coolsaber

They gambled hard on pushing their brand value up on the shoulders of 7 seater Crossover with a 4 cylinder to 5 cylinder modular engine base attached with their corporate brand image of the most secure vehicle of all time.... and to be honestly its ROI has been super. The market is hungry for the biggest crossovers you can find. The XC series of vehicles, with the upcoming launch of their smaller XC range (60 and below series) is going to push that ROI even higher unless the market decides to shift due to gas prices or some other external factor.

Plus coupled with the fact they have a Global Modular Platform, things are low Investment High return regardless of how abysmal those sale figures for the S series are. The S series will basically turn into the "we had extra parts so why not put them in a slow but steady selling sedan"

The interiors are quite on par if not better to some from the makers of Germany. Although this does not apply fully to them now, they are marching pretty strongly towards full autonomy, even trading blows with tesla and their autunomous plans. Everyone else is still dabbling in legalities while Volvo are setting the path forward.

I think they are nothing like mitsu, more so a mfg whose in transition from being counted out, to being a player whose actually putting up a strong resistance against Germany's Top CUVs.

Aron9000

Personally I think Volvo has a strong game with the XC90 and S90/V90 sedans/wagons. While I doubt the long term reliability of a very complex "superturbo"(supercharged and turbocharged 4 cylinder engine), long term reliability seems to not be a real big issue with luxury car makers, as people turn their cars in pretty frequently and avoid any problems once the car gets about past 5 years old.

mmarshall

Reliability can be an issue on some luxury makes, like Jaguar and Land Rover (and even the German makes until recently). Even Cadillac and Lincoln have a ways to go in that department. In fact, Lexus is one of the few luxury makes that does not seem to have trouble in that department.....it successfully combines complexity and reliability.

davyjordi

they had a display at the los angeles international auto show as well as the san diego international auto show, encompassing one of the largest, if not the largest, market in the nation.

LexBob2

Good to know. They'll be at the Chicago Auto Show in Feb. too. If their display area is similar to last year, it will be a decent size given their limited number of models.

Afrosheen

Someone pointed me to this thread from my other thread. I'm getting the Polestar optimization installed over the weekend and should have some more performance to play with next week. The weird thing is, the T6 Momentum loaner they gave me is quicker and the power delivery is more linear than my T6 Inscription. It's totally bizarre, because they're both using the same drivetrain and transmission. My car felt hesitant at times and didn't inspire confidence trying to juke around traffic in town, but on the highway it'd overtake anything with a whisper on the throttle.

It does have software gremlins, or maybe just mine, which are also being addressed. Sensus is a new system and just like Infiniti's touch screen "I control everything" display, there are growing pains. I halfway expected to be a beta tester while the software matures and as long as service takes care of me, I'm not too concerned about it yet.

The car does get looks though. I have yet to see another one around town. See plenty of S60's and XC's, but the S90 seems to be the best car nobody bought. Not sure if the price pushed them into MB territory or what. Will update the thread after mine gets ironed out.

Oh yeah, and the stereo system is probably the best optional system I've ever heard, with way more parameters to tweak than the ML system, and a carbon fiber subwoofer in the trunk fender well. It gets LOUD but stays crystal clear.

TangoRed

That's not uncommon with cars like this. The Momentum loaner is probably running a newer software version than yours- in many cases dealers quietly update customers' cars during the next service visit.

mmarshall

Yes, that is good to know..because I just checked (and re-checked) the floor plan for the upcoming Washington, D.C. Auto Show January 27-Feb. 5, and Volvo is definitely NOT on the floor displays.

Perhaps, right now, the company just doesn't have the cash to hit every major show this year.

Here's the (tentative) floor plan for the Chicago show. Volvo does have a display, but it seems to be a rather small one, near the lower-right-hand corner.

http://www.chicagoautoshow.com/exhib...or-floor-plan/

I see that Porsche will have a display there, too. They haven't been here at the D.C. show for several years. Neither has Mitsubishi.

Aron9000

1:47am, drunk typing after getting home lol. What I meant to say is that long term reliability and durability is something that luxury car makers really don't focus on or seem to care about(mainly talking about German and English makes). Their core customers change their cars out frequently enough to where it doesn't matter.

coolsaber

Core reliability is second to Latest tech with those brands. However, you will see those who hate the initial ownership experience regardless of brand and jump ship at the end of their lease to experience a less painful brand.

mmarshall

That's what happened with a lot of BMW leases.

coolsaber

Yup...hence they went crazy offering tons of conquest and loyalty cash a couple years ago to sweeten their YTD records. Sidenote, I still think besides Infiniti who heavily subsidizes their leases, BMW is probably 2nd overall but 1st in Euro brands. The high echelon especially at the year end sales get their discounts so heavy that its cheaper to lease a loaded 7 series hybrid then a basic 535i.

Afrosheen

That's a good point. The momentum loaner only has 200 miles on it so I imagine it's the latest and greatest they have to offer. The service manager also quietly added that there's a hidden system update for some cars depending on how they are acting. If my inscription comes back running better than this loaner I'm gonna be so happy.

Afrosheen

Got my car back today from all the software upgrades, and with the Polestar performance upgrade. It's jekyll and hyde now. I'd say it's as good as or better than my GS350 was when it comes to acceleration in city traffic and may even beat it on the highway for short stretches due to having more hp and torque available at lower revs. It is impressive now and all I asked for. We have a winner.

dseag2

That's great to hear. I remember when you first got your GS350. (Nebula Gray, right?)

Congrats! The S90 is a beautiful car!