RX300 Competition: Volvo XC-90 Test Drive
11-02-02, 12:05 AM
#1
Lexus Test Driver
Thread Starter
RX300 Competition: Volvo XC-90 Test Drive at El Toro
I’m still a little tired coming home from driving the new Volvo XC-90 at the El Toro MCAS airport tarmac. Today’s event was great because the turnout was low and so we were able to get as much seat time as we wanted. Probably the first time I got so sick of hammering in an autocross type event. Lines were very short to no lines at all depending on which session you would participate on. The first station was for the T5 XC-90 comprising of a long straightaway and then S-turns and collision avoidance segments. The second station was for the T6 (268HP, 280tq) with a course mirroring the T5. The third station was for the T5 again but this time the tarmac was wet and slippery with lots of curves. There’s even one are where they treat one side of the road with liquid Tide and they suggest that you apply full throttle when you pass it. The fourth station was for the T6 but this is real high-performance driving. You ride along a professional driver.
Before all of that, the XC-90 was introduced inside the tent along with the competition such as the RX300, MDX, X5, and the ML. The first one that was introduced was the RX300. The facilitator, a member of the AMCI- whose claim to fame- so he says, is that they do vehicle tests for Consumer Reports and all other institutions wanting their service. I hope someone here from Consumer Reports can verify what this man was saying. I’m in doubt because the last time I heard, Consumer Reports has the full time crew doing the testing for the magazine.
Anyway, on with the RX300. The AMCI man said that the RX300 can only handle speed bumps in parking lots and that’s about all it can do as far as off-roading is concerned. This woman sitting next to me laughed so hard I can’t believe my ears. Out went the RX and in came the X5- which the guy criticized for lack of storage space and firmness. Then the ML came and it was characterized as having a 7-passenger seating but it was an afterthought that’s why it squeaks and rattles in the back. Then, the MDX paraded in and the guy suggested that you cannot get it in a 5-seater configuration- but that’s all he could say about the MDX. He went on to put the Motor Trend SUV of the year trophy on top of the XC-90. The same woman next to me put on a standing ovation!!! No problem there- emotions can be so high sometimes you forget where you are.
Anyway, after all the b**s**, we were led outside to watch actual demonstrations. Two front seat doors were hanging and I immediately recognized one. Our RX front door! I’m thinking, uh-oh, poor RX. No one’s there to defend it. The objective was the guy would hit the glass with a sledgehammer. So then, with a full-swing, he slammed the RX side window with all his might and guess what! It did not break. IT DID NOT BREAK!!! He tried again, NOTHING!!! Then a third blow- STILL NOTHING!!! You can just see the reaction from the people- it's like the same people watching OJ get acquitted- it’s really unbelievable how strong that side window was but then it’s like Volvo shot their own feet by doing this. Finally on the fourth blow, the window smashed and crumbled to pebble size pieces. Mr. AMCI said that’s bad because in an accident, you’ll get covered by glass which could harm you more than the real cause of the accident. Volvo's turn. Then, the guy put a half-swing on the Volvo glass and the thing broke right away. The Volvo has a laminated glass and the idea was to prevent people from being covered with broken glass. For us RX owners, you can accomplish the same by putting a light tint. And since our windows are much more stronger, you'd end up with a better window of protection!!! But after seeing the blows, for the most part, you probably won’t need the tint. Because blows that are less forceful will simply be bounced off in an accident while the same blow in an XC window will allow the object to intrude into the passenger space with only the soft side curtains protecting you.
The next demonstration was about chassis twisting where the XC-90 climbed an uneven ramp until one of the tires was hanging and the opposite end was in full compressed state. Then, the doors were opened in order to show that it still can be opened due to chassis / frame stiffness. They credited the Boron steel for it.
The next demo was to bury the XC-90 in a pile of gravel. Of course, it wiggled it’s way out of it. It’s Haldex differential electronics sense the uneven wheel rotation by just 1/7th before it locks or transfers the power to the tire with most grip. Impressive but my sense is it’s more than 1/7th revolution after I got to drive it- I’ll tell you later.
On to the proving ground! I headed straight to the T6 and after a very short moment, I found myself adjusting the seat, familiarizing myself with the auto-manual tranny. The Volvo 5-spd auto-manual can be downshifted manually to 1st gear using the stick but it’s being done electronically. It’s like the ML, but instead of sideways movement to up/downshift, you use vertical stick movement to up/downshift when the stick is on M, on the left of D. So, I stepped on it- no go. I thought it was on parking break but you really need to step deeper before it moves. At this point, I was already anxious how the twin-turbo would perform as I await instructions at the green flag. Turned off the A/C, radio, and put the stick on D. I got the GO signal and I buried the throttle. BOAT, BOAT, BOAT!!! It took forever to get to speed. Later, I found out that it weighs 4450 lbs. My seat of the pants tells me that 0-60 is comparable to the RX. I might be wrong here but that’s my perception. I was probably anticipating a full charge from the get go due to the twin-turbo promise. Little disappointment there. So here comes the stop sign, buried the brakes and they’re good. Then, I put the tranny to M2 and negotiated the S‘es and hairpins like there’s no tomorrow. The SUV has plenty of understeer which really helped in terms of predictability but slowed me down on sharp turns. Suspension is soft in relation to the RX. The XC leans a lot. If you’ve driven the S40, S70 and S60, those have firmer suspensions. Throttle response was also late due to the turbo perhaps.
