SC300Es

As much as I love the XC and how it looks I worry about the reliability. I wonder if Volvo got around to fixing all the early issues. If you look at cars.com there are a lot of early production vehicles that are turned in after a year or lemoned.

SMSLimited

Hi new to this forum and looking to get a new RX350 for my wife. I have had the XC90 for 3 years now and I cannot understand what others are referring to about it being under powered or not fun to drive! This XC90 is hands down the best car that I have ever had as far as driving and performance it is an amazing machine. They must have been driving a base model T5 engine, the T6 super/turbo is way way way better than the new RX350 that my wife wants to get. I also have a 2018 BMW 740I, previously had Mercedes S550 and GLK and this Volvo XC90 is the best. it is beast to drive when you put it in dynamic mode I would smoke most cars on the road. My friend also has the XC90 and agrees that it is better than his Porsche Cayenne and other vehicles he has owned. The RX350 is nice but i was so sad test driving it realizing that my wife was choosing the RX350 F-Sport based on looks over buying out our lease on the Volvo.

coolsaber

The XC90 failure rate is ridiculous, one peak at the owners forum and you`d be convinced that its a pure lease vehicle, and not a purchase. The 18s I hear are probably more reliable but feel free time chime in on your service history if any?

Bearcat

We have a fully loaded 18 Inscription T6 (around $76k). It has been in for a couple minor things outside of services (we have 27k miles on it now). However I've had my 2016 450h in for a few small things too, and have another to take it in for right now (with only 15k miles). In the end, they are pretty close and obviously the dealership experience is better with the Lexus. The feature level is so much better on the Volvo, however it also was $14k more than the Lexus. If I was to get one vehicle though, it would hands down be the Volvo (a loaded one of course). It is just a much more pleasurable experience driving. It feels much more solid and luxurious as well. Three things that are tons better then the RX are the seats, the dash screen layout, and the stereo if you get the Bowers & Wilkins. I have the ML on the Lexus and it sounds like a Craco in comparison (again I paid $3200 extra for the B&W). But when you spend over $70k, who the hell cares at that point. That being said, I just received a newfound love of my 450h after installing the CarPlay option a few weeks ago. Of course the Volvo came with it.

SMSLimited

I will agree that there were a lot of small very annoying issues with the Volvo especially for the 2016 model like i had. It was in the shop a few times for very frustrating things that gave me a love hate relationship with the car. It was on one of these failures that I was so over it I went next door to the BMW dealership and ended up with a new 2018 7 series. I can say for the last year and a half the car has been absolutely trouble free and I guess it took me switching from the XC90 to something I thought was better, to really appreciate how good the XC90 is. My wife has been driving it now and really enjoys it but she wants to have a completely trouble free vehicle and since this one will be a purchase I agree that its a better vehicle to buy and keep long-term. even with the issues that I had with the Volvo XC90 is a better vehicle in terms of comfort, performance, handling, and in pretty much every aspect including styling in my opinion. The Fsport version is a nice package to make the RX350 look better and once I completely black it out and put on some 22' wheels it will look amazing. Everyone seems to love these Rx's so I'm looking forward to trying a new brand, I just wish it has some features like the air ride suspension or a smoother delivery of power, but it is still a very nice vehicle.

ut2sua

Have your wife logging into this forum and ask her questions. You have already made up your mind, and you won't get anything out of this.

SMSLimited

you are right I won't get anything out of this discussion since my wife already has her mind made up to buy the RX350 Fsport, however there might be someone in the future who is cross comparing these vehicles and I wanted to give my input to the XC90 since there are some people who posted things on this discussion saying that it was under-powered or that they didn't think it was any better than the RX. Hopefully hearing my feedback as well as others who have positive things to say about the XC90 will give someone a better more accurate comparison. Like i said in my previous post, I am looking forward to owning the RX especially since it is very worry free and still has a very nice interior and design it is just not as good of an overall driving machine but that is the trade off.

1Louder

When we were replacing my wife's 14 MDX last year we looked at CPO X90's. I would agree the features, luxury, driving experience etc. are all high marks. What killed the deal was looking at Consumer Reports reliability ratings and then also reading a lot of reviews. There are some real horror stories out there especially electrical issues. I suppose every individual ownership experience is different, but when shopping brands I'm new too, I generally put a lot of weight on consensus opinions. Because we want to own it many years past the CPO warranty, I've no time for frequent trips to the dealer if the worst case plays out.

We went with a 15 X5 35i - realize BMW has it's own reputation but the CR marks and reviews on it were actually very good for that year. 12 months and 30k miles in, so far so good.

