Volvo XC60 T8 - Day #2,171

Monday afternoon, I took the Volvo in for the 50,000 mile servicing. It has 51,405 miles on the odometer.

It continues to be unbelievable to me how little I have been driving. I have averaged 8,600 miles a year on the car since I bought it in October of 2018.

Monday morning, I had the windshield replaced by Safelite. I got a major crack on my way to San Francisco to pick Jack up in late August.

Volvo XC60 T8 - Day #1,826

I bought the Volvo XC60 five years ago today. It has only 43,273 miles on the odometer!

Volvo XC60 T8 - Day #1,634

On Monday, with 38,781 miles on the Volvo, I bought a new set of tires. I got a set of Michelin CrossClimate2s; they are an all-weather tire for year round use.

Volvo XC60 T8 - Day #1,474

I bought the Volvo XC60 in October of 2018. After just over four years, it only has 34,153 miles on the odometer. I am sure that in both 2014 and 2015 while I was doing consulting that I drove more miles than 34,000 miles in a year with the Lexus.

Volvo XC60 T8 - Day #1,346

The Volvo is perfect for running errands around town. I haven't used a drop of gas in the last week.

Volvo XC60 T8 - Day 1,269

With 29,773 miles on the odmeter, I took the Volvo into the dealership on Monday for the 30,000 mile servicing. It continues to be hard for me to believe how few miles I am driving. In the last eight and a half months, I have only driven 4,175 miles. This works out to less than 500 miles a month. Working in Sonora and Napa in 2014, 2015 and 2016, I was driving more than 35,000 miles a year!

[Note to self], I need to post more regularly about the Volvo. Looking back, I have a gap of almost seven years between entries about the Lexus.

Volvo XC60 T8 - Day 1,011

Although I haven't been driving much in the last seventeen months, I am still very pleased with the Volvo. During this period, I have driven less than 8,000 miles or less than 500 miles a month. This includes four trips to Sea Ranch! The vehicle now has 25,598 miles. I think that I drove 40,000 miles in 2014 while I was working in Sonora...

The Volvo is perfect for commuting and running errands on weekends.

Volvo XC60 T8 - Day 753

On Thursday, I took the Volvo in for the 20,000 mile servicing. Since I started working from home in March, I have only driven 3,226 miles (17,554 miles on March 12 to 20,780 on November 19). This is roughly 390 miles a month and includes two trips to Sea Ranch.

I continue to very pleased with the vehicle! The distance and miles-per-gallon at the last two fill-ups are shown below. Essentially, I have used three and a half tanks of gas in the last nine months.

August 7, 2020
October 25, 2020

Volvo XC60 T8 - Day 599

From March 13 to June 1, I worked from home for 11 plus weeks.  I only drove the Volvo 481 miles during this period (17,554 miles on March 12 to 18,035 miles on June 1).

I am now averaging 891 miles a month in the last 19 2/3 months.  This is down from an average of 1,054 miles a month in March.

I only got 51 miles per gallon on the last tank of gas.  This included an arduous trip to Santa Clara and back for a Cisco meeting.

May 9

Volvo XC60 T8 - Day 508

I have driven 17,614 miles in the last 16 3/4 months. I am averaging about 1,054 miles a month. I continue to be very happy with vehicle, particularly since I replaced my iPhone and can use CarPlay again.

With a trip to Santa Cruz and the Carmel Valley mostly on gas, I only got 39 miles per gallon on the last tank of gas. This is actually higher than last July when I was working out of Marysville.

March 1

Volvo XC60 T8 - Day 437

From October 14, 2109 to December 24, 2019, I drove 1,853 miles on one tank of gas (16.8 gallons). I averaged 110 miles per gallon. This is the farthest that I have gone on a tank since I bought the car.

Volvo XC60 T8 - Day 365

I had owned the Volvo for one year. I have driven 12,998 miles. I am averaging 1,083 miles per month. I continue to be very happy with the vehicle.

After spending most of July and August working out of a cave in Marysville, I have been back to a more normal commute in September and October. Using the car chargers at work to top off every day, I am essentially commuting as an electric vehicle and making good use of the diamond lane stickers.

Volvo XC60 T8 - Day 304

As of August 28, I had owned the Volvo for ten months. I have driven 10,813 miles. I am averaging 1,081 miles per month.

The good. I am still loving the vehicle. Typically, when I get into the car, I plug in my iPhone. Using Carplay, I will start a podcast and put my destination into Waze. During July and August, I was working in Marysville. One of the days in August, Waze routed me back to Roseville and up Highway 65 to get to there. As I got closer to Marysville, it routed me off the freeway and through Olivehurst. It turned out that I missed two major accidents: one on Highway 99 and one on Highway 70! Needless to say, I love the Carplay integration.

