"bunny hopping" on ice or slush

[pbeardow]

Hi all,

We've had an XC90 R-Design for about five months now and had noticed before that the car would jump on full lock if it encountered any slipperiness on the road, like water or gravel.

Now that winter has arrived, this has become really, really bad. What happens is that when you steer the car on anything like full lock, it jumps across the road surface and you start to lose control - I hit a kerb in town a few days ago in some sleet as a result. No damage because I was driving really slow in a narrow lane, but the car stopped steering and just slid sideways.

The car feels dangerous to drive and we are seriously considering selling it because our local garage has told us "XC90's are like that, there's nothing wrong with the car". The mechanic said he had seen this sort of thing before, but the garage were kind of shifty about it and started to blame the tyres, and then said other XC90's did the same because of the "anti-hop suspension".

I have contacted Volvo customer relations to see what they say, and they are due to get back to me, but I thought I'd ask other XC90 drivers if this really is normal.

The tyres have plenty of tread on them, they are 19inch Perellis, but I have big Perellis on another car and it doesn't hop around on full lock.

Is this really normal for XC90's? I can't believe that Volvo sell a 4x4 car where the steering loses grip in slippery conditions so easily.

Thanks,

Paul