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Unsafe and Unpredictable: My Volvo EX90 Experience

myvolvoex90.com

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Re: Unsafe and Unpredictable: My Volvo EX90 Experience

#421

Post by steveBK123 »

aryehof wrote: post #414
steveBK123 wrote: post #268

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tesla software in theory was generally pretty class leading. Certainly some downsides with their homegrown infotainment vs a car with Carplay/Android Auto though. What I did not enjoy when I was one was the number of functions that are buttonless and require touchscreen UI. Additionally every 1-2 years they'd do a major version upgrade that moved said functions somewhere around the screen, sometimes into a sub-menu.…

I believe that BMW group uses Flutter/Dart. Interesting that there seems little complaint about their software here.

Less bells & whistles than Tesla tries to accomplish, but it just works. Which is.. what I want in my car. Infotainment has native XM radio & Spotify, plus CarPlay & Android Auto.

Less updates, and sometimes they don't quite work OTA, but I don't really care.

When I had a Tesla, everything was on the touchscreen including the speedometer and various critical controls, and I had 2-3 full reboot black screen while driving incidents of the system.

Was it neat that Tesla shipped new features regularly, sure. Were most of them half baked (summon) or stupid (farts, Netflix).. yes. The incremental "oh neat" for me was outweighed by various driver critical touchscreen-only controls moving around the screen release to release.

On my BMW I think the infotainment may have rebooted on me maybe once, but it has an independent dashboard instrument cluster screen & HUD which were not impacted.

And the BMW has way way more buttons so I do not have to care about the screen, including on the steering wheel and controls on the drivers right side arm rest. So again I can drive without distractions.

The other thing worth mentioning is the driver assist system that Tesla is supposed to lead on but.. eh, not really. After 4 years of Tesla Autopilot releases constantly changing behavior, frequently not for the better, it was nice to have a predictable ADAS system from BMW.

While Tesla pumps will pile on about how FSD is not AP and 2022 is not 2025, I just do not buy anything they or the company says after 4 years of daily experience with the product. A product that mostly works most of the time but then has unpredictable behavior and erratic regressions is not helpful.

Re: Unsafe and Unpredictable: My Volvo EX90 Experience

#422

Post by smetj »

gattilorenz wrote: post #385
smetj wrote: post #214

Shameless plug. My experience with emergency lane keeping systems in my car and reporting it to my dealership: https://www.smetj.net/its-for-your-own-safety.html

Which car was it?

Yes, I deliberately left that out for personal reasons. With a little sleuthing you should be able to figure out the brand.

Re: Unsafe and Unpredictable: My Volvo EX90 Experience

#423

Post by 01100011 »

gilbetron wrote: post #410
01100011 wrote: post #404

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same year here. Actually the battery charging issue left us stranded a few times but only once in public. It was the faulty fuel gauge firmware that left us stranded on the side of the I-5 freeway in the middle of CA. The CVT sort of sucks. Mostly ok but we have a long lag between reverse and drive which causes the car to jerk forward if you try to accelerate before the forward motion starts. The turning radius is am…

Good to know about more recent subies, although ... how do you feel about the new Outback look? Personally, not a fan :(

Same!

Re: Unsafe and Unpredictable: My Volvo EX90 Experience

#424

Post by lostmsu »

prmph wrote: post #129
runako wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Toyota, Lexus, Subaru, Honda. Not sure if Hyundai & Kia are quite as reliable, but if not it's on them because they have some of the best warranties in the industry.

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…

What's your beef with CVT, especially with Toyota's planetary gear? The latter is probably the greatest development in transmission in the last 50+ years.

Re: Unsafe and Unpredictable: My Volvo EX90 Experience

#425

Post by sathackr »

steveBK123 wrote: post #263
sathackr wrote: post #259

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you have a problem they take 4 weeks to fix it all while you're paying $50+/day for a rental car that they will fight you tooth and nail on reimbursing. One local dealer refused to honor under warranty the work another dealer did. If you have any damage (even minor cosmetic) they will blame that on your issues regardless of relativity. (I have a Hyundai that's had the ICCU replaced once, the ABS IEB twice, and the…

Everything I've heard of their dealers & service departments are what keep me away from their EVs. On the one hand, performance/looks/fun factor to price, they are a pretty good value. On the other hand, if I were to spend $70k on an Ioniq 5N, I would have expectations of service which they are clearly not going to meet. So at that pricing level, its back to BMW EVs.

fwiw I've heard from others that their experience with Kia has been much better. That seems hard to believe since Kia is owned by Hyunday.

I definitely expected more Hyundai when I bought the most expensive EV they had to offer at the highest trim level available.

