Yellowbelly said:
.......... I've now given my dealer the lifeline of obtaining a T3 for me to test drive, but I'm not going to hold my breath.
Considering that in the UK a third of new-car buyers buy petrol, then Volvo must be turning their back on a whole load of potential sales.
I've just had a phone call from my Volvo dealer, giving me an update. He said that they had requested Volvo Car UK Ltd to source a T3 demonstrator for them. After about a week of searching, Volvo's reply was that the soonest that they could supply a T3 for me to test drive would be in about a month. All I could (pointedly) say to the dealer was that I'd have to see what happened in the meantime. I made the point to him that about a third of new car sales in the UK were petrol and by not being able to supply petrol demonstrators Volvo must be turning their back on a load of potential sales. His reply was that about 90% of Volvo customers in the UK bought a diesel. If indeed that's true, then all I can say is they don't conform to the general pattern of UK car buyers! Regardless of any other factors, there are a lot of low-mileage drivers whose motoring habits just don't suit, amongst other things, the diesel particulate filter of diesels. Since I've been retired I've become a low mileage driver and it's one of the reasons why I won't buy a diesel. And because the driving characteristics of a diesel are so much different from that of a petrol, I'm not going to buy a petrol on the basis of a test drive in a diesel.
Tomorrow I've got a test drive booked in a 150ps petrol Ford Focus Titanium, the engine of which is the basis for the Volvo T3 engine. The Ford dealer had his wits about him, and almost immediately found a used car that he could borrow from another dealer with whom he was friendly. The nub of the matter is that I'm coming to the limit of my patience regarding the unhelpful and dilatory nature of Volvo and their dealers. I'll keep you posted. If buying a Ford will make me no longer eligible to be a member of the Volvo V40 Club then so be it.
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I feel like a bit of a traitor, but I just couldn't stand any longer the indifference and lack of interest I've been getting from Volvo Car UK Ltd and Volvo dealers in the UK over the fact that I wanted to test drive a petrol V40. The last straw was when they said I would have to wait a month before they could let me have a T3 to test drive.
In contrast, my Ford dealer has been as helpful as any dealer could possibly be. As I've said before, they sourced a used 150ps petrol Focus Titanium for me to have a 100 mile test drive in within a few days of me asking. They even offered to bring the car to my house.
Last Wednesday I ordered a Ford Focus Titanium X with the 182ps petrol engine which is the basis for the Volvo T4 engine. The front seats aren't as comfortable as those in the V40 but that's my only criticism. If I'd have wanted, my dealer would have swapped the seats in my Titanium X with those from a Focus "Edge" which are slightly more comfortable, at no cost to myself, but I decided not to take up that offer. As soon as I told them I preferred the 16" wheels and 215/55 tyres of the Titanium, rather than the 17" wheels and 215/50 tyres of the Titanium X, they agreed to do a swap of these at no extra cost. Standard features are active park assist, cruise control, heated front seats, bi-xenon headlights, electrically heated windscreen, rain sensitive wipers, dual-zone climate control, TFT audio system screen, auto-dimming rear view mirror, auto-dipping headlights, front foglights, multi-colour ambient LED lighting, power operated driver seat, passenger seat height and lumbar adjustment, deflation detection system, LED day running lights, and hill start assist, and I've added satnav as an option.
I negotiated an 8% discount, and all in all I'm well pleased. I'm expecting to get the car in late March. The dealer gave me an Owners Manual to study in the meantime.
Because the car is so similar in specification to a V40 SE Lux T4 I'll consider myself to be an honorary member of the Volvo V40 Club.
(This was originally posted in my "Overall gear ratios" thread in the "Engine and Technical" forum, but raytint suggested that it should really be included here in the "Orders" forum.)