The bad. For the second time in ten months, the car stopped charging on the supplied cable. I took the vehicle back to the dealer. Niello Volvo blamed me for mistreating the cable. I was very grumpy that they were accusing me. I worked very hard to be particularly careful with the second cable. The cable is a AeroVironment TurboCord. Interesting, some number of these cables supplied with the 2019 Volvo XC60s were recalled due to failed capacitors. I would love to find an electrical engineer to evaluate the cable...

Volvo XC60 T8 - Day 273

I bought the Volvo nine months ago. I have driven 9,531 miles with an average fuel consumption of 61.6 miles per gallon. I am averaging 1,059 miles per month.

Working in Marysville, I have driven just under 2,000 miles in the last month. With a 100 mile round trip, I have been burning a lot more gas! It has given me an opportunity to use the adaptive cruise control and pilot assist. The adaptive cruise control speeds up and slows down to match traffic, while the pilot assist keeps you in the lane even around corners. Both features work very well.

Volvo XC60 T8 - Day 242

I bought the Volvo eight months ago. I have driven 7,564 miles with an average fuel consumption of 73.5 miles per gallon. I am averaging 946 miles per month.

The six weeks between fill-ups included short trips to Rio Vista for dinner and Napa for wine tasting. I continue to be very pleased with the vehicle!

Volvo XC60 T8 - Day 212

I bought the Volvo seven months ago. I have driven 6,720 miles with an average fuel consumption of 73.5 miles per gallon. I am averaging 960 miles per month.

At this point, I have only filled up with gas five times. I went all of February and March without filling up!

The new building has six electric car chargers. Topping off the battery at work very day, I am commuting almost exclusively as an electric vehicle.

Over the last month, I have finally put on the carpool stickers. They are good until January 1, 2023. It makes the commute home easier...

Volvo XC60 T8 - Day 152

I bought the Volvo five months ago. Partly due to our trip to Lond0n in early March, I have only driven 4,817 miles.

At this point, I have only filled up with gas three times. This includes November 23, December 29 and January 30. Topping off the battery at a free Volta charger on work days, I am commuting almost exclusively as an electric vehicle.

Most of the gas was burned running the Volvo as a hybrid on longer trips. This included a weekend in South Shore Lake Tahoe in November, a day in Marin visiting my sisters in December, a trip to the East Bay in January and an afternoon in Santa Rosa visiting Tomasin in February.

I continue to be very pleased with the SUV. I love the Carplay integration with my iPhone. I use it mostly to play podcasts and run Waze. The integration of Waze into the dashboard screen is fantastic. I have been using the adaptive cruise control and pilot assist off and on in the commute and on the longer trips.

Volvo XC60 T8 - Day 42

We bought the Volvo XC60 T8 on October 28. So far, I am very pleased with the vehicle.

The first tank of gas was November 23 at 1,036 miles. The first thousand miles included a work trip to Marysville and a weekend trip to South Shore Tahoe.

As part of my commute, I have been parking across the street from my work in the morning at a free electric vehicle charger provided by Volta. My commute is just under 30 miles round trip. The SUV is rated at 21 miles all electric. By topping off the battery at the free charger most mornings, my round trip uses very little gas.

Even in the pure mode, the car will turn on the gas engine occasionally. As long as there's juice remaining in the battery, the “pure” mode helps ensure the vehicle stays electric-only and zero-emissions.

I am not crazy about the control that allows you to select the different driving modes, including hybrid, pure, off road, AWD and power. The car always starts in hybrid mode and has to be switched to pure with an odd rocker control.

I am extremely pleased with the Apple Carplay interface to the iPhone. I love being able to get easy access to my podcasts. The Waze interface is fantastic. Being able to listen and then respond to a text messages using Siri is useful.

About my only real complaint at this point is user interface on the technology. There is essentially a touch screen computer in the dashboard. Some of the ways that you interact with the controls seem inconsistent. It will be interesting to see if this gets upgraded and changed over the life of the vehicle. It appears that the technology has the capacity for over-the-air updates.

Volvo XC60 T8

Since the Lexus turned 10 years old in June, I have been starting to think more seriously about getting a new car. My requirements included an all-wheel-drive SUV that supported CarPlay. I wanted another hybrid and, if possible, a plug-in hybrid. The list of vehicles that checks all of these boxes is small. I have been focusing over the last two months on the 2019 Volvo XC60 T8.

Saturday morning, Sharon and I went to Niello Volvo and test drove a black Momentum XC60 T8. This is the base model. We were both pretty impressed.

Afterwards, we walked around the lot and looked at a number of other models. In addition to the Onyx Black Momentum, they had one other Ice White Momentum. They had five R-Design models: Bursting Blue; two Crystal White Pearls; Fusion Red, and; Onyx Black. There was a pretty wide variety of different options on the five cars. The R-Design is a step up in trim from the Momentum. They didn't have any Inscriptions in stock; these are the top of the line models.

During my run on Saturday afternoon, I decided to go back and figure out the cost. We headed to the dealer after lunch on Sunday and drove one of the white R-Designs. We spent about an hour running different lease and purchase scenarios. I finally settled on buying the vehicle.