[vjbox]

Hello all, why don't I begin my first official ownership review and pretty much my first large post here on the forum on my V40 Cross Country. Let's do this!

Sticking with the format.

Likes-

• Lets just say its a sexy and slick looking car. A good combination of a dashing yet understated look. In short,a fine design language in a car.
• One of the finest interiors and a well-built cabin. Makes you want to spend more time with the car.
• Incredible seats that make long drives a pleasure
• Addictive torque band and it kicks in early on and stays with you
• A myriad of safety systems that keep assuring you are in a safe place
• Pretty good fuel efficiency for a 2L motor. Long drives prove very economical
• The heft in the drive. You will appreciate its weight.
• Highway driving dynamics. Well mannered and versatile.
• A great sounding audio system that puts down a lot of authority in sound

Dislikes -

• The 18inch wheels make it for a firm ride.
• The rear ingress and egress isn't the best and elders do have put an effort to get out.
• The back seat recline angle could have been better.
• Lack of ventilated seats. Only heated seats are offered and it would be a criminal offense if used in Chennai.
• D4 instead of D3 - Nice to have!
• Limited opening angle of rear doors
• Spare wheel could have been alloy?

Not to bore you, but a bit of a back story. I hail from a typical south Indian middle class family and as a college kid, I had a huge fascination for well designed cars. I used to really stop and notice some of those well designed cars and that meant, Mercs, BMWs back in 2005/2006. Even the Multi Axle Euro Buses stole my heart everytime I saw one that simply made me wonder about how well they were engineered. For someone taking public transportation on a daily basis, the very sight of these vehicles was dream worthy, let alone the opportunity to travel in one. There is something about their designs that make your heads turn around. I am certain that's how most of us would have grown to admire and appreciate some of these well designed cars.

The longing never stopped and the very idea of owning a nice and sexy car always felt really good whenever I thought about it. It's a very hard feeling to express but you get it. I did my commerce at Loyola, Chennai and a college like that puts a lot of peer pressure on you when you have rich kids all around you but it also built that positive competitive spirit in me.. Ever since my college days, I had a silent crush on Volvos. While a lot of the guys used to talk about the German cars and car makers, I used to really admire an understated Volvo. Things as simple as the VOLVO badge at the back of the car with that wide lettering, made me notice and admire its design. It was unusual for a car maker to have such a badging at the back but I liked it. A challenging middle class household meant that I had to really work hard to make us climb the socioeconomic ladder and some of the choices I took with my career through the support of my Mom allowed me to get there. Cut to a few years, I rose to a decent position to be able to afford a Maruti Ritz and it did make my mother proud of me. Life went on, things happened and I switched to a Civic. A few more years, I reached a point where I felt it was a decent point to get that ‘well designed, well engineered’ car that I can quietly own without any fuss.

So the moment I decided, I started to scout around and thought I could go with a pre-owned route. My wife and I wanted a small big car, something that can be versatile enough for daily walks of life and can still take us far when we need it. After scouting around, I realised there weren't many worthy options in the pre-owned route. I considered the Merc A 180, a great looking car, well designed but it lacked the power and packaging I was looking at. I considered Q3 but the dated design meant, I stayed away and to my surprise, Audi Chennai were lacklustre in their response. X1 was considered but with the M sport trim, it wasn't offering the value for money to me. I even went out of the segment and tried the Skoda Superb and actually really liked what the car offered. But, the sheer size of the car and plonking in almost 40L on it didn't sound like the right idea. Now amidst all this, I knew I would be trying the Volvo out and given I only needed a small car, the V40 sounded like a nice proposition. I liked the welcoming atmosphere and the attitude of the SA at Artemis Volvo Chennai and it was definitely an add on. One quick test drive with the V40, my heart was set and knew that the was car. It really connected with me and never felt alien. I originally set my eyes on the red V40 but couldn't work out the deal. I was then offered an MY2018 White Cross Country variant and it made the most sense given the raised ride height and just to be sure, I took a test drive of the CC variant and liked the suspension setup better than the R-Design variant which had a low slung stance. In the test drive I noticed the CC variant didn't scrape any of the speed humps and it was a definite plus for me. Incidentally the dealer had a scheme on a couple of CC variants, white and black from MY2018 and MY2017 respectively. I chose the white over black for both the colour and the MY. There was a fat discount offered and I managed to bargain and brought the on road price to 32L inclusive of Insurance from the originally quoted 36L from the then price of 39L based on the scheme(I don't have the precise breakdown of the prices at the moment but will try and post it up later if I can)

