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Unsafe and Unpredictable: My Volvo EX90 Experience

myvolvoex90.com

71–80 of 436 posts

Re: Unsafe and Unpredictable: My Volvo EX90 Experience

#71

As a Polestar 2 (closely related to Volvo; they share a lot of components and infotainment software... bugs) owner, none of this surprises me. I've had the "Complete Center Screen Malfunction" issue on my Polestar 2 (though an infotainment reboot "fixed" it. But climate controls disappearing and climate shutting off during infotainment reboots is already pretty atrocious. I have the "backup camera unavailable" issue,…

> climate shutting off

In general, climate shutting off is safety issue too. In -40C it is not many minutes until you can’t see through windows.

Re: Unsafe and Unpredictable: My Volvo EX90 Experience

#72

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.

Aren’t Japanese cars the gold standard of reliability? Or has something changed?

Was told by a mechanic a few months back that continuously-variable transmissions are standard in gas cars now, but have reliability problems. Old-tech automatics can (could?) still be had from Toyota and Mazda.

Re: Unsafe and Unpredictable: My Volvo EX90 Experience

#73

As a Polestar 2 (closely related to Volvo; they share a lot of components and infotainment software... bugs) owner, none of this surprises me. I've had the "Complete Center Screen Malfunction" issue on my Polestar 2 (though an infotainment reboot "fixed" it. But climate controls disappearing and climate shutting off during infotainment reboots is already pretty atrocious. I have the "backup camera unavailable" issue,…

These problems plague so many new cars it's incredible. I know people who don't want to buy a new Mercedes S-class, but are instead looking for low-mileage units of the previous generation because it has the same issues. I don't know what the fuck is going on with cars these last few years but the manufacturers need to wake up.

Re: Unsafe and Unpredictable: My Volvo EX90 Experience

#74
Our leased 2024 Kia EV9 has similar terrible software problems.

Anyone who thinks Tesla's Autopilot/FSD (or any aspect of their software) is bad... much of the competition is far worse.

A few issues:

* Lane keeping gets dangerously close to other cars in turns for no apparent reason * Lane keeping will randomly decide to follow non-existent lanes * You can't turn off lane assist (the baby version of lane keeping) and it tries to override you, leading to jerking of the steering wheel at high speed (eg to avoid an obstacle in the road). * When switching from R to D it wants you to press the brake. But if you are still moving a tiny bit or you don't press the brake hard enough it just shifts you into N instead (!!). I live on a hill and this is only detected when I press the accelerator pedal and nothing happens. But you have to come to a full stop to shift into D (Why???). * Some settings refuse to save to driver profile; to get single pedal driving you must use the paddle shifters each driving session to go from iDrive 3 to Max. But if you are moving too fast it refuses to change the mode. If you set the mode in R it resets when you move to D. * Despite being an EV with key/digital key detection you must manually press the ON button and manually press the Off button. Otherwise when you get out of the car it just sits there ready to be driven away by a thief. * No auto-lock when walking away. * Remember the pedal thing from shifting? Same with pressing ON button. If you don't press the brake pedal down hard enough or give it 1-2 seconds before pressing ON it just turns on accessory mode. * No geofencing so no ability to configure anything to behave differently at home. * Want to control the charge plug locking behavior? Don't bother going to Settings. You won't find it. You must go to the home page, then press the EV Leaf box. Then go to EV Settings from here. There you will find a new settings menu that has the same ones from Settings but it now has a couple of new categories not present with all the other settings of the car. Including whether to lock the charge port door and whether to lock the charge cable into the car itself. * Sometimes in following cruise control mode it just locks in at a speed different from the one you set for no reason. * When you touch the accelerator in cruise it turns cruise off so when you let off the accelerator the car actually jerks you around as it decelerates for a period of time before cruise kicks back in lurching you forward. * Don't press the accelerator for too long or it will just turn cruise control off entirely, including lane keeping. * It wants your hands on the steering wheel but if you move too much it turns off lane keeping but leaves cruise control on. * It has the usual massive plethora of physical buttons randomly scattered throughout the cabin. Some on the center console. Some on the three stalks. Some on the left side where you can't see them. Some below the touch screen. * Different controls behave differently. Sometimes next to each other with similar functions! Opening the rear door? Press and hold. Open the frunk? Double tap the button. The buttons are next to each other. The buttons below the touch screen? Capacitive it seems. Why when the rest are physical? * Despite the cluster being just a huge LCD they do almost nothing with it. The only customizations are for-pay add-ons. * Did I mention the light-up squares on the front are customizable? If you pay for them. Each pattern is an add-on you pay for. * Their app is an absolute disaster. I could do an entire post just about how awful every aspect of it is.

Re: Unsafe and Unpredictable: My Volvo EX90 Experience

#75
post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> .... 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).

What reliable is left?

BMW

Re: Unsafe and Unpredictable: My Volvo EX90 Experience

#76

I really want to like volvo, especially their plugin hybrids, but their bad reliability of late is a dealbreaker. No way I'm wasting my life in mechanic hell. I'm patiently looking to upgrade from my great 2018 subaru forester xt touring, but nothing new seems much better.

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…

I would hope that the center control computer is isolated from the actual drive computer in all these cars.

Re: Unsafe and Unpredictable: My Volvo EX90 Experience

#77
post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> .... 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).

What reliable is left?

Don't say "reliable", say "opportunity for enshittification".

Re: Unsafe and Unpredictable: My Volvo EX90 Experience

#78

The open secret to EV ownership is to lease. This effectively mitigates depreciation and forces a dealership to own any problems (sooner rather than later).

That works if you want an EV just because you prefer to drive an EV, but makes it basically impossible to save money compared to buying an ICEV, you’ll never pay off the car, and you can’t put enough mileage on a lease to break even with fuel costs.

Re: Unsafe and Unpredictable: My Volvo EX90 Experience

#79
post #6

I mean, the issues with this car are pretty well documented, so it feels like this person is really using the website (and the HN exposure, successfully), to extract the refund from Volvo that they need want. Likely rightfully so, since the ex90 subreddit is full of people invoking lemon law successfully.

Here's the url for that subreddit: https://old.reddit.com/r/VolvoEX90/ Edit: OMG!

It feels like Volvo is stuck in a sort of a cargo cult like situation. Modern car has to be software defined, so let's define the car by software. Except one of the reddit posts claims Volvo outsourced the development to Infosys. With predictable results...

Re: Unsafe and Unpredictable: My Volvo EX90 Experience

#80

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.

I rented an Audi Q7 for a week recently. The drive quality of the car is excellent. But the software is terrible. Just getting CarPlay to work every time is a challenge. I will not be buying an Audi any time soon. As more and more of the vehicle's experience becomes software controlled, manufacturers who don't have good software development teams are going to lose out. German companies don't seem to understand the gr…

Software is indeed a differentiator, as in I want as little as possible of that shit in my car. Any car where all the controls are on a giant iPad in the middle are a non-starter for me.
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