After this, I went to the next station and rode along with a AMCI race pro driver. He explained that what he was about to do was to floor the accelerator all along while we negotiate the series of sharp turns. So he did it and this I tell you folks was the most impressive thing I’ve seen. This is an SUV with 8.9” ground clearance. We were fully loaded- four passengers. The SUV has a system that predicts impending roll-over and de-throttles or applies the brakes appropriately to get you back on course. Man, we were drifting like heck, the driver/vehicle was doing very sharp steering corrections – sometimes overcorrections - and all the while his foot was on the floor!!!! The finale was a 50 mph straight followed by a quick flick of the steering wheel (1 complete turn) to mimic accident avoidance, and a quick steering correction. That XC-90 handled it like a sports car. We were sideways as the thing overcorrected but did not rollover. We paused at the end of the strip to view another oncoming T6 do the same 50mph maneuver and it was picture perfect- drifting with counterlocked wheels on asphalt tarmac!!! This is an SUV and it’s incredible.
My third station was the T5. I drove it and it’s slower than the T6. It has a single turbo on 5 cylinders. The rev limiter bounced at 6.5K as I put it on M2 on the straightaway. Handling is the same as the T6- soft leaning suspension, and plowing front wheels. You’ve got to keep the revs up by using the auto-manual to get the best response from both the T5 and T6. If you don’t use the manual mode, the response time from the throttle was sorely slow.
I then drove the slippery track with water, Tide liquid on one part, and dry on the other side, etc. Here, you could sense that when you floor it, it takes a couple of seconds for the wheels to lock while spinning the slippery side real good for a while-- and that’s not 1/7th revolution. Maybe 7 revolutions!!! You could hear the engine and see the RPM going for a while before the tires engage and find its grip. I’m not too impressed on this one.
I repeated the above countless times for an hour and a half until I felt like vegetable. There were no more people in lines, vehicles were there waiting for you on four stations, but just too tired to do it again. In actual autocross, you pay a buck for every lap during fun runs but here it’s free. Food was not all that great. Lexus still is king when it comes to the food served, Mercedes is second.
The XC wheel tire stock is 235/65-17 on 6-spoke alloy. The upgraded is running 235/60-18. Wheel designs are very nice- they even have a BBS as an option.
Before all of that, the XC-90 was introduced inside the tent along with the competition such as the RX300, MDX, X5, and the ML. The first one that was introduced was the RX300. The facilitator, a member of the AMCI- whose claim to fame- so he says, is that they do vehicle tests for Consumer Reports and all other institutions wanting their service. I hope someone here from Consumer Reports can verify what this man was saying. I’m in doubt because the last time I heard, Consumer Reports has the full time crew doing the testing for the magazine.
Anyway, on with the RX300. The AMCI man said that the RX300 can only handle speed bumps in parking lots and that’s about all it can do as far as off-roading is concerned. This woman sitting next to me laughed so hard I can’t believe my ears. Out went the RX and in came the X5- which the guy criticized for lack of storage space and firmness. Then the ML came and it was characterized as having a 7-passenger seating but it was an afterthought that’s why it squeaks and rattles in the back. Then, the MDX paraded in and the guy suggested that you cannot get it in a 5-seater configuration- but that’s all he could say about the MDX. He went on to put the Motor Trend SUV of the year trophy on top of the XC-90. The same woman next to me put on a standing ovation!!! No problem there- emotions can be so high sometimes you forget where you are.
Anyway, after all the b**s**, we were led outside to watch actual demonstrations. Two front seat doors were hanging and I immediately recognized one. Our RX front door! I’m thinking, uh-oh, poor RX. No one’s there to defend it. The objective was the guy would hit the glass with a sledgehammer. So then, with a full-swing, he slammed the RX side window with all his might and guess what! It did not break. IT DID NOT BREAK!!! He tried again, NOTHING!!! Then a third blow- STILL NOTHING!!! You can just see the reaction from the people- it's like the same people watching OJ get acquitted- it’s really unbelievable how strong that side window was but then it’s like Volvo shot their own feet by doing this. Finally on the fourth blow, the window smashed and crumbled to pebble size pieces. Mr. AMCI said that’s bad because in an accident, you’ll get covered by glass which could harm you more than the real cause of the accident. Volvo's turn. Then, the guy put a half-swing on the Volvo glass and the thing broke right away. The Volvo has a laminated glass and the idea was to prevent people from being covered with broken glass. For us RX owners, you can accomplish the same by putting a light tint. And since our windows are much more stronger, you'd end up with a better window of protection!!! But after seeing the blows, for the most part, you probably won’t need the tint. Because blows that are less forceful will simply be bounced off in an accident while the same blow in an XC window will allow the object to intrude into the passenger space with only the soft side curtains protecting you.