I was told the car was in their Coimbatore yard and would be brought down on a truck to Chennai which I was ok with. Just after a couple of days, the SA called me that they incidentally had one in their Chennai yard and were able to arrange the delivery sooner. To be sure I did verify that the car was imported 3 months back from Ghent and I did get the import papers when I received the car. The SA sent me a pic of the car, got it from the yard, washed it up to keep it ready for my inspection. Thanks to our forum’s PDI that came in handy. I went over to Artemis with a complete checklist and did a thorough check and everything was in order. It was indeed a fully loaded variant as promised by the SA and had everything I was hoping for including the full suite of Driver Support systems. I really wanted the car to ride on Pirellis for some reason and it did come with them on a sweet set of 18” rims. I gave a thumbs up to the SA that the car scored a perfect 10 in the test and was good to go for delivery. Took the delivery the same day in the evening and rolled it out for a customary pooja.

The only diesel variant offered here was the D3 4 Cyl Motor with the 6 speed Auto Gearbox. Although I wished Volvo offered the D4 variant which sported a twin-turbo, in the real world, D3 offered plenty of performance.

My son took charge and gave a small gift to the SA

Final Onroad price - 32L
Extended Warranty - 3 years - 1.14 L
Nano Ceramic Coating - 27k

After a few weeks of running, I was offered the Extended warranty package for 2+3 years and I opted for one that worked out to about 1.14 L. I didn't opt for any service package as the SA himself didn't really recommend it given only one service per year and relatively nominal costs of service compared to the German Trio.

In its full glory

[vjbox]

Safety!

For starters lets talk about Safety for the obvious reasons.

Yep, it does stand for safety!

Let's talk about the safety kit on offer and it's no surprise the equipment list is long and complete. It comes in the form of a Driver support pack.

Collision warning with Auto brake -

Handy and works as intended. Many times, a lone cyclist or a pedestrian enters your path which is a common event on our roads and during those occasions the system sounds an audio and visual warning that there is a risk of collision. This also works best when the vehicle in front brakes suddenly and you don't notice. It sounds the visual warning on the HUD along with a loud audio cue forcing you to take notice and brake accordingly. You still fail to respond, City Safety kicks in and more on that below. Happens to me most frequently in city drives.


BLIS - Blind spot information system -

Again works like a charm and is very handy in our road conditions. The light on the A pillars blink when a vehicle is approaching from behind in the blind spot and you can make safe lane changes.
Distance alert - The HUD lights up when you are fast approaching a vehicle in front and closing in too close without leaving a safe distance. It encourages me to maintain that safe distance with the vehicle in front and ever since I have always maintained that distance. Driving manners do improve with such a system.

Lane keeping aid -

One of the features that I absolutely love and it never fails to surprise me in most of the long distance drives. The system keeps a watch of the lanes and when you go past the lanes, it applies a good enough torque to the steering putting you back into the lane. When you continue to go past the lanes without lane indicators, the system applies a force feedback to the steering warning you. This really makes you use the lane indicators when switching lanes and adds to that discipline and driving manners.

City Safety -

Another well thought out feature which works at speeds upto 50KM. There were a few instances where it got the car to a grinding halt before I could realize and hit the breaks. This happened on a few occasions at toll lines where I was distracted for just a couple of secs and it did the job. A few other occasions were when a biker entered onto my path suddenly and the car had to brake. Luckily no vehicles from behind when this happened.


