MY16 vs MY20 XC90 T8 Differences

[tspdavish]

Hello all,

About 7 months ago I purchased a fully loaded MY16 XC90 T8, which had done about 40k miles. Loved it so far, until the ERAD failed 2 weeks ago, which fortunately is being replaced, paid for by a Sytner third party warranty.

As a result my local Volvo dealership have given me a loaner MY20 R Design XC90 T8 also fully loaded.

A couple of impressions and questions for those in the know:

Mostly the car is exactly the same, particularly in layout, looks / build quality on the inside. However I have noticed that the ride quality is significantly better, despite the loaner being on 22s and my inscription on 21s (both on air suspension).

Sensus is a bit snappier on startup, but TBH I just use CarPlay and rarely touch infotainment so this doesn't matter much.

I notice the car is a lot quieter, and the engine smoothness and my god the noise - its so much more refined, engine sounds way better at higher revs (more "growly"). My MY16 sounds like a diesel in comparison.
Also, and this is quite specific, the heads up display has a greater vertical adjustment such that you can jack the seat right up and see it. On my MY16 you can only get half way up the seat heigh settings before it disappears from view, even with adjustment.

Questions - is this normal? I fully expect my brand new (at the time) MY16 to have new-release issues and newer models to be built better, but the difference is really night and day particularly with regards to drive train. Anyone else have similar thoughts? And anyone know if my HUD can be adjusted any more? Is there a list anywhere of incremental MY changes besides the obvious (e.g. kWh battery size changes, deleting rear exhausts in MY22 etc). I've scoured the forum with advanced search and couldn't find anything.

Thanks in advance!

[Director76]

Re the noise, I read that T8s (at least those with a sub, so B&W or HK audio) in recent model years have augmented engine sound via the audio system. I would agree that our MY21.5 (with HK) is a lot growlier and basey than our MY18.5 was (which interestingly had the standard audio…)


For info, I did a MY18.5 to MY21.5 comparison last year

https://www.volvoforums.org.uk/showthread.php?t=315136

D76

[Lexman8]

Older XC90s suffer from excessive noise and poor ride quality. On early cars it's very depemdent upon wheel size and tyre type. Later MYs are noticeably better as Volvo quietly (excuse the pun) made various improvements incluiding, for example, fitting low noise tyres with accoustic foam inside.

The processor that runs Sensus was upgraded about 3 years ago and did make the system more responsive.

[Polestar Pete]

My MY18 XC60 T8 with B&W also makes a passable attempt at growling.

[soupytwister]

My MY21 XC90 T8 also does growling - and it doesn't have the fancy audio. So I think it's just the supercharger itself rather than any fancy audio enhancements from a subwoofer etc. Maybe there's enhanced growling I don't have