The next demonstration was about chassis twisting where the XC-90 climbed an uneven ramp until one of the tires was hanging and the opposite end was in full compressed state. Then, the doors were opened in order to show that it still can be opened due to chassis / frame stiffness. They credited the Boron steel for it.
The next demo was to bury the XC-90 in a pile of gravel. Of course, it wiggled it’s way out of it. It’s Haldex differential electronics sense the uneven wheel rotation by just 1/7th before it locks or transfers the power to the tire with most grip. Impressive but my sense is it’s more than 1/7th revolution after I got to drive it- I’ll tell you later.
On to the proving ground! I headed straight to the T6 and after a very short moment, I found myself adjusting the seat, familiarizing myself with the auto-manual tranny. The Volvo 5-spd auto-manual can be downshifted manually to 1st gear using the stick but it’s being done electronically. It’s like the ML, but instead of sideways movement to up/downshift, you use vertical stick movement to up/downshift when the stick is on M, on the left of D. So, I stepped on it- no go. I thought it was on parking break but you really need to step deeper before it moves. At this point, I was already anxious how the twin-turbo would perform as I await instructions at the green flag. Turned off the A/C, radio, and put the stick on D. I got the GO signal and I buried the throttle. BOAT, BOAT, BOAT!!! It took forever to get to speed. Later, I found out that it weighs 4450 lbs. My seat of the pants tells me that 0-60 is comparable to the RX. I might be wrong here but that’s my perception. I was probably anticipating a full charge from the get go due to the twin-turbo promise. Little disappointment there. So here comes the stop sign, buried the brakes and they’re good. Then, I put the tranny to M2 and negotiated the S‘es and hairpins like there’s no tomorrow. The SUV has plenty of understeer which really helped in terms of predictability but slowed me down on sharp turns. Suspension is soft in relation to the RX. The XC leans a lot. If you’ve driven the S40, S70 and S60, those have firmer suspensions. Throttle response was also late due to the turbo perhaps.
After this, I went to the next station and rode along with a AMCI race pro driver. He explained that what he was about to do was to floor the accelerator all along while we negotiate the series of sharp turns. So he did it and this I tell you folks was the most impressive thing I’ve seen. This is an SUV with 8.9” ground clearance. We were fully loaded- four passengers. The SUV has a system that predicts impending roll-over and de-throttles or applies the brakes appropriately to get you back on course. Man, we were drifting like heck, the driver/vehicle was doing very sharp steering corrections – sometimes overcorrections - and all the while his foot was on the floor!!!! The finale was a 50 mph straight followed by a quick flick of the steering wheel (1 complete turn) to mimic accident avoidance, and a quick steering correction. That XC-90 handled it like a sports car. We were sideways as the thing overcorrected but did not rollover. We paused at the end of the strip to view another oncoming T6 do the same 50mph maneuver and it was picture perfect- drifting with counterlocked wheels on asphalt tarmac!!! This is an SUV and it’s incredible.
My third station was the T5. I drove it and it’s slower than the T6. It has a single turbo on 5 cylinders. The rev limiter bounced at 6.5K as I put it on M2 on the straightaway. Handling is the same as the T6- soft leaning suspension, and plowing front wheels. You’ve got to keep the revs up by using the auto-manual to get the best response from both the T5 and T6. If you don’t use the manual mode, the response time from the throttle was sorely slow.
I then drove the slippery track with water, Tide liquid on one part, and dry on the other side, etc. Here, you could sense that when you floor it, it takes a couple of seconds for the wheels to lock while spinning the slippery side real good for a while-- and that’s not 1/7th revolution. Maybe 7 revolutions!!! You could hear the engine and see the RPM going for a while before the tires engage and find its grip. I’m not too impressed on this one.
I repeated the above countless times for an hour and a half until I felt like vegetable. There were no more people in lines, vehicles were there waiting for you on four stations, but just too tired to do it again. In actual autocross, you pay a buck for every lap during fun runs but here it’s free. Food was not all that great. Lexus still is king when it comes to the food served, Mercedes is second.