I myself went with a 16 RX 450h. Reliability means a LOT to me, and you'd be hard pressed to find an auto maker that competes with Lexus in that category. I'll take whatever minor compromises there are with respect to performance, everything else about the car is amazing.

shadowmite

I jumped to my 2016 RX450h when my previous 2014 Q7 (higher Consumer Reports marks at the time) started into the standard timing chain rattle of impending doom. It's funny but if you search around you find this sound occurs often, is always dismissed by the dealer as normal, and almost always has a dead engine within a year outside of it's warranty period. I wasn't going to wait and see.

HontoKuro

For what its worth my wife and I actually crossed shopped and test drove both the same Volvo XC90 and Audi Q7 and even a BMW X5 and Mercedes GLE. Although the BMW X5 was by far superior in driving dynamics,handling and felt very planted and perhaps the most car like SUV of all of 5, the Volvo surprisingly came in 2nd followed by Audi, Mercedes and Lexus in that order. The RX was the worst in terms of overall driving dynamics including tons of body roll in our opinion and dare I say almost boring with no character. Although the Lexus was the blandest and most boring to drive of all these and float like drive, it was by far the most comfortable and plush of them all and that is what my wife cared more about than the "sporty handling or ability to hug the road" feel SUV. So although I personally loved the drive of the X5 she didn't care to much about the stiffer suspension of most others.

That being said we eliminated the X5 solely because we no longer want anything to do with BMW since we just came off of 20+ years of owning nothing but BMW's and they become money pits and very unreliable vehicles past 4-5 years of ownership but where open to it and gave them a chance again. My wife really liked the overall package and appeal of the Volvo but the terrible reliability scores and known issues for such a new vehicle was a big red flag and turn off and the fact that the entire screen is touch with zero physical buttons for just about anything to adjust also eliminated it. She loved the interior the Volvo along with the RX the most. The engine on the Volvo sounded very tiny and sound was terrible although it felt powerful enough something about it just felt like strange especially on lower gears. BMW hands down had the best "Infotainment" with Audi a close 2nd if not tie and Lexus by far the worst of them all, whereas Mercedes was so outdated and Volvo was a mess and no buttons all touch screen and at one point even crashed on us in the middle of the test drive as screen went black on us and sales guy was trying to play it cool like "oh must be a bug it will clear any minute now" Volvo eliminated. Mercedes GLE was also eliminated due to its very outdated interior compared to the rest although it was classy looking interior like the Lexus it just felt old by today's standards and compared to the rest. This left us with the Audi and Lexus as the last 2 options. Audi was very nice and probably the roomiest of them all by far but the deal breaker was long term reliability and electronics issues that a quick search in the Audi forums made us run away from. With the excellent track record of long term reliability Lexus RX in the end won her over plus she really liked the Luxury model and standard offerings vs the rest of the competition.

coolsaber

While Im not discounting your experience, I find that definition of issues vary among owners. The biggest complaints I have seen here were vibration issues, while the biggest complaints on the XC90 were electronic gremlins and malfunctions that required constant service center experience. I do contend that while reliability is not a strong suite of the XC90, material quality and available features is on a a whole different level compared to the Lexus, but that is the price you pay for reliability. Plus OSD is something Lexus will probably not be able to offer.

1Louder

It's funny, the fact the X5 is very planted as you say is exactly why my wife loves it. She's not into it for the spirited driving dynamic aspect, but I've never owned a car that felt so solid on the road and that's what she wants. She has a very bad 40 mile/day commute that has a lot of elevation gain - she feels very safe in it. That and the configurable ambient lighting. And it's me who wanted the comfort of the RX. I had a 16 IS for 3 years prior, but I finally came to the conclusion that enjoying any kid of "spirited driving" in our area is a romantic dream, never a reality. In 3 years I was on a long, twisty road once. One 30 min drive in 3 years that was "spirited". That's when I realized I kept getting cars for what I thought I wanted to do, not what I actually did. Which is slog 50 miles a day in very heavy traffic where my average speed might be 30 mph. Don't really need 400 hp to do that.

mikemu30

My son in law had an X5 loaner last week as his relatively new M4 developed a computer glitch - I took it for a spin. Felt too big for my taste as I'm not a huge fan of SUVs to begin with. But it was well appointed indeed including the snazzy ambient lighting and heated armrest and center console $80K or so for that? No thanks.

1Louder

We got ours as a CPO, so the price point was far more reasonable. I've been in an X3 loaner and liked it a lot - smaller feel but same solid ride. I thought a 2019 X3 40i as a 2-year old CPO would be a good buy. 2019 is the first year BMW offered vented seats in an X3, which oddly enough is a deal-killing must have for me.

mikemu30

X3 design seems pretty ancient at this point.