Yahoo Autos 2021 Volvo XC90 Recharge Road Test Review | I could've had a T8!
Second thoughts … sometimes even buyer’s remorse. Nagging doubts can follow life's big decisions — and buying a car is a biggie. Was it the right choice? Or as the poet said: "You may find yourself behind the wheel of a large automobile / And you may ask yourself, 'Well, how did I get here?'"
Two years ago, I bought a 2017 Volvo XC90 lease return with 11,000 miles on it. I hadn’t expected to find an XC90 within my budget, but this one was attractively priced because it, A) was a T5, meaning turbo-only; B) had the base Momentum interior; and C) was a third-row delete, which was a turnoff to other car shoppers. Otherwise, it was heavily optioned and seemed like it would serve my family well and keep them safe.
And it has. It has lots of room. It drives as well as any medium-large SUV can. The tough leatherette endures the abuse of dogs and kids and the dirt of outdoor activities. The legendary Volvo seats have comforted and supported us, even on a 750-mile day from California to Washington. We've routinely seen highway mileage go past 30 mpg. And the off-road mode was surefooted during last month's nationwide snowfall.
The car’s great. And yet, while at the Volvo dealership for complimentary service, sipping the waiting-room coffee and wandering the showroom, you see the cars you could have bought, had you spent more money — a turbo-and-supercharged T6, or the twin-charged-plus-plug-in-hybrid Recharge (previously known by the powertrain's name of T8). And with Volvo's elegant Inscription interiors. Would they have provided a better ownership experience than our secondhand lower-rung model? One doesn’t often get a do-over to answer such questions. But a recent week in a 2021 Volvo XC90 Recharge provided a drive down the nicer road not taken.
The differences between a 2017 T5 Momentum and the 2021 Recharge Inscription are many, and also few. They're basically the same car, same dimensions inside and out, same overall feel. Panoramic sunroof, same. Massive cargo hold, same — though because ours lacks the third row, it gains a large secret underfloor storage compartment. Both XC90s have roof rails, but the rails on the new car are flush-mounted versus the '17's raised rails (you’d need different crossbar towers for each). Both are woefully lacking in cabin storage cubbies; a small dish in the old car’s console has been replaced by an inductive phone charging pad in the new car, which is a nice feature but means even less room for the detritus of daily life.
The knurled ignition switch is the same, though it functions differently now: In the old car, twist clockwise to start, counterclockwise to turn off; in the new car, clockwise and clockwise again, which can be confusing if you don't watch the car's status on the instrument panel. Knurled mode selector, same, just a different menu befitting the different powertrains. The shifter is still a knob, but it's mechanical in the old car, electronic in the new car, with Park now relegated to a button. The Recharge Inscription shifter knob is a work of art, made of Orrefors crystal and crafted in the village of Kosta, Sweden.
The other big wow factor when you step into the Recharge Inscription’s cabin is the Amber perforated Nappa leather seating. These seats can be adjusted in every direction, including lumbar and side bolster settings, and a nifty powered thigh extension. They also have the $1,700 massaging option, though speaking only for myself, massaging seats in any car give the impression that something alive is crawling around in there. The Nappa leather itself is also buttery soft, though I'm told it can be prone to picking up dye from blue jeans — that's not a concern with the leatherette.
On the dash, the inlays look like the real wood they are, while on the '17 T5 they don’t and probably aren’t. My old T5's dashboard and door panels are perfectly acceptable soft-touch plastic, but the Recharge Inscription gets upgraded to something stitched and leather-like, and the headliner is black Nubuck. Black is the way to go; the gray headliner on the old car is showing smudges.
There’s no real difference between the cars' digital instrument panel or the 9-inch vertical touchscreen. But the Sensus infotainment system is now called Sensus Pro, and it's more responsive. Both cars have the optional 360-degree surround-view and backup camera system, but the image quality has been improved since 2017. One small annoyance on the old car: The heads-up display tends to drift out of view every couple of weeks and has to be recalibrated back into position; in a week with the new car, the HUD stayed put. The 330-watt, 10-speaker standard audio system in the T5 sounds just fine, but the T8's optional 1,400-watt, 19-speaker Bowers & Wilkins system is a step up — visually as well as aurally, with its showy "tweeter-on-top" on the dash.
Rear-seat passengers in the Recharge Inscription benefit from heated seats and four, yes four, zones of climate control. In the old T5 Momentum, they have to complain to the driver or roll down their window.
