Talk to me about the B4 XC40..

[somejohn]

I’ve been for a test drive today and it was impressive, if perhaps a little wallowly. I’m looking at the AWD Inscription (mild hybrid), and coming from a 2018 2.0 Tiguan R-Line.

Anybody owned both by any chance? Anything I should know before I turn my energies towards convincing the wife that it’s the right car for us and not too big for her to drive too!

[Stella Tortoise]

We have one, same model as well.

I like it, Mrs finds the ride a bit uncomfortable and the brakes are a bit snatchy.

Goes reasonably well, Inscription spec is nice and leather blond seats look great.

Smaller than a Tiguan I believe, maybe an XC60 would compare.

Looks lovely, have Apple car play and needed to buy a dongle for wireless connectivity and a mat for wireless charging but the USB ports are in the right place for these items.

Happy to answer any specific questions.

[elanfan]

I have the 2 litre B4 Inscription but 2 wheel drive. Had it for 8 months now and apart from 1 couple of hundred mile trip where I got 35mpg the car consistently returns 23.9 mpg. I don’t go far but it’s very disappointing!

Nice car otherwise.

[somejohn]

Stella Tortoise said:

We have one, same model as well.

I like it, Mrs finds the ride a bit uncomfortable and the brakes are a bit snatchy.

Goes reasonably well, Inscription spec is nice and leather blond seats look great.

Smaller than a Tiguan I believe, maybe an XC60 would compare.

Looks lovely, have Apple car play and needed to buy a dongle for wireless connectivity and a mat for wireless charging but the USB ports are in the right place for these items.

Happy to answer any specific questions.

That’s great, thanks. It is smaller than the Tiguan but actually not by all that much surprisingly. I reckon the actual passenger cabin may be a little bigger in the XC40 overall; I’m sure the less-bulky seats make a difference there too..!

Tell me about the wireless carplay dongle? I couldn’t see a tidy way of installing it without it being in the way of the wireless charger in the cubby below.

Oh also: interesting about the wife. My takeaway from the test drive was that it was a bit wallowy, is that what your wife dislikes?

[ghibbett]

Not sure if it's much help, but we took delivery last week of our new XC40 (T5 Recharge PHEV), having come from an XC60 T5.

The XC40 is noticeably smaller in terms of boot room and cabin width than the XC60. However it's also noticeably shorter when it comes to parking, which is good.

Otherwise it's lovely. And, being a PHEV, we've so far averaged more than 100mpg, which is a nice change from the XC60!

[jamei303]

If you find it a bit wallowy try the R-Design which has firmer suspension and is equivalent to the R-Line Tiguan in terms of "sporty design".

[Whataguy]

I've had both the T3 and T/B4 auto as loan cars - I preferred the T3 as it had significantly better MPG and the performance was almost as good too.

120 mile mostly motorway journeys in both achieved under 30mpg in the B4 and close to 40mpg in the T3.

[jamei303]

Agree. I would go with the T3 unless you planned on towing or going fully loaded.

[tescor]

I am considering a XC40 and have test driven the T3 and B4.

I was expecting to prefer the B4, but I can honestly say the T3 was nicer to drive.

Only issue at the moment is if you're ordering new there's some options no longer available, like BLIS, CTA etc

If you're going for used, then you'll have better choice, but prices seem high!

[Ursicles]

That's a good point.

Wonder how many standard options are now missing from these cars due to the shortage.

Am tempted by the Santander offers at the moment, but can't tell if it's good value for these days, or good value generally.

[Stella Tortoise]

Whataguy said:

I've had both the T3 and T/B4 auto as loan cars - I preferred the T3 as it had significantly better MPG and the performance was almost as good too.

120 mile mostly motorway journeys in both achieved under 30mpg in the B4 and close to 40mpg in the T3.

I'd hope for better than that from our B4, it's showing as 26mpg over the first 1200 miles and has only seen a motorway once, at least 1100 of those miles would be town driving.

The engine is a bit coarse but with the windows up it is as quiet as my old 7 series.

[DavidY]

We went to look at an XC40 (and XC60) a few months ago, my wife prefered the XC60 and with then then deals on we got it pretty much for the same price as an equivalent XC40. Went for B5-Auto averaging 36.4mpg over 4K miles (some long journeys, some town probably 50/50 split), pretty pleased for a 2 ton brick.

They are still doing dealer and finance incentives on the XC60, though not as large as they were a few months ago, and we also got a significant contribution for being a serial Volvo purchaser - so there obviously is some haggle room.

I note that there is no finance contribution and a very small dealer contribution on the XC40 mild hybrids