Adaptive Cruise Control -

Works like a charm during those long distance drives where there is sparse traffic and all you see is a few vehicles at the distance. You can set the cruising speed and the distance you want to maintain with the vehicle in front. The radar picks up the vehicle at front and maintains the set distance when cruising. When the vehicle at front brakes or slows down, the car responds accordingly and slows down. I don't use ACC that often though but I am sure it finds its use cases when needed.

Park assist and Park assist pilot -

Park assist is simply the sensors at the front and the back of the car to help park precisely. The front sensors also kick in when you are bumper to bumper traffic and ensures you aren't getting too close to the vehicle in front. This shows up as an overlay on the central dash and it allows me to keep an eye all the time. Handy indeed. I have never tried or used the PAP (Park assist pilot) feature and have only seen videos of how this system works. Lets just say this is one of those systems I don't really bother using and would rather manually parallel park which will work out quicker.

Driver Alert -

A system that again monitors how well you keep in and out of lanes. When activated, the system sounds a visual and audio warning that you need to take a break. This has really come up only once for me because I had to dodge a lot of potholes on a highway and kept driving like a video game. The system would have obviously thought I was driving in an erratic manner and sounded the warning.

Apart from these, the regular safety systems include the ABS, ESC, RSA (road sign info) which can read a host of standard signs including speed limits, end of restrictions etc, SIPS (Side impact protection system) which triggers the airbags around the side pillar and the curtain areas, Airbags at the front including a knee airbag for the driver, the pedestrian protection system which triggers the airbag under the bonnet in an event of collision with a pedestrian, WHIPS which protects against whiplash injuries during a rear end collision.

Stuff to keep you safe!

BLIS is Blissful at times!



The Intellisafe tech that takes care of it all

[vjbox]

Engine and Gear Box

Let's talk about the drive in general,

The engine puts down plenty of power when needed and you get that nice wave of torque the moment you put your foot down. You would really appreciate the Torque more than the BHP on this car. It's for this reason I equally enjoy driving in the city during sparse traffic conditions where I can get a move on and the car roars ahead with a slight tap to the accelerator. Taking off at the green lights has never been this fun. I mostly drive in the Eco + mode that allows me to coast at speeds over 65KMPH and it greatly adds to the fuel efficiency. The engine is fairly revv happy, switch to manual or sports, you can really push the car if you are in a mood and it responds well. I rarely engage manual mode with paddles, as the auto does the job quite well and it puts down power when needed. Although in the recent Udupi trip, I had some fun with manual mode through the Western Ghat roads! The 6 speed Auto is well mated to the Engine and the lag is negligible, Just know when to floor it, it does take off. Shifts fall in place nicely and occasionally the car decides to hold gears for a longer time and takes a bit to shift up. Otherwise, most of the time, the shifts are linear and you are usually in the high gears when you start to hit speeds. There is a fair difference between driving in regular mode and ECO+ mode where the power delivery is slightly altered. The car still reacts well in ECO+ where kick downs happen relatively quicker and you get a move on. There is that minor lag in reaction times, but you get used to it as long as you know when to floor it. The car is more eager in the regular Drive mode though and power comes in a lot more seamlessly.

Neatly laid out Engine Bay!



With the Hood open. The Hood is Aluminium and is pretty light actually

It never gets old to keep experiencing that torque. Out in the open roads, the car has been a great companion for me. The power delivery is seamless and in no time you hit triple digit speeds although the cautious driver in me has kept it under control, else it is very easy to unleash this thing. I am certain some of our fellow members would appreciate the earlier 5 Cyl motor from Ford better, but the new 4 Cyl VEA motors are good on their own where they balance economy and power relatively well and that's what I really like about this motor. At the end of the day, my long distance drives are a lot more economical and if I am taking a trip to Bangalore for example, the fuel cost would be a lot cheaper than 2 round trip Shatabdi tickets. And that brings us to the Fuel Efficiency.


Fuel Efficiency

Low RPM drives are just fine too and you will be able to amble around town with speeds of 40-50 KMPH with ease. Highway cruising speeds are also at very optimal RPMs and it explains the economical nature of the car. With ECO+ and at 100 - 110 KMPH speeds, the car easily returns 17-18 KMPL and I have seen it climbing to even 19 KMPL on some occasions. In city conditions, I get around 10-12 KMPL with stop and go traffic.

