Overview & Reviews

The 2016 Volvo XC90 is fully redesigned with a new look, a new body structure and a more efficient powertrain.

• Available hybrid model.
• Cutting-edge safety technology
• Sharp new look and style
• Small but powerful engine promises improved fuel efficiency

• Unknown how well the new touchscreen interface will work.

User Reviews:

Showing 11 through 20 of 96.00

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  This car should be called XC90 T8 BETA - 2016 Volvo XC90
  By XC90isBeta - December 29 - 11:31 am

  This car has issues which require it to go back to the dealer within my first 3 days of ownership. And there is a list of intermittant problems which I know will be difficult to reproduce and therefore will continue to plague me throughout my ownership of this car. Not to mention I have been getting terrible fuel economy and it is the bumpiest ride of any car I have ever owned!

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  Mixed feeling after nearly a year of ownership - 2016 Volvo XC90
  By CN - September 22 - 8:22 am

  My wife and I purchased the car last year after narrowing down the choices to this and an MB GL350 diesel. I preferred the Benz, but this car was for my wife and she liked it better. Between the two it is the better overall value option. Ours has every major option except the trailer hitch and HUD. Overall, its been a good car, but there are some nagging design faults that really detract from it. First up is the HUD. Im 6 2", and it was not possible to adjust the system to permit me to see it clearly; the top edge was always cut off, hence one of the reasons we didnt get that option. Next are the seats. They are the most uncomfortable seats I have ever had to suffer through. After nearly a year of driving it I still cant adjust them to a comfortable position. The seat bottoms literally pinch my butt on the drivers side. On the passenger side my tail bone sits directly on the seam for the extendable thigh support. The lumbar support in the seat back cant be set in a position that works for me for long periods. The seats in our car are the contour models (I think); maybe the comfort seats dont have these issues. For me, the 2nd row seats are far more comfortable. My wife is 5 3" and she doesnt have any issues with the seats. My recollection is the Swedes are pretty tall, so why cant they make a seat that fits a tall person? The next item is the cruise control. The controls are backwards in that a single button press adjust the speed up (or down) by 5 mph, while press and hold adjusts by 1 mph. These actions should be reversed. The infotainment/electronic systems occasionally glitch, though software updates seem to have generally improved their operation. The most serious glitch, experienced by me and my wife separately, has been the emergency braking warning going off for no reason, accompanied by the automatic emergency braking. This occurred to each of us on the highway. Fortunately, traffic was light during both instances, and the action was momentary. Fuel economy is, frankly, lousy considering the engine size. Were averaging around 21-22 mpg in mixed driving. The best weve managed was about 25 mpg on a 450-miles trip. Our Odysseys engine is nearly twice the size and that car gets nearly 30 mpg on the highway. And, its a larger car (and weighs the same). Compounding the low fuel economy is the ridiculously small fuel tank. 18.5 gallons? Seriously? It should be at least 20, preferably more given the lousy economy. Volvo really missed an opportunity by not offering a V6, or bringing the diesel to the U.S. On the plus side, the infotainment system is easy to use. The ride with the air suspension is sublime. It feels like a tank. Fit and finish, and materials are first rate and every bit on par (or better) than the Germans. The biggest plus in my book, though, is that my wife absolutely loves the car, so its a keeper.

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  Hybrid system plagued by poor quality - AVOID - 2016 Volvo XC90
  By Scott - June 26 - 2:02 pm

  Our XC90 T8 is a little over a year old, and it has spent about two months of that time in the shop for several different visits. The car has completely been drained of battery once and needed towing (it had no power at all, zero, not even the electric doors would work); it had a problem hesitating when going uphill that required over a month in the shop and parts shipped from Sweden; and many warning lights have been going off requiring trips to the dealer. This new Volvo hybrid drive train is not ready for prime time. Its too bad as its a very nice car otherwise.

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  Nothing like an Electrical Fire to Ruin your Day - 2016 Volvo XC90
  By Kris - April 14 - 3:30 am

  The dealer while very nice has no clue on how to fix these cars nor for that matter Volvo. We had been having issues where the onboard screens would blank out when nav in use vehicle would do it twice and then reload while vehicle was in use. This was an issue as your speedometer goes out and we were planning on taking it when it happened on a short trip but this time we smelled an odor then smoke came bellowing out of the center console. We turned off the unit and contacted the nearest dealership. The car has been there two weeks, contacted Volvo North America only to be told they could not find anything but they thought it was due to software needing to be updated. Updates were made and when dealer went to move car, battery was dead. We were told they checked it out with meters and again felt it was a software issue. Car was checked out and I was told the car was repaired. I drove 100 miles to pick the car up only to get in and there was an error indicating the Battery Charge was low after being assured that despite my concerns that it had to be more than a software issue. The car is still at the dealership as I was not willing to have them jump it and attempt to drive it home until they could get with Volvo North America. I would hold off purchasing as no one seems to know how to fix it. Very disappointed

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  Fabulous first month with XC90 T8 - 2016 Volvo XC90
  By Tom T. - March 22 - 11:31 am