Re: Unsafe and Unpredictable: My Volvo EX90 Experience

#426

Post by rich_sasha »

burnerthrow008 wrote: post #172
rich_sasha wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"European" cars are not really a category. French/Italian/Spanish cars are very different from German/Volvo, and even these groupings are a stretch. Then you have Dacia too, and I have no idea where to even put it. Plus you have some luxury British cars, which are again veery different. In-group std is greater than between-group std.

In the USA (where Consumer Reports exists), we don’t have any French or Spanish brands. Italian brands are only exotics and couple near-luxury brands from Stellantis. To a USAian, “European Brand” means something from Germany or Scandinavia. If you mean a Ferrari or Lamborghini, you say that name.

Fair enough but its a bit like saying American cities are very cold in winter, and by American cities I mean New York cos thats where most flights go.

Theres a lot more cities in the US and a lot more "European" cars than German/Swedish.

Re: Unsafe and Unpredictable: My Volvo EX90 Experience

#427

Post by steveBK123 »

sathackr wrote: post #425
steveBK123 wrote: post #263

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Everything I've heard of their dealers & service departments are what keep me away from their EVs. On the one hand, performance/looks/fun factor to price, they are a pretty good value. On the other hand, if I were to spend $70k on an Ioniq 5N, I would have expectations of service which they are clearly not going to meet. So at that pricing level, its back to BMW EVs.

fwiw I've heard from others that their experience with Kia has been much better. That seems hard to believe since Kia is owned by Hyunday. I definitely expected more Hyundai when I bought the most expensive EV they had to offer at the highest trim level available.

Very interesting. I had considered the Genesis sub-brand if only for the separate dealers, though there are much fewer of them.

On the plus side a lot of the Genesis vehicles seem like they slap every option the Germans make you pay $1000s each for into the base model, so decent value from that perspective.

I've sat in their EV hatch thing the GV60 in showroom and was impressed by the base features set. I also had a decent length uber ride sitting in the back of their ICE sedan, either the G80 or G90 and it was a nice executive sedan. My backseat reclined, it had motorized shades, the air vents in the back were actually powerful, etc.

Re: Unsafe and Unpredictable: My Volvo EX90 Experience

#428

Post by bdamm »

jonplackett wrote: post #416
bdamm wrote: post #406

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The markets for EVs and gas cars are fairly established, so your personal choice to keep fixing your car vs selling it to someone else who will fix it instead doesn't have a net change on the environment. Nor does your choice to buy a new car or a used car. The only thing that matters, really, is whether you are personally supporting the oil market or the electric market, how much, whether electric generation in your…

If I sell it to someone else, they will probably drive 10X-20X more than me. My car mostly just sits there. The most environmentally friendly car is a stationary car.

You cited fill time as a reason to keep your petrol car. Yet you claim you don't drive very much.

I think we're not talking about cars any more. I think we're talking about a security blanket.

Re: Unsafe and Unpredictable: My Volvo EX90 Experience

#429

Post by hn_acc1 »

constantcrying wrote: post #258
hn_acc1 wrote: post #248

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure - they get the trouble reports. But it's almost as if all the critical decision makers don't drive their own cars in real-life scenarios (drive more expensive cars? Have chaffeurs?) and don't understand how much BETTER it is to have a specific button/dial for "fan speed" and a separate one for temperature, instead of trying to control it via a touchscreen that has 100+ different screens it could be displaying wh…

>Sure - they get the trouble reports. But it's almost as if all the critical decision makers don't drive their own cars in real-life scenarios (drive more expensive cars? Have chaffeurs?) and don't understand how much BETTER it is to have a specific button/dial for "fan speed" and a separate one for temperature, instead of trying to control it via a touchscreen that has 100+ different screens it could be displaying w…

Agreed with the other response to you - this "reverting to buttons" is a response to the outcry after they all went towards a tesla-like "everything is controlled via the center console" dystopia. Yes, the VERY NEW VWAG models are thankfully reverting back. That doesn't mean they didn't go the other way first.

It's COSTING them $$ to switch back - and they were losing a LOT of buyers over it. If you read any car magazines, people were constantly talking about this. Car makers are finally starting to listen - after several years of failure.

Couple a "slow-to-respond" GUI with a "everything is done via the GUI" and it's horrible.

Re: Unsafe and Unpredictable: My Volvo EX90 Experience

#430

Post by Mawr »

tharkun__ wrote: post #198
prmph wrote: 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…

> if you happen to go over the limit

Yeah I hate when that "just happens" too.

> or god forbid set the cruise control above the limit

The word limit is the key here.

> Because setting the cruise control to 50 when in a 50km/h zone will have you driving 45 in reality

Dear god! I hope you somehow made it through that insufferable experience. To think of the few seconds of your life you've irreplaceably lost! Sending a virtual hug!

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