Not all that bad a fuel efficiency!

[vjbox]

Ride Quality

Overall the car gives you that mature planted drive and isn't too bouncy as the car still sits relatively lower. You sort of get that driving a big car feel and that's mostly due to the weight of the car I suppose. It's not a car which you want to zip through traffic and at least I haven't been driving it that way. While the ground clearance can look a bit low, the added suspension height is a huge plus and offers peace of mind when driving on patchy roads. I am although yet to encounter any massive speed humps that scrape the underbody. But the regular ones are usually dismissed well and there is that assurance that it won't bottom out. The ride itself is mostly on the firm end but nothing that disturbs the comfort much. I would only complain about the low profile tyres that creates that underlying firm ride due to the 18 inch rims but again there is that visual appeal factor that can be a fair trade off. While the mild potholes are dealt fine, the deeper ones aren't so well dealt with and you can feel the harshness when going over them. Show some fine roads, you can coast all day and get that relaxed ride.

The raised ride height certainly helps

There is that evident yet contained body roll when you lean in on a corner at high speeds but the grips levels are really good. There has never been an instance where I felt a loss of grip or traction and all that heft of the car helps here. With such power and heft, the vehicle needs great breaking too and it does. I simply love the feel and the way the car confidently brakes. Of course there have been instances where I had to almost slam the brakes but the way the car slows you down and brings you to a halt is commendable. There is a never jolt or unrest in the cabin when you brake, it just does it in a very poised manner. Except in cases of Auto braking during City safety which brings the cars to a grinding halt and isn't all that pleasant when it happens. When it happened for the first time, my wife and I thought something got stuck at the wheel or someone rear ended us! We only realised a few secs later that the car did an emergency brake to avoid collision with a Biker and we saw the message “Auto Brake by City Safety’ come up on the instrument cluster.

NVH levels

NVH levels are fine enough and the car usually gives you a fairly quiet cabin even at high speeds to engage in conversations. You can definitely feel the vibrations on the steering when the engine is cold and it usually settles down after some time. Both in low speed and high speed drives my wife and I never have trouble conversing with each other or with passengers at the back at high speeds. Roll the windows down and up again, you hear the difference and it manages to hush the cabin as much as possible. The engine although is louder and you can very well hear the clatter in the cabin at low rpm. Give it time, it settles down as it gets to heat up. You will find the engine goes relatively quieter in long distance travels and I am sure its the trait of most Diesel motors. On rough roads, you will hear more road noise from the tyres and I was told Pirellis ride that way and a bit noisier than the Michelin Primacy. There is also evident wind noise at high speeds - say 130+ KMPH, it's not very loud but I would have liked it a notch less. Nevertheless I usually drive with music on all the time and I hardly hear the outside environment. This is also due to the fact that the car comes with a fine audio system, more on that later.

[vjbox]

Interiors-

A huge turn on for me with the car aside the exterior styling was the interior design and the general cabin experience. The moment you step into the cabin, you can feel that scandinavian touch, that is elegant, highly aesthetic and functional. The cabin always smells fresh and has remained the same ever since I bought it. The smell of that leather is inviting indeed. The dashboard is well designed and finished. The distance between the steering and the windshield end is just perfect for me. I generally tend to like cars which have that long dash in the front leading to the windshield. My earlier cars had it, especially the Civic that gave you that speed boat or cockpit like feel. The steering wheel is nice and chunky to hold and has that weighty feel to it. You know you aren't steering a light car the moment you hold it. It's not one of those pointiest steering out there but is assuring to the least. The steering itself is on the heavier side, something that I really about. You don't tend to oversteer or understeer the car and only apply the right force and its a parameter that can be configured in the settings as well. I have mine set to medium force and it does the job quite well.

The classy Amber Interiors



Nice and Chunky Steering- It carries all the key functions to the car

The car is equipped with an all digital instrument cluster that is well laid out and extremely functional. Most of the key parameters are displayed without having to take your eyes off of it.

