New XC40 first drive impressions

[figbat]

I drove our new XC40 B4 Plus AWD for the first time last night - a round trip of around 50 miles over country A and B roads. This car replaced a XC40 T4 R-Design AWD, so I had plenty of time in the saddle of that.

Overall: despite being new, the B4 engine felt smoother and peppier than the T4. The chassis soaked up road imperfections better too - it was generally a better drive and very easy to drive well.

I was impressed with the ‘hybrid’ system - the engine switching off and on whilst moving was largely imperceptible and I only noticed it due to the rev counter going to 0. The brakes feel a lot more wooden than the T4 did which I assume is down to the regen system (my MINI EV feels similar and other hybrids I have driven are also the same). Got used to it quickly enough though, and it encourages you to drive on the throttle and anticipate better.

I miss the flappy paddles - I used to use them for engine braking on downhill slopes to avoid needing to trail the brakes. This was especially useful when pulling a caravan, but using the gear shift to go to manual is no hardship for the rare times it is warranted.

Some things I also miss:
- no clock on the dashboard. I didn’t realise I looked at it so much until it’s not there. The centre display one is easy enough to see though
- traffic status on the map display is nowhere near as prominent as it was with the Sensus system
- I don’t recall seeing a warning of approaching a speed camera like in the Sensus - I may have missed it though. The speed limit display works largely the same and I did see a warning of approaching a school. I can see the speed cameras on the dashboard map display, but it’s quite small.
- lots of stuff is buried in menus and there are no drive modes any more (other than offroad).

I do like that you can select Drive or Reverse with one movement of the shifter now, rather than having to double-tap the lever. I also like being able to have the map display on the dashboard without having an active route. But when it’s not there there’s is an awful lot of black space doing nothing, whereas the old car used to move the dials together and enlarge them. The heated steering wheel is a welcome luxury in this weather!

[JFDIT]

Speed cameras: is there a setting to turn on a notification sound? Google Maps shows speed cameras for the selected route on other android devices and I thought it gave an alert too. Be interested to know the answer to this one.

[ciuncky]

I always found the Sensus speed camera warning annoying, because of 2 reasons:
- it didn't have an independent volume slider, meaning if i am in the car talking to someone and music is set to min, i won't hear it. That's how i got my 1st ticket!
- the sound, low as it was, was always present around speed cameras. in contrast, our Mazda 3 will only ping you (a proper alert, saying out loud "Speed camera ahead. Reduce your speed") if you are speeding, and i think that's a more sensible approach!

Perhaps the new Google maps do that as well?
Either that, or as JFDIT says, you need to have a route selected but that would be so stupid!

[figbat]

Our Sensus never gave an audio speed camera alert, just an icon on the dashboard where the speed limit is shown.

[Deleted User 4296]

Had to smile, blaming the car for getting a speeding ticket!!

[ciuncky]

Had to smile, blaming the car for getting a speeding ticket!!

Glad i made you smile, but maybe if you take your head out of your a*** and consider that the whole point of the speed cameras is to discourage speeding, not to raise money - then shouldn't the car do the same?

And yeah, 35 in a 30 is hardly something i should be ashamed of.

[Cevoli21]

I dont think the Google system gives an audible warning. Cant be totally certain as I have the voice prompts turned off. It does show a camera in the dash display whether or not a route has been set.
Do not trust the speed limit advisories. They are frequently wrong. Yesterday it had our little urban street as a 70mph limit and the M23/M25 can be anywhere from 30-70mph for no obvious reason.

[JFDIT]

I let the free android app, TomTom AmiGo, run on my phone when driving with no route set. Found it to be very accurate in identifying Speed Cameras including Mobiles.
Gives a spoken warning providing Camera Type, Distance to it and the Current Speed limit. Saved me a few tickets last year alone.
Also provides average speed updates when in Average Speed Zone. I'd be happy to pay for that level of accuracy, but it's FREE!

[Deleted User 4296]

When cars are autonomous they will probably also be governed not to exceed speed limits (unfortunately until then) cars only offer a speed odometer and gestures to support drivers to keep within the speed limit

[ChrisLF]

Average speed warning/indication would be good. When I had my Passats I could easily restart the average speed each time I entered a new average speed section which was really useful on my trips up the M1 when it had endless roadworks.

I have Sensus and I know that the average speed can be viewed along with other journey data via a steering wheel button but I guess it can't be zeroed mid-journey? Must have a look as I think I'm usually well under the average given the number of vehicles passing me sometimes!