they refused to do anything about it, even with documentation of the oil burn rate going back to 75k miles. We replaced the engine on our own dime, and it took me three weeks to find a single engine that was compatible.

That said, a few months ago my daughter was t-boned in it by a driving going 60+ MPH. The impact was directly on the driver’s door. She not only survived, but did so with only superficial facial cuts and some longer-term, back pain.

I can’t be too hard on a car that saved my daughter’s life.

Re: Unsafe and Unpredictable: My Volvo EX90 Experience

#324
post #290

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For those of us who do not want a car more expensive than our house, is Mercedes an option?

Did you look at the Volvo EX90 price range?

I googled. Starting from 81,200 USD and 85.250 EUR. I can fit my car almost 6 times in there.

Re: Unsafe and Unpredictable: My Volvo EX90 Experience

#325

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was a bit surprised to see the the "software" criteria in your reply, as I'd always thought of enshittification's inevitability as a capitalist phenomenon whereby a quality brand is wrung out for near term gains by management incentivized to get their cut before riding off into the sunset. But after reading up a bit, I've found that software platform lock-in was important in enshittification's original formulation…

Thank you for that second paragraph. Really hate people throwing that word around without understanding what it actually means. Was about to get inflamed. Makes you wonder how open software car platform could look like and why nobody is making one.

Probably because if you and me would write one and install it on our cars it would void all certifications and make the car not legal to drive. That doesn't mean that manufacturers could not band together and make a common OS for cars, or a company in that market could not sell its software to everybody (like MS or Google) but I believe that manufactures don't want to completely commoditize cars and go the way of gas brands or smartphones. A car is 4 wheels, steering and brakes to me, so I don't care much about what I'm driving as long as it handles well and brakes strong, but that's not the case for most people so manufacturers want to add their own bells and whistles.

Re: Unsafe and Unpredictable: My Volvo EX90 Experience

#326

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You just don’t hear about the other ones. That is possible, yes. I think it is a fair point. But I also understand that people want to somehow publicly show their opinions about Elon Musk. Or others. For some, a public social media post is enough. Others want to do so with their wallet. Which, unlike a typical person's social media post, has the potential of catching, albeit indirectly, Elon Musk's attention. Which…

I’m kind of pointing out the hypocrisy in that if you’re not buying a Tesla because of Elon, then I’d hope you’re also boycotting all Israeli products, because you know, a little thing called a genocide is happening. If not, then I find it weird and I’m calling it out.

It might not be hypocritical. People do not have the mental capacity to follow and react to every crisis everywhere with the same level of engagement. They typically react more to the topics which they can closely relate to because they are part of their daily lives.

People in the US drive cars. And they follow the US politics. So it is in my opinion only natural that their reaction to issues concerning cars and the US politics would be more on their radar when it comes to coming up with public and loud reactions.

Does that mean that they do not care about e.g. the war in Gaza? Absolutely not. If asked, they will probably give a very critical opinion about it. But they are not out protesting for it to stop every week because it does not concern them directly. It is not hypocrisy, in my opinion, it is just natural selection of what is more and what is less important in a daily life of an individual.

Re: Unsafe and Unpredictable: My Volvo EX90 Experience

#327
post #234

Volvo sadly no longer stands for Swedish quality and safety. What you’re buying is essentially an overpriced Chinese car with Volvo stickers. And I’m saying this as a Swede. Buy German cars, specifically within the Volkswagen auto group (Audi, VW, Skoda etc) if you want reliable quality.

> Buy German cars VW ID.4 owner here. The car is pretty good mechanically, but the software is garbage, or more specifically hot dumpster fire.

ID.7 owner here. Car is good, software is good. Window buttons are questionable.

Re: Unsafe and Unpredictable: My Volvo EX90 Experience

#328
post #312

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I love that you made a website to spread the word. Well done. Screw those guys. Hey Volvo, I’ll now never buy a Volvo. I always thought they were meant to be safe?

As far as I know the XC90/EX90 is the only SUV in its class to not have a fatality for anyone inside it at the time of an accident yet. It’s a mass market luxury vehicle and the brand is still considered about the safest you can buy today. It’s certainly not known for quality or reliability though. You buy them if your sole focus is on crash safety it seems.

Off course it's safe, something which doesn't drive with a "Critical System Communication Fault" and unable to enter in the first place due to a "Digital Key Failure" is sure as hell not going to cause a fatality ;-)

Re: Unsafe and Unpredictable: My Volvo EX90 Experience

#329

Volvo sadly no longer stands for Swedish quality and safety. What you’re buying is essentially an overpriced Chinese car with Volvo stickers. And I’m saying this as a Swede. Buy German cars, specifically within the Volkswagen auto group (Audi, VW, Skoda etc) if you want reliable quality.

> .... if you want reliable quality. I'm saying this as a German, i strongly reject those accusations. Do not buy from VW group (and not from PSA/Stellantis (Citroen, Fiat, Opel etc brands), either).

I have been driving VW for decades. Never had any issue apart from some Apple CarPlay snags. Drove Golf, Touran and Tuiguan Allspace. Always a pleasure.

Re: Unsafe and Unpredictable: My Volvo EX90 Experience

#330
post #166

I’m just happier and happier with my ‘dumb’ car. It has physical buttons for the aircon. No wifi = no speakers listening to me and selling my personal data (yep that’s a thing) I have to press a button on the key fob to open it so it can’t be stolen by relaying the signal. It’s pretty cheap to run because I hardly drive anywhere anyway. But when I do I just buy this stuff called ‘petrol’ that’s all around the place a…

It doesn't take much driving for a new EV to balance out the environmental cost of harvesting, shipping, pumping, and burning all that petrol. As I understand it, about 20k km or 15k miles, on average.

This is comparing BUYING a new gas car to BUYING a new electric car.

I already have the gas car from 8 years ago.

From what I can tell keeping this is way better than buying any new car - of course if I do buy a new one it’ll be electric. But keeping an existing car uses way less co2 than buying a new one.

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