Geartronic xc90

[gaz1234]

2.9l petrol, 4wd, any good?

[anonymous-user]

No. They use a 4 speed GM autobox that is st when it works and is by all accounts a dead cert for early death. I have heard that later ones are better.

The st gearbox also robs loads of power and the fuel economy is absolutely terrible. The only good thing about a T6 XC90 is that it's not as desperately slow as the early 163bhp D5 XC90.

[Catchme]

My T6 is fine. 85k miles. I'm getting 20-23 mpg and it drives well. It feels quick for a 2.5 tonne car, but the 275 bhp helps!

There are "issues" with the T6 gearbox and its suitability in handling the power of the engine coupled with the weight of the vehicle.

[morgrp]

dme123 said:

No. They use a 4 speed GM autobox that is st when it works and is by all accounts a dead cert for early death. I have heard that later ones are better.

The st gearbox also robs loads of power and the fuel economy is absolutely terrible. The only good thing about a T6 XC90 is that it's not as desperately slow as the early 163bhp D5 XC90.

I thought the gay-tronic versions were all 5 speed?

[anonymous-user]

morgrp said:

I thought the gay-tronic versions were all 5 speed?

I'm not sure if a T6 comes with geartronic, but geartronic is nothing in the least bit interesting and doesn't do anything that you couldn't do with an autobox in the 60s by selecting gears manually. Doing it sequentially is, if anything, less useful and more irritating than something like Jaguars J-Gate where a single movement can tell it to drop three gears.

I do know that all T6 automatics in S80 and XC90s used the stty 4 speed box though. Even if it wasn't fragile it'd be one to avoid as there was a time when 4 gears in an automatic gearbox was still acceptable, and that time was 1993. It inevitably has gaping chasms between ratios and it truly is a slush-o-matic of the old school, totally blunting what would probably be a stonking engine with a manual gearbox or vaguely modern autobox.

Truth be told the AW 5 speed box in all the other variants is only acceptable at best, and the T5 is torque limited in the first 2 gears to save munching it while the later high output D5 is often detuned in automatic guise with 50NM less torque than with a manual. For a long time the crap gearboxes were the weak link in Volvo cars, in my opinion.