The All digital Instrument Cluster. Has a nice animated boot up and Shut down sequence

The central dash houses the infotainment screen that is non- touch and I honestly don't ever feel the need to have a touch screen display as it only distracts you. Not a big fan of reaching out to the screen from the driver seat and meddle around (call me old school here) You can control all of it from your steering wheel and have a host of things to play around right from your vehicle settings, driver aid, lighting setting, tyre pressure monitor and many more.

Nice metallic Paddle Shifters



The central Infotainment Screen

I really like the center floating console design which adds to the overall design. The idea of too many buttons on it is debatable and I for one has grown to appreciate it especially when controlling things like Auto climate, temperature or switching to certain functions from the main dash. And more importantly, I don't have to take my eyes off the road and exactly know where the controls are. Its a neat blend of old school and modern design.

The gear level nicely falls into your hands and again feels good to switch with that nice steppy sound when changing.

The central console wit the Gear Level in the front. Notice the Human shaped Buttons for directing airflow. The slot beneath the AC vent houses the DVD player

I am not a big fan of the car's storage solutions as in most cases you cannot put a 1 liter bottle into the door pockets and the best bet would be to place into the cupholders. Forget placing even bigger buttons anywhere and you need to shut them tight and keep it on the seats only. The glove box and the central armrest storage is good enough and can store a lot of your snacks, tissues, books, glasses etc.

Glove Box offers Decent Storage



Decent size Cup Holders that can be closed



Rear Seat Cup Holders - Pulling the flap opens them

A major attraction in the cabin is the panoramic roof. It's beautiful, massive and lights up the cabin. The internal rear view mirror comes with a compass pointing the direction you are heading and the frameless design looks nice and helps for a larger view. The OVRMs are of good size and help cover a good amount of view.

IVRM with Compass Overlay



The massive Panoramic roof and its quite a sight!



Controls for interior lights and Panoramic roof

The car is equipped with a dual zone climate control with Clean Zone package that lets you breath cleaner air within the cabin. The Air conditioner is powerful and chills the cabin relatively quickly. Although I noticed that I need to keep it at atleast 21.5 to 22 deg to get that chill and a temperature like 24 deg doesn't really cool the cabin well on humid days. I am not sure if it was tuned this way at the factory. On the floating console you will find a human shaped button layout that lets you control the airflow to the desired direction - head, body and foot and it is a very nifty feature. In Eco + the AC runs very efficiently and reduces the cooling capacity. It usually does the job for most sunny days except on those scorching days where I put it to Auto climate let the cabin get more chilly and then switch it back to Eco climate. There are no rear AC vents and I don't think I would be missing it in this car given the power and throw of the AC. You do get heated seats for all 4 passengers and occasionally my sons keep playing around with the buttons at the back only for my Dad to call out why his seats are hot! Not a feature you want for a city like Chennai. The cabin is overall well insulated and the heat dissipates sooner than you would imagine.

AC vents- The knobs are firm to shut them

The interior fit and finish is impeccable and there is generally quality where you ever touch and hold. The front seats are extremely well designed and offer plenty of cushion and support. You come to appreciate them after finishing long drives and I haven't felt the same with my Civic earlier which had good seats too but these are at different levels of comfort. With the multi way adjustable seating, it isn't hard to get into a comfortable driving position quickly and the triple memory setting is good to have for you to get back to your original position when a valet changes it.

Multiway adjustable seats with memory setting



The Cross Country Engraving on the Dash

Door and Window Control Switches. Door is well padded with leather

The lumbar support is perfect and can be adjusted with the rotary knobs at the side. You can also independently raise or lower thigh support although I would have really like an underthigh extension. As far as the rear seating go they would be an average class of space although more roomier than a A180 and on par with a Q3 I suppose. I prefer driving with my legs fairly stretched and resting my left foot on the dead pedal nice and easy.There is still enough leg room even after pushing the front seats back. The seats are slightly angled at the back so you see more of the dashboard and not the back of the front seats. I would have still liked a better reclining angle given the length of the car.

