In-depth reviews
Volvo XC60 hybrid owner reviews
“The Volvo XC60 Recharge hybrid proves that efficient cars can also be sleek, desirable and fast – but they are rather expensive”
Carbuyer Rating
3.8 out of 5
Owners Rating
3.0 out of 5
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Owner Reviews
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- 1 out of 5
50%of people would recommend this car to a friendCommon Problems
- Electrics, Engine, Other (1 case)
Review 1 of 2
2 out of 5
Car Details
Model
Inscription Pro
Year
2018
Avg annual mileage
5,000 – 9,999
Owned
1 - 2 years
Bought Car
Used
Typical MPG
48
Tell us what you think about your car?
Mainly drive in London with some occasional long trips outside the M25, and thought the XC60 plug in hybrid would suit my needs well, and it has - with 70% urban driving giving 48mpg over the long term. The impressive interior and super comfortable seats were added bonuses, and the large glass sunroof lifts the light levels on even the dreariest days.
The main problem is that it’s not a very well-executed car otherwise. Here are a few of the issues: 1) The brake pedal response is very inconsistent, making it hard to drive the car smoothly. 2) Nine times out of 10, the collision warning system activates, it’s a false alarm. Twice the car has for no reason activated emergency braking and brought itself to a halt - on both occasions nearly causing a crash (following vehicles weren’t prepared for my car to stop sharply and for no reason). 3) Periodically, the car changes the radio station to Absolute Radio, unprompted by me. 4) The radio periodically cuts all sound and can’t be restored via the volume controls or voice controls. Radio resumes on the next journey. 5) The car can’t manage more than modest acceleration easily. If wanting to move away briskly (e.g. turning out of a side road onto a main road and driving uphill) the car starts moving under electric power, then starts the petrol engine, but fails to engage the transmission (to the petrol engine), leaving the petrol engine screaming away at very high revs but the car still doing 10-15mph. Petrol engine engages drive about a quarter of a mile afterwards but that’s far too slow. 6) Petrol engine is very gruff / rough sounding. Almost gravelly. A six cylinder engine would have been far more pleasant to listen to. 7) Periodically the car won’t shut off. 8) There’s no key as such - rather a fob with an on/off switch in place of ignition key. 9) Recently the car has refused to shut off the petrol motor - most recently last week on a day when I had to leave for the airport to go to a funeral. Neither customer services at Volvo could advise how to force the engine to switch off and the system to shut down, and with the petrol engine running you can’t lock the car from the outside. Big problem if you have to go, can’t wait for breakdown cover people to arrive, and park on the road at home. So I had to disconnect the 12volt battery in the boot, leave for the funeral, and hope that would eventually force the car to shut down. Obviously it wasn’t possible to lock the car, so I had to leave it on the road, unlocked, and hope it was still there when I got home four days later. This has really drained my confidence in the car.
Overall, I wouldn't recommend the car because of the worrying reliability and potentially dangerous safety systems. If you can specify a model without those, and don’t really like driving very much (this is a cumbersome car to drive - absolutely no driving enjoyment) you may find this a comfortable practical car with a very good interior. But it’s certainly not for me.
Would you recommend the car to a friend?
No 
4 out of 5
Car Details
Model
XC60 INSCRIPT T6 RCHARGE
Year
2022
Avg annual mileage
10,000 – 14,999
Owned
Less than a year
Bought Car
New
Typical MPG
50
Tell us what you think about your car?
Owned the car 2 weeks and it is impressive. Extraordinarily comfortable and the extended range 18.8kWh battery gives a useful range of about 42 miles.
The Google system works well enough and the voice recognition is by far the best of any car I have owned. That said, some of the functionality is still missing such as mapping on the Volvo Oncall App and Apple CarPlay. Am told these should arrive in the coming weeks.
The driver assistance works well albeit the automatic speed limiter is somewhat unpredictable in assessing the speed limit. It seems to rely on road signs alone as opposed to road signs and mapping as was the case with my previous XC40. Another Google idiosyncrasy I suspect.
The car is seriously quick and it is hard to see any good reason to opt for the extra power of the T8. I am also running the car on standard spring suspension and I opted for the basic music system. Both of these work perfectly well and unless you are an audiophile I wouldn't bother with the music system upgrade.
What's the one thing you like most about your car?
Comfort and battery range
If you could improve one thing, what would it be?
Improve the Google functionality.
Would you recommend the car to a friend?
Yes
