Under bonnet insulation.

[Deleted User 3629]

@Chris John - If ya don't like the answer, don't ask silly questions . @goldy - you vote with your feet, no manufacturer in my opinion can continually lower a products quality, continually increase its prices and expect continued loyalty

[Deleted User 3629]

@Chris John - Just for some clarity. Product Risk Assessment (guess one of many definitions) is the potential for losses related to a product or service. To include; Customer Experience, Price, Brand Risk, Reputation, Liability, Compliance etc etc

[Mikeg1]

In the (limited) poll I took of B4 users a few weeks ago, every car delivered by end Oct 21 had a pad, and none delivered from end November had one. To conclude that the pre Oct cars were lucky to have pads, fitted on a whim, seems ludicrous to me.

Did the R Design models have their badges fitted in the same random, whimsical way? Did someone say "hold on, we've been spending a few €0.xx's on these badges and sticking 'em on by mistake, let's stop"?

Of course not. Badges and pads are just 2 examples of cent pinching. No other explanation is logical. If it walks like a duck etc.

As it happens I've sourced both privately. I'm not saying what I paid. Some know-it-all will chip in, and I spend my money on what I want, thanks.

But it has been a salutary experience in my first taste of Volvo. That and the inability of Sensus to cope with compilation folders without the need for coding skills I've hitherto managed to never need before.

Love the car, and the dealership has been first class.

The brand, not so much.

[Chris John]

@Chris John - If ya don't like the answer, don't ask silly questions . @goldy - you vote with your feet, no manufacturer in my opinion can continually lower a products quality, continually increase its prices and expect continued loyalty

You’re still doing your best to make enemies on the forum I see

[Deleted User 3629]

@Chris John - Of course not, but when someone suggests something that is personally wrong it's only fair to offer a correction, and that's all, and to imply that would, in your words, make enemies , is a little harsh and a bit intimidating

[Deleted User 3629]

@Mikeg1 - Don't blame you, it should have a pad to get the best experience from ownership and would have done the same as you and purchased one - would feel like sending the dealer/ Volvo the invoice for reimbursement though

[jamie307]

Meanwhile I'm looking at the Mazda CX5 facelift for my next car - they have improved the handling dynamics and also improved the cabin noise insulation.

[Moss]

@Moss - Yes you have stated you views on this matter many times, and feel fee to continue what seems your solitary views too - its just not convincing or supported by the evidence - the XC40 is a car pitched towards the premium market and as such would have been designed and engineered to have this under-bonnet felt fitted on all ICE models - please feel free to show any evidence to support otherwise, and the only credible reason for its removal is as goldy states; also, until anyone has experienced both how is it possible to comment on the difference it makes, so goldy's view that the difference in noise is "unmistakable" is valid.

When launched to the Worlds Press who thinks they would have handed over without them fitted - answers on a post card

Moss, You also seem to suggest that it was just luck that any petrol model had one fitted, do you mean, like one was just lying around by the assemblers feet, maybe there because it was missed from the previous diesel on the track??

I’m just trying to help. I’m not a Volvo driver myself (my wife is/was) and my personal views on what Volvo should or should not do are very limited : I simply don’t care.

I’m in business and I know people in Belgium and elsewhere who also are. My so called personal view or what "I seem to suggest" on the under bonnet pad is in fact my deduction of something I heard from someone who knows a thousand times better than any dealer why and how the Volvo Cars company does something or not, be it at present or in the near future.

By the way, my wife’s Volvo days are almost over : after a near accident on the motorway to Ostend due to a very dangerous fault of the automatic speed limiter, she is now returning to her usual trusted Audi’s. Two years of Volvo have been noted in her car history ; actually, it should have been a few years of Alfa Romeo Stelvio, because that’s the « something completely different » she really wanted, but the Alfa offer wasn’t good enough, while the Volvo offer was.

Anyway, we’ll never know if the Alfa would have been better or perhaps even worse, but we sure know after having strayed away a few times to other brands during our more than 45 years of Mercedes and Audi that to beat those German car manufacturers, it takes more quality than other brands can offer, whatever their marketing claims are.

So my personal view on cars in general, based on experience, still is : if you have to pay a Mercedes, BMW, Audi, or Porsche price for a car, buy the real thing. Now, to be fair : a Volvo XC40 is quite a bit cheaper than any German premium car, so you get what you pay for, I guess.

[Den48]

Hi
My car is a 22my B4 and it doesn’t have the insulation fitted, neither did the 21my T3 have it fitted and until it was mentioned on this forum I never even thought about it or missed something that I never had. It’s only when you pick this up on the forum the mentality clicks in, if he’s got it I want it, have moaned at customer care and the only reply that you get is that it’s a company decision to remove it.
Anyway I’m over that now. To me it’s purely a cost cutting exercise and when you think about it worked I didn’t notice it

On the question of the car itself started of with a T3 last March and because of the crazy car market at present was able to change to B4 in November, both cars have been fine, they were/are R design so not so high tech basically because of costs.

On the question of cars in general I worked for BMW for 30 years and have driven/ owned/ leased Range rovers ,discos and many BMW cars and I have to say the BMW are the best cars that I have owned and driven. Don’t know about Mercs but when I did look at them there was so many chrome rings and dials on the dash that it reminded me of a 70/80s Toyota Corolla.

When I started buying my own car outright I have owned Tiguan’s and Seat both nice cars , the seat is basically a Tiguan under a different skin but cheaper and likewise with the Audi Q3 it’s basically Tiguan under a different skin but more expensive, to me all a little boring. That bought me to my xc40 a bit different from the crowd and minimalist interior design . But with all the cost cutting and the way they appear to be thinking about future car sales that doesn’t mean I will buy another.

Sorry I forgot your name, get the wife to look at Kia and Hyundai, I would be if I was in market, nice and fresh design

[Mikeg1]

@Mikeg1 - Don't blame you, it should have a pad to get the best experience from ownership and would have done the same as you and purchased one - would feel like sending the dealer/ Volvo the invoice for reimbursement though

By "privately sourced" I meant I'd bought them. I'd seen the correspondence from Volvo UK and it was clear they weren't budging. So I either put up with the external engine noise (and getting increasingly irritated with it) or bit the bullet. The dealer offered a discounted price and had it delivered the next day. So I'm not happy now happy kinda thing. We've saved a fortune on no hols/restaurants over the last 2 yrs so what the hell.

Similarly, the R Design boot badge. The orthodoxy to some would seem to be that it was a fluke any had been fitted anyway. Perhaps they should have been, but on Inscriptions? Doubtless Sven at the factory went “åh gud, I've ve've been fitting these badges by mistake. Ve must cease immediately and it's nothing whatever to do with saving a few euros as per Bejing's orders".

Wasted a tenner on a crap Far East knock-off then bought the genuine article from a trusted seller on an auction site.

Not everyone likes badges. I do. On it'll go as soon as we see some