Rear seats offer decent room



There is a fair amount of visibility from rear

The boot offers decent space and you can put the parcel tray under the bed should you wish. The boot floor can be split into two parts and contains hooks to hang your shopping bags and is handy. You get a spare wheel below and has the usual kit for changing tyres. For a family of 4, the boot space is more than enough and we have hauled a lot of luggage. The idea of installing a nice looking Thule has been tempting for me but we haven't reached a point where we need to carry more stuff.

Boot open with flat floor bed and parcel tray attached



Boot with Floor divider with nifty bag hooks



First Aid Kit Stuck on

[vjbox]

Exterior

I have always been a fan of Volvo’s understated design. I personally like simplistic and subtle designs and with the V40, they did a great job of capturing a lovely silhouette. You cannot mistake the car for another even from a distance and the design language is a class apart. The rear of the car in my opinion is the best element and the blacked out tail gate with bold badging is simply iconic. The front thor hammer shaped DRLs are very distinctive and give the car that modern appeal. The long bonnet and side shoulders leading to the rear end give the car that nice station wagon like look and in fact Volvo originally called this a station wagon only. While this can classify as a small car in theory, in reality the car is pretty lengthy and also why partly it has a poor turning radius. I still refuse to call this a hatchback given its lengthier dimensions. The roof line slops down to the rear and has a pair of nice looking cross bars to take on roof boxes. The car rides on 18inch rims with low profile Pirellis. They just sweeten the overall design. I wasn't a big fan of the “Metallah” Alloy design as I really liked the “Ixion” design that I saw with the TD car but ended up really liking this one eventually. It did get compliments for a lot of them who appreciated the rims and the way it suited the car.

It looks best with the rear in sight!

The blacked out tail gates with the huge Badging is a great design touch

The front with the signature lights and grill.The long bonnet adds to the dimension of the car

The Rims I grew to like eventually!



Door Handles with request sensors for Keyless entry. Put your hands into the handle, the car opens and tap on the sensor to lock all while keeping the keys with you



Front doors open nice and wide

The B pillars with the SIPS system

Fuel cap opens with a slight push. No knobs to deal with



The Pirelli Cinturato P7s



All that Heft!

Lights-

The car comes equipped with an All LED system with Active bending lights. The Thor Hammer lights are the DRLs that also couple as Turn indicators. The lights have enough throw to light up a wide degree of road and the high beam can reveal objects that are a good distance away. The Auto beam feature dips the lights automatically when detecting oncoming traffic but isn't all that useful when there are too many vehicles and there were instances where the system went into cool down after getting overworked. The bending lights are quite nifty in town, village roads where it can reveal the corners when steering and works in a very intuitive manner. You wouldn't really notice this otherwise in city conditions and it only kicks in when the vehicle is in movement.

The head lights with the Full LED system. They can bend and have a very powerful beam



DRL with the Thor hammer design



DRL when locking. They couple as turn indicators

Now for closing notes let's talk about one of my most favorite areas of the car,

The Audio System-

One of those must have categories I had when scouting for a car was that it had to have a great sounding Audio with dedicated Amp. Music on drives whether short or long is an absolute must for me and it's got to sound good. During the early research phase, I did learn online that V40 had one of the best sounding audio systems in its class and it was very true. The highs, mids and the lows are very well delivered and it sounds nicer with all sorts of genres. Bass is nice and punchy and even when you crank it up it never feels distorting and the Class D amplification does a fine job. I listen mostly to Prime music due to its better compression and dynamic range than Spotify (Yes I was surprised to find the difference here and contrary to what many of us think prime’s audio quality is much better with vocals and mids delivered in a superior fashion. Try listening to your favourite song on Prime and Spotify back to back and you know what I am talking about) With a bunch of my favourite playlists and with Audio fired on, our high way journeys and drives to Bangalore are a breeze! The system has a DVD player tucked neatly below the AC vents and mostly you wont even figure that it has one. The system can play DVD movies only when the vehicle is stationary. It also has a nifty CD ripping feature which allows you to copy songs from your old school CDs onto the car’s HDD.I did rip a few of my old collections and it worked really well. You can connect a USB drive located under the arm rest to play music if need be but again it's streaming only these days and bluetooth does the job well.