The XC wheel tire stock is 235/65-17 on 6-spoke alloy. The upgraded is running 235/60-18. Wheel designs are very nice- they even have a BBS as an option.
Last edited by whitels; 11-05-02 at 11:38 PM.
11-02-02, 12:26 AM
#2
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Nice description whitels. Independent testing bias makes me sick, but hey, that's they way it goes when you are marketing your vehicle. For the most part, I like the looks (inside and out) of the XC. I'm also intrigued by the active system that aids in preventing rollover - That's Volvo for ya. Certainly a good competitor. To me, the exterior reminds me a bit of the X5.
11-02-02, 12:38 AM
#3
Lexus Test Driver
Thread Starter
Originally posted by LexRX
Nice description whitels. Independent testing bias makes me sick, but hey, that's they way it goes when you are marketing your vehicle. For the most part, I like the looks (inside and out) of the XC. I'm also intrigued by the active system that aids in preventing rollover - That's Volvo for ya. Certainly a good competitor. To me, the exterior reminds me a bit of the X5.
Nice description whitels. Independent testing bias makes me sick, but hey, that's they way it goes when you are marketing your vehicle. For the most part, I like the looks (inside and out) of the XC. I'm also intrigued by the active system that aids in preventing rollover - That's Volvo for ya. Certainly a good competitor. To me, the exterior reminds me a bit of the X5.
11-04-02, 07:12 PM
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the volvo
My dad went over for the same Volvo test (can't remember the last time I've seen my old man this exited!). Came back with a receipt for a deposit. Planning to pick it up overseas sometime this winter... I guess they are sold out until February???
This is the guy who swore he'll never buy another Volvo (he's now selling his 2000 S90). Same guy, who said he'll never buy an SUV. Same guy who promised himself to go back to BMW or Lexus.
Competition is heating up! Lets wait for the next RX....
This is the guy who swore he'll never buy another Volvo (he's now selling his 2000 S90). Same guy, who said he'll never buy an SUV. Same guy who promised himself to go back to BMW or Lexus.
Competition is heating up! Lets wait for the next RX....
11-05-02, 02:21 PM
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Great Write-Up...Some following thoughts...
That was a great write-up, whitels!
When my wife and I got the invite for the Volvo test drive "event", we gladly went along. OK, I went along gladly and dragged my wife with me!!
Overall, the event in Oakland, CA went along exactly how whitels describes it below. The only difference was that they didn't try to smash the window of another vehicle. I guess they learnt their lesson from earlier "comparos"!
We wanted to evaluate the Volvo from a 7-passenger seating perspective. In this area however Volvo failed quite miserably in trying to sqeeze in the 3rd row. Even with the 2nd row fully forward and the 3rd row fully back, I couldn't sit comfortably in the 3rd row. I am not a very tall person (5'11"). So to categorize this as a 7-pass is a bit of an exaggeration.
But apart from that, this was quite an impressive SUV. The interior is very European in it's starkness. But I guess if you like that style, this will tickle your fancy. I prefer the luxury look of Lexus. Another area of disappointment is the placement of the Nav system. It pops up from the dashboard on-demand. And since it's way over there, you have to input names and addresses using a wheel and clicker (ala 7-series, but only less intuitive).
Bottom line, I think that Volvo has certainly produced a great SUV that will put pressure on others (Lexus, Acura, BMW and Mercedes). But I am pretty sure that Lexus will up the ante with the new RX.
-chatrathi
2002 Black AWD RX300 with Nav
As stock as they come - no mods!!
When my wife and I got the invite for the Volvo test drive "event", we gladly went along. OK, I went along gladly and dragged my wife with me!!
Overall, the event in Oakland, CA went along exactly how whitels describes it below. The only difference was that they didn't try to smash the window of another vehicle. I guess they learnt their lesson from earlier "comparos"!
We wanted to evaluate the Volvo from a 7-passenger seating perspective. In this area however Volvo failed quite miserably in trying to sqeeze in the 3rd row. Even with the 2nd row fully forward and the 3rd row fully back, I couldn't sit comfortably in the 3rd row. I am not a very tall person (5'11"). So to categorize this as a 7-pass is a bit of an exaggeration.
But apart from that, this was quite an impressive SUV. The interior is very European in it's starkness. But I guess if you like that style, this will tickle your fancy. I prefer the luxury look of Lexus. Another area of disappointment is the placement of the Nav system. It pops up from the dashboard on-demand. And since it's way over there, you have to input names and addresses using a wheel and clicker (ala 7-series, but only less intuitive).
Bottom line, I think that Volvo has certainly produced a great SUV that will put pressure on others (Lexus, Acura, BMW and Mercedes). But I am pretty sure that Lexus will up the ante with the new RX.
-chatrathi
2002 Black AWD RX300 with Nav
As stock as they come - no mods!!
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