  My initial experience with the car is overwhelmingly positive. So far I have put about 1000miles on the SUV, about 75% mileage comes from local driving - commuting to/from work, driving kids to school and other places etc. I have yet to take a long trip or push the car to its limits. Therefore it can’t qualify as a complete ownership review. But for whatever it worths, I share my $0.02 with current and will-be fellow Volvo owners. Maybe we start with some low lights Sensus Touch Screen Technologies are awesome, but also can be difficult to master. This is true in 2016 XC90. Its central touch screen has 3 views to slide from left and right, plus a “car setting” view that is pulled from the top. The screen navigation is complicated. After two weeks, I still have trouble remembering how to get to certain settings. I tend to consider myself a techie and quite adept at picking up new things, Volvo central control proved that I am not as smart as I thought I was. Key fab It’s a classy design with leather wrapped around bulk of surface area. It carries touch of a fine watch. Function buttons are located on the either side, and that is where the trouble comes. The buttons are small, difficult press and even more difficult to feel which is “lock” or “unlock”. You will have to see it. My key fab leather is blonde, matching the car’s interior. However, Being in the pocket and rubbing against other stuff all the time isn’t the formula to keep key fab clean. The key fab frame is aluminum. My key has received a couple of small dents on the frame so far. Volvo, if you are reading the post, please make the frame stainless steel. The aluminum frame doesn’t match the leather wrap nor the $80K car price tag. Park assist, Camera - bird’s eye view My T8 comes with vision package, a great value and a must-have in my opinion. I especially love the synthesized bird eye view of the car. I found it much more useful than park assist. I, for one when equipped with the overview camera, don’t have trouble maneuvering the car regardless parallel parking or back up parking. Park assist, on the other hand, reacts slowly. While I can see its usefulness for many, I only tested it for a couple of time before reverting to much faster manual parking. BTW, park assist did work quite well when I used it. The bird’s eye view image becomes wonky when other tall objects are nearby. This perhaps is the only knock on the vision package. I think it can be corrected via software algorithm. I hope Volvo has a future software update for this. Voice recognition Works about 80-85% of time. The number might seem high, but in day-to-day usage, it is not very dependable. Volvo obviously has some catch-up to do with Google etc in the voice recognition domain. One USB port and no SD card slot Dealer told me XC90 accepts micro SD card, but I am unable to insert the micro SD card to the slot next to the glove box release button. No place in the manual refers to micro SD card either. This interlude attests how much a dealer knows about this new vehicle. And one USB port in this connected era spells major inconvenience for the owners. I have to keep swapping between my phone, USB stick and passenger’s phones. Having said all of that, there is a lot to like, or may I say the word love, about XC90 T8. First and foremost, Quite and Smooooooth The twin engine combo has far exceeded my expectation. The transition between the electric and gas engine is so seamless that I often fail to notice the switch taking place. Thanks to the hybrid powertrain, the car starts with electric engine with zero noise and gas engine kicks in when more power is needed or cruising at high speed. The result? no 4 cylinder whining at low gear. the start/stop also works fabulously well in T8. In many way, the car waltzes around with V8 like grace, smoothness and tranquility. Not only twin engines augment each other well, regenerative braking and mechanical braking work in perfect harmony. I don’t believe any non-racing driver would be able to tell which braking is at work unless he peeks at the dashboard. Power I’ve not floored the gas pedal and rev the engine to the red line. The car is still breaking in, I have to be easy on the throttle. So I can’t verify the 5.3 sec from 0-60 mph, yet…. Even with that, XC90 T8 has plenty of juice at the low end, cruising around effortlessly with 5 people on board. With a gentle push on on gas pedal, freeway overtaking comes with ease. 400 horse power brings about the reassuring feeling. While I won’t use it every time when taking the freeway on-ramp, I know all the ponies are there there to haul the heavy SUV when I need to. Touch Sensus Except Telsa which I haven’t used, Volvo’s touch screen beats Mercedes, BMW, Audi and Lexus etc. in my opinion. The screen is clear under the direct sunlight and responsive to inputs. It may be prone to finger prints, but courtesy protective screen cover and mic

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  Great looking car just not reliable - 2016 Volvo XC90
  By Thomas - February 12 - 10:20 pm

  I leased my 2016 xc90 in May and it has been in the shop 5 times!!!! First it needed a software update, then the engine light just came on, then I needed 4 spark plugs replaced etc!!!!! Its a great looking car, but too many glitches. No warning when you are low on gas, Nav takes forever to load up, air condition is so loud its like your flying in an airplane. Those "great seats" are wearing down already.

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  One software issue after another - 2016 Volvo XC90
  By William - December 31 - 1:56 pm

  I have this car for almost a year and I been back to the dealership 6 times for various software issues ranging from annoying (the sensus navigation and infotainment system freezing and rebooting) to inconvenient (locks not working, moonroof not working) to dangerous (entire dashboard blanking out including speedometer and tachometer and auto-breaking going off without any other vehicles around). The car itself is beautiful and very comfortable, but the software is quirky. Volvo is constantly releasing software upgrades addressing these issues and other bugs, but you need to bring the car back to the dealership. Expected much better reliability for the price.

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  so far so good - 2016 Volvo XC90
  By han - November 27 - 12:16 am

  best looking suv in its class

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  New Volvo - 2016 Volvo XC90
  By Leonardo - October 19 - 11:24 am

  Its a spaceship. Genuinely impressed. The touchscreen takes some playing around to adequately understand (>4 hours). Very comfortable.

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  Volvo XC90 T8 Hybrid is a Beast!!!!! - 2016 Volvo XC90
  By MilesM - September 9 - 11:48 am

  I own a brand new 2016 XC 90 T8 Hybrid. As stated in many reviews, it is an awesome, awesome car!!! It is a BEAST!!!!! Beautiful exterior styling, and very smartly designed interior. The T8 Hybrid is a perfect combination of Eco mode (electric) for short trips, and power mode (gas) for longer trips (very fuel efficient engine). Power is stunning ( not quite Tesla, but at a better price point), for a 4 cylinder (who would have thought a 4 cylinder and electric motor could punch out almost 400 HP). Add the safety components, and this is almost the perfect car for todays market. Great job Volvo. You have hit the SUV "sweet spot". The perfect combination of form and function. I am glad to say I am one of the first owners of this great vehicle. May Volvo find much success and thrive in the future. The XC90 (especially the hybrid T8) is a thoroughbred.