2021 - 2024 Volvo XC60 T6

[MK1RS Bruce]

Hi PH

My wife is looking for a new car in the near future and she’s quite keen on an XC60.

I’m leaning towards a T6, not massively enthusiastic about the plug in hybrid aspect but do quite like the sound of the power.

I’m struggling to determine if it’s got a prop going to the rear as well as the electric motor or just the electric motor to give it AWD?

I live in a rural part of Scotland so AWD is handy in the winter.

Any other reviews or thoughts on them, are they reasonably reliable?

Looking for a used one with less than 50k on the clock.

[MrTrilby]

MK1RS Bruce said:

Hi PH

My wife is looking for a new car in the near future and she s quite keen on an XC60.

I m leaning towards a T6, not massively enthusiastic about the plug in hybrid aspect but do quite like the sound of the power.

I m struggling to determine if it s got a prop going to the rear as well as the electric motor or just the electric motor to give it AWD?

I live in a rural part of Scotland so AWD is handy in the winter.

Any other reviews or thoughts on them, are they reasonably reliable?

Looking for a used one with less than 50k on the clock.

The rear axle is entirely electric - the "propshaft" is where the battery is stored for the PHEV. In 'EV only' mode it's a RWD car. In petrol-hybrid mode it's a FWD car. When it detects loss of grip it runs both axles to make it AWD. You can also select an 'constant AWD' mode that fires up the petrol engine to run the front axle, and uses the electric rear axle to give you permanent AWD. The petrol engine also feeds a generator, so there's no danger of the rear axle ever running out of power, even when the battery reports 0%.

The pre-2022 models have a much smaller battery (so less range), have a lower power electric rear axle, use a supercharger to fill in gaps in the turbocharger's boost, and have more reports of issues with the rear electric axle or auxiliary electric heater failing.

We have the later revised model - they bumped the electric axle up to 140BHP which makes it perfectly useable for electric only driving day-to-day; increased the battery to give it a real world range of 35-45 miles depending on temperature and what speed you drive at; and removed the supercharger (on the basis the rear electric axle is powerful enough to fill in the off-boost gaps from the engine). The rear axle was revised to make it more reliable (removed a clutch pack I think).

I really like ours - it's incredibly smooth to drive and very comfortable. It's more economical than the non-PHEV B5, even with the battery flat. Not had to use the AWD mode very much, but when we have, it's worked just fine. I think I'd be wanting one with a warranty, just in case that rear axle does fail (I think it's around £4k to replace). I'll be extending our warranty when the 3 year warranty runs out this year.

[MK1RS Bruce]

Thanks for the really detailed response.

Went to have a look at them over the weekend and was quite impressed by the inside and level of trim etc. however every single one they had in stock used had shockingly bad swirls in the paint.

Are volvos known to have poor paint or was it just the dealer I was at who clearly washes them with rocks and sand paper?

[Neil-nvaua]

MK1RS Bruce said:

Thanks for the really detailed response.

Went to have a look at them over the weekend and was quite impressed by the inside and level of trim etc. however every single one they had in stock used had shockingly bad swirls in the paint.

Are volvos known to have poor paint or was it just the dealer I was at who clearly washes them with rocks and sand paper?

Depends on the colour.

I had an XC60 in white with the black leather, very easy to keep clean inside and out and the flat white paint seemed harder wearing. Replaced last year with a new XC60 T6 in black with white leather - absolute pain in the arse to keep clean and always looks dirty inside and out, and yes when clean the black paint looks scratched and swirly despite it being allegedly protected from new with whatever supposed magical ceramic coating the dealership applied, and only being hand washed by me.

Great car though - just serviced today after covering 16500 miles in it's first year. Silly fast when you need it to be, a very relaxing long distance tourer when you don't. I plug in every night and get cheap electricity with Octopus and the Ohme charger so most days 40 miles is £1.30, and on long journeys when the battery is empty I still get 33mpg at 80mph with a roof box on which I think is fine.

However, go in with your eyes open re the ERAD failure and look at the Volvo UK forums for what years are affected and when they updated the ERAD. Volvo warranty cost apparently goes sky-high from year 4 onwards and I'll probably change it at that point if that's still the case as whilst failures might be small in number the repair costs certainly aren't.

Edited by Neil-nvaua on Tuesday 24th March 18:56