![]() I have also been impressed with the warranty and service costs which have totaled $5,500 over the 6 years that we have owned the car. All in all a very reliable and practical vehicle which looks good, performs well and has remarkable fuel economy. The run flat tyre issue is an interesting debate - in my view I would prefer the extra interior and luggage capacity over 6 the years compared to being inconvenienced 3 - 4 times that we have been inconvenienced. The vehicle still looks good on the road and changes in body shape on later models have been evolutionary, so it still feels contemporary. The only improvements would be sat nav and music connectivity which I have no doubt are up to speed in more current models. It is a very comfortable and reliable care wuth great interior space and flexibility qnd good load carrying capacity which works for us. The car has been very reliable and we have only been let down by the run flat tyres on 3 or 4 occasions over the 6 years and 100,000 kilometers which the vehicle has travelled. One very annoying issue has been the front distance sensors which are too sensitive and will go off sometimes due to wet roads or foliage on median strips when stopped on a divided highway - we have had them reset which was an improvement but they are still annoying The technology is good apart from the Sat Nav and connectivity for devices e.g. The engine is well matched with the transmission and it is quite sprightly off the mark. The car drives really well and is ideal for cruising with an excellent cruise control system. I really like the way that the car drives and I tend to leave it in standard drive as the economy setting is way to sluggish and the sport setting is very noisy and too jerky and responsive. There was not much that we disliked, apart from my car nut friends who were not fans of diesel cars. We loved the Mineral White colour with the Mocha brown leather interior and also the panoramic sun roof. It was the first diesel car that I had owned and I was pleasantly surprised with the torque and cruising ability and the economy was a big improvement on my BMW 330ci coupe that I had been driving. ![]() My budget was $65K and the X3 was my choice. I was working for a media buying company that handled BMW and I could access vehicles off there press and executive fleet, As it turned out our vehicle had been used by Drive, Cars Guide and other publications. But are they practical changes? A lot of it seemed to be change for the sake of being different.I was looking for an SUV that was economical as we drive every weekend to our beach house in Blairgowrie VIC. Stuff like the Crystal Orrefors gear knob and vertical 9.3-inch touchscreen are striking, while the button count has been reduced dramatically. Volvo has tried very hard to break out of the Gemanic definition of interior luxury and design. The XC60 makes its strongest impression before you get rolling. You can put at least some of that down to the Volvo’s 2105kg kerb weight, which is almost 300kg heavier than the Bimmer, and the fact our test loop didn’t offer a lot of opportunities for stop-start running where EVs really save fuel. The drivetrain doesn’t feel as all-encompassing as the BMW (even through it has a 0.5sec faster 0-100km/h claim) or as frugal, averaging 10.8L/100km on our test loop. Let’s hope so, because the bump-telegraphing 21-inch wheels and, under-done suspension and ridiculously over-sensitive brake pedal makes progress sometimes frustrating in the T8. It is said the lesser models in the range are better drives than this one. It shines in comparison to the XC60 though.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |