My First VOLVO and first Impression

howard55 · #1 02-02-2007, 03:39 PM

Hi all,

I'm new to this forum and recently got my first VOLVO, its a new XC90

Had a very hard time to choose between the colors. Until the very last day I wasn't sure whether to take Lava Sand or Saphire Black. Lava Sand impressed me somehow from the first moment, although I don't like brown colors. But Lava sand isn't really brown, its somehow between gray and brown or better I would call it a warm grey. Finally decided to take LS.

I only did my first 500 miles but here are my first impressions:

What I like:

The robustness of the whole vehicle
The silence inside while driving
The look and feel of the materials used inside
The space inside
The push of the diesel engine is OK

What could be better:

The lenght of the seat surface
The leather of the driver seat is crumpled after no time. (I took the leather in Calcite cream since I liked the bright color, however its very sensitive. You'll see any dirt immediately).

If someone is interrested attached are some pics (hope it works).

Cheers
Howard
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XC90 D5 2007, Manual Gear Box, Lava sand, Calcite cream/ off black
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tgwillard · #2 02-02-2007, 07:25 PM

Welcome to the site. Lava Sand would have been my first choice in my new XC70, but took the ruby red in a left over 2006 model. Anyway your XC90 in the LS looks great. I would recommend you apply a good leather conditioner every three to six months. Use a separate cleaner to touch up those areas that pick up dirt. This works well for the taupe leather in my wife's S80.

brickauto · #3 02-04-2007, 08:35 AM

Stick shift WOOT!

Silvertrigger · #4 02-07-2007, 01:52 AM

Hey Howard,

Thanks for the pictures. Just purchased the 07' VolvoXC90 MT D5 Momentum and Communications Pckg, High Perf. Audio and tinted rear view windows two weeks ago. ETA for Vienna, Austria is set at end of March. We took the harder leather that comes with the Momentum package, because my wife and I thought that the Summum leather looked "too soft", like you said. I have two children so we went with the off-black leather instead. After test driving a MT and Automatic we decided to go with the MT. We felt more torque and control with the MT than with the sluggish Automatic.

We almost went with with Lava Sand but decided to go with Tit. Grey instead due to higher resale value (i got my volvo through diplomatic sales and plan to sell in about 4 years). Personally, I liked the lava sand colour I saw in the showroom (Denzel), but some of the pics on this and other sites made it look too brown to me.

I'll post pics as soon as our XC90 gets here. Right now I'm busy getting ready to sell our first diplo purchased family car.. a Peugeot 307 SW, which has been an excellent car for a young family. Anyway, congratulations on the purchase.

howard55 · #5 02-07-2007, 07:02 AM

Hi Silvertrigger,

don't mistake, I have the Momentum configuration as well. As you see my roof railings are black. Summum config has it in Alu. So the pics you see and what I am talking about refers to the standard seats in Momentum. But at least the crumpling of my leather seem not to get worse.

Choosing colors on Volvos is not easy. Every color looks very different under different light conditions. Exposed to sun light the Lava sand gets very bright while it looks dark if you have a cloudy sky. The reason I believe is that Volvo puts a high amount of reflecting particles (metallic?) in the paint.
E.g. One dealer (also Denzel) had a xc90 in black saphire in the showroom. When I looked at a certain angle at the chassis (dark outside and strong headlamps in the showroom) there was definitely a blue tint in the black paint.

I fully agree with your estimation about the Geartronic, that's why I took MT as well. The MT accelerates much more spontaneous than the GT and its also more economic on fuel consumption.
So far I need 10,2 l/100km on mixed driving, equal city and highway. That should correspond to mpg (British) = 27,7 or mpg (US) = 23.
And that's not bad for 2ton car.

Still I'm very happy with the car and would certainly buy it again, also due to its good value for money. I hope you will enjoy yours as well. - Cheers Howard

Silvertrigger · #6 02-07-2007, 11:58 AM

thanks for the response howard. Good points on the Momentum leather. i didn't realize we had the same model until you pointed it out.

Even though you haven't had your xc for very long, have you been pleased with the service you received from Denzel? Are those winter tyres in the pictures? Mind telling me where you got them? I doubt I will need mine come March (hopefully:-)) - but I'm going to have to purchase them sooner or later.

howard55 · #7 02-08-2007, 02:10 AM

Hi Silvertrigger,

actually I did't buy at Denzel, just visited their show room several times since its on my way to the office. Finally I purchased the xc from Zitta in Mödling. Good service and I prefer smaller dealers.
Yes I'm having winter tires mounted and it was a nice story how I got them. Initially together with the xc I ordered Pirelli Ice&Snow. Zitta was supposed to replace the original summer tires (I think I got Conti) before delivery and put the Conti meanwhile on a depot. On delivery day they had a lot of work and mixed up some customer wheels, so they mounted Michelin Alpine by mistake on my xc. Since it was already late afternoon they asked me if i would accept the Michelin's instead of the Pirelli. And I agreed since the Michelin's are about 35 Eur more expensive per tire and I still had to pay the contracted price only :-)

Cheers, Howard