After Sales and Service-

The car has had one annual service so far at 10,000 KMS. It was a standard service with the regular Engine oil, coolant, multi filter, air filter that were changed and the software was upgraded. The total service bill after all discounts was 24k INR. I have generally been happy with the service centre and their customer treatment has been good with occassional invitations to certain events and regular follow ups from their customer service desk. In recent service they did miss out on some areas that followed up on and they promptly got it checked and rectified.

Well, that's it I have in store for now with this review and I hope you found it informative. Overall my family has been enjoying the car so far and it has been a worthy companion on all our journeys effectively replacing my Civic that I just parted with a few months back to replace it with a much smaller car for my wife. I am sure I would have missed covering a few more aspects of the car and I will try and post them up in the days to come. Thanks for stopping by and reading the review.

[CrAzY dRiVeR]

Thread moved out from the Assembly Line. Thanks for sharing!

[theexperthand]

Rated a well deserved 5 star - a very well written, neatly laid out thread. Congratulations on the car and wish you many more happy miles.

V40 is really an underrated car, but I love the design and have been always a fan of the understated design of Volvos. Please do add more photos taken outside.

--Anoop

[dsvikki]

Congratulations! Great review. Its a great car. I got one in July 2018, have done 20K KM so far and its been a great experience.

The only complaint i have is the tyres. The Pirelli P7 Centuratos (225/45 R18s) are not fit for our roads. Have had a tyre burst (sidewall damage) and a tyre bulge (side wall) happen back to back in the first 18 months. The sad part is that 225/45 R18s (non RFTs) don't seem to be available outside Volvo dealerships and they cost almost 30k/tyre. The good part is that my Volvo insurance covers tyre damage and so the pinch to the wallet has been minimal. I did have to change the battery (under warranty) as it died on me. Guess that was a one off. The Volvo roadside assistance was prompt and the vehicle was towed to the service center and battery replaced under warranty and all was well. I would recommend you figure out how change the car to neutral when the electricals fail. I had to google it when my car was stuck (thankfully just outside my workplace) and not in a busy road.

Overall, am a happy customer.

[ChiragM]

Nice review. I've always loved the V40 from the day it was launched. Wished that Volvo had built the next-generation of the much-loved hatchback instead of killing it altogether.

Let's talk about the safety kit on offer and it's no surprise the equipment list is long and complete. It comes in the form of a Driver support pack.

This long list of safety features I experienced when I drove the XC40 is what made me choose the SUV as Team-BHP's Car of the Year 2018. Hope all manufacturers start offering these safety features in all cars sold in India soon.

[V.Narayan]

Thankyou for this review. This is a devastatingly beautiful car. A complete head turner and a joy to drive. Wish you many miles of joyful driving.

[vk007]

congratulations mate! Beautiful car! I agree 100% on the understated nature of VOLVO. Quick Q - did you get the ceramic coating done at Volvo or an outside vendor? Also, did it come with any warranty? Those rims look nice. Does it have Apple Play and Android Auto?

[Baddychat]

Congratulations on getting a beautiful car and putting up a nice review. Wishing you thousands of happy and safe miles !

[yash2424]

Great review, I just purchased a V90 Cross country and its amazing how Volvo hasn't deleted any safety features across the range. But unfortunately some of these features are going to be removed from 2020.

[Chetan_Rao]

Congratulations on a great acquisition. Nothing like finding something that meets one's requirements to the T, and more.

Volvo really have swung from one extreme to the other on the desirability scale, haven't they? They always were well-built, equipped, safe and value for money cars. Now they've arguably got a looker in every segment too!

I walked away mightily impressed with the XC40 we drove recently, and have a huge soft spot for the V90 (hands down the best-looking estate car I've seen recently). Volvo are genuine contenders for someone buying in the entry/